Silver Service

he Amtrak station in Alexandria opened on September 15, 1905. The train station is directly adjacent to the King Street Metro station and faces the George Washington Masonic National Memorial.

Though not as grandiose as its nearby Washington, D.C. counterpart, this “other Union Station” has a unique style of its own. The station is a one-story brick building consisting of the original main passenger depot and baggage building separated by a 20-foot wide open gateway passage and covered by a covered terrace. The designer used the Federal Revival Style: a 20th century mixture of Neoclassical architecture borrowed from buildings constructed just after the American Revolution, fitting for its location. Both original buildings are still in use. Though many minor renovations have taken place, including the slightly more extensive renovations that occurred in 1982 and the mid-1990s, the original buildings remain essentially unchanged. The limestone and granite Veterans of Foreign Wars memorial was constructed at the station in 1942.

In the late 1840s, the city of Alexandria invested in five major railroad projects to better compete with Baltimore as a regional industrial and trade center, but ended up in a confusion of mergers and failures. In 1901, the railroads serving the region built Potomac Yard, a consolidated rail yard. In 1905, the city of Alexandria commissioned the Washington Southern Railway Company (later part of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac, now CSX) to build the Alexandria Union Station at a cost of $62,020.55. The station also served the Chesapeake & Ohio and Southern Railway trains.

Great American Stations

he Amtrak station in Fredericksburg consists of a platform and shelter adjacent to the 1910 brick depot, which is located one block from the Rappahannock River waterfront. Today, the building is occupied by a restaurant. The platforms and shelters run over Sophia, Caroline, Princess Anne and Charles streets in the historic downtown, and an elaborate system of stairs and ramps is used to reach the platforms from street level. The station is also served by Virginia Railway Express (VRE) commuter trains that link the area with the nation’s capital, as well as by local buses.

Great American Stations

ail has been important in Fredericksburg since the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad was chartered in 1834 to run a line through from Richmond up to the Potomac River at Aquia Creek. Controlling the railroad through Fredericksburg was at issue during the American Civil War. After the war, by 1872, connections went through to Washington, D.C., giving this portion of Virginia an all-rail route from Richmond and across the Potomac to Washington.

Great American Stations

ichmond has been served by multiple railroads since the 1830's. The five lines fanning out from the city in 1861 were a major reason for choosing Richmond as the capital of the Confederacy. With rail consolidation after the war, the names changed but for much of the 20th. century the city still hosted six major lines. The corporate headquarters of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac (RF&P) Railroad, and CSX were located in the city.

Richmond Railroad Museum

he Petersburg rail station, a one-story brick building, was constructed in 1955 by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and is located near the Appomattox River. CSX leases the southern portion of the station to Amtrak and the northern area is unoccupied. In the late 1980s, the depot saw a few minor renovations, including an expanded waiting room, new floors and furniture and the removal of an interior wall. The city of Petersburg’s roots are embedded in its routes. Originally a Powhattan settlement, people came over from England and settled at Fort Henry. Petersburg grew out of the expansion of Fort Henry. The Port of Petersburg drew many merchants, as it was a major hub for commercial transportation and processing of goods.

Great American Stations

he Rocky Mount rail station was constructed in 1893 by the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad as a two-story brick Romanesque station with one-story wings. Since then, the station’s structure has undergone major changes. In 1911-12, the new owner, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, turned the one-story wings into three-story wings. A few years later, a third story was added to the entire building. In the 1960s, an addition was constructed between the wings to store railroad switches and signal equipment, but was later removed.

Because the building is part of Rocky Mount’s historic district, it was included in the downtown rehabilitation master plan with renovation starting in 1997. A new entryway was added to the building to allow passengers to enter the station from the street. Canopies were reconstructed, and a new ADA-compliant platform was built. A “commons” park was built in the front yard of the station, as well as improved driveways, parking and streetscaping. The construction finished in December 2000 at a cost of about $9 million with financing coming from a mix of federal, state and local funds.

Rocky Mount’s early days revolved around the first post office, established in 1816, which brought its name into documented history. The Wilmington & Weldon Railroad became Rocky Mount’s main connection to the outside world, yet did not cause immediate growth for the town. Only in the late 1800s did the railroad exert a powerful influence on Rocky Mount, helping spread the fame of Nash County apple brandy. By the turn of the 20th century, Rocky Mount’s population grew to 3,000. The growth and prosperity was influenced by the main railroad line, the well-established cotton mill and productive farmland.

Great American Stations

he Fayetteville train station was constructed in 1911 by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. This is actually the third depot to be built at the corner of Hay and Hillsborough streets, with the current building designed in the Dutch Colonial Revival Style and constructed of red brick with a gambrel roof. The depot was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. In addition to a passenger waiting room, the building also includes commercial space and is served by local buses.

Early in the 1990s, the city completed the exterior renovation of the station which included a new slate roof. The next renovations, in 2005, brought the building into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The restoration included the reconstruction of the boarding platform to provide better accessibility. There were also modifications to the waiting room to provide sheltered passage to the platform. The renovations were designed by SFL&A Architects of Fayetteville. The construction was completed in 2006 at a cost of $696,000. Ninety percent of the financing was provided by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, with the remaining 10 percent coming from the city of Fayetteville.

Great American Stations

aleigh Union Station is the third facility Amtrak has served in the “City of Oaks” since 1971. Until moving to Union Station, Amtrak used a small Colonial Revival brick depot on Cabarrus Street a few blocks to the southeast. It was opened by the Southern Railway in 1950 after moving from the city’s old Union Station on the west side of Nash Square. Amtrak relocated to the Cabarrus Street facility in 1986 from the former Seaboard Air Line depot north of downtown. The move was necessitated by freight railroad CSX’s abandonment of track between Petersburg, Va., and Raleigh, which forced Amtrak to reroute the Silver Star (New York-Miami) via Rocky Mount, N.C. The Cabarrus Street station no longer stands, having been demolished soon after Union Station opened.

Great American Stations

he Hamlet depot, the only Victorian Queen Anne style station in North Carolina, was built in 1900 for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad as both a passenger station and division headquarters. This two-story station was originally constructed at the crossing of the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line and Central Carolina Railways. Restoration of the depot was completed in 2004, at a cost of $11.7 million, a joint project of the City of Hamlet and North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), utilizing federal transportation funds.

The restoration of this station was many years in the making with the drawings and preparations beginning in 1997. By 1999, CSX, the successor to the Seaboard Air Line, notified the city and NCDOT of a concern about restoring a building surrounded by active railroad tracks, so it was decided that the station should be moved to a less active area, southward across the east-west rail line, and rotated 90 degrees, to sit along Main Street, which was also realigned to accommodate the station. In 2001, CSX sold the station to the city of Hamlet for $1. In 2002, the 1942 brick addition was demolished and the original structure stabilized. In March of 2003, the moving company began preparing the building for the move and the station was jacked up and rotated. By April 4, 2003, the station had been moved 210 feet across the tracks to its new foundation and stabilized. Renovations began that summer and were completed by the fall of 2004.

The city of Hamlet dedicated the station to NCDOT Board of Transportation member, G. R. Kindley. The depot has received the Historic Preservation Society of North Carolina’s 2005 Carraway Award for outstanding preservation work by public agencies. The station has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1992.

Great American Stations

he Jesup depot, erected in 1903 by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL), was severely damaged in February 2003 after an early morning electrical fire destroyed much of the interior and the roof. Stiff winds fed the blaze, which was only extinguished by the concerted efforts of firefighters from the town and neighboring counties. Following the accident, the depot was boarded up while the city sought funding for a full rehabilitation. Luckily, in 2005, Jesup received $836,000 in federal funds to restore the building after it was designated a High Priority Project by the Federal Highway Administration. The city also purchased the building and land from CSX Transportation, owner of the adjacent railroad line.

Years of planning culminated in a ground-breaking ceremony held at the depot on December 13, 2011 to celebrate the start of the restoration. In attendance were city and county officials as well as representatives of the local tourism board and Amtrak. Working with the Spriggs Group, a Savannah-based architectural firm with wide experience in historic preservation projects, the city decided to return the depot to its early 20th century appearance. Bron Cleveland Associates, Inc. of Atlanta oversaw project management.

When first completed, the one story building had a distinct steep, double-hipped roof with eyebrow dormers to vent the attic. Generous and deep eaves supported by brackets sheltered passengers from inclement weather and the hot summer sun as they waited outside for the arrival of the train. Trackside, the station master could survey traffic on the line from a five-sided canted bay that had tall windows on three elevations.

A combination depot, the building housed passenger and freight services under one roof. This dual functionality is evident on the exterior by the placement of the windows and doors. The southern half of the building was used as the waiting room, and natural light entered through large windows. A telegrapher’s office in the center of the building separated the waiting room from the freight area on the northern end. Large doors allowed carts laden with crates and luggage to be easily wheeled between the train and the depot, while small windows placed high on the wall permitted light to enter but deterred would-be thieves. According to early maps, there were other railroad structures nearby, such as a small square building adjacent to the depot serving as a restaurant; a large water tower used to fill the steam locomotive tenders; and a freight house along Broad Street.

Great American Stations