Obscure Train Stations

[whistler]

I just posted on Trip reports my trip to San Francisco orginating at Williams Junction, Arizona, which certianly qualifies as one of the less obvious places to board a train. What others do you know of would qualify? - I hear there are some in Canada! :unsure:

Well the line north of Cochrane Ontario to Moosonee Ontario on the Ontario and Northland line would certainly qualify. There are no stations , maybe one or two stops with a platform to get on the train and not much else.

 

[Midland Valley]

I changed trains in Charlottesville, in 1995 from the Cardinal to the Crescent. Had quite a wait in the (at that time dilapidated) station. The Cardinal pulled up pn one platform and the Crescent on the "curve" other platform.

 

[JayPea]

Wishram, WA, comes to mind. While there is a small building there that serves as a station, the town itself is obscure (population 200, if that). And there is no station at Wenatchee, WA--just a small shelter and a gangplank that leads to the bus station.

 

[DaveKCMO]

I like Essex, MT. It's the only flagstop on the Empire Builder route. No station, no platform. You step off the train right onto the gravel.

i agree! it was quite an experience to get off the train there.

 

[jphjaxfl]

So what is the story with Charlottesville, VA? (I should know, as mnay times as I have been through there.)
The present timetable just shows one station. But were not at one time two stations, just a stone's throw from each other?

One for the Cardinal-route the other for Crescent-.

If only one is being used today, then I guess that would qualify the other one for obscure status.

Hi Bill:

I changed trains at Charlottesville in August, 1972 from Amtrak's James Whitcomb Riley from Chicago to Southern Railway's Piedmont Ltd to Charlotte. At the time, there was a very good connection in both directions between these trains. At that time, The James Whitcomb Riley made two stops in Charlottesville, the first, a brief stop at Union Station to discharge or pick up passengers from the Southern and 5 minutes later at Main Street where the Newport News section of the JWR split off the train to Washington.

In those days, the JWR was pretty much the same operation as the C&O's George Washington was prior to Amtrak starting. The JWR was Penn Central's Chicago - Cincinnati afternoon train so they dropped the George Washington name in favor of the JWR which a few years later became the Cardinal. At that time Southern still had 3 southbound and 3 northbound trains through Charlottesville. With the 4 Amtrak trains, that gave Charlottesville 10 arrivals and departures including 4 trains to and from Washington. The Southern trains were well patronized. The Piedmont LTD which was a day train from Washington to Atlanta carried 3 coaches and a coach lounge. The day I traveled, the streamlined coach lounge was the Johnson City which was orginally built for the Tennessean. They served light meals and refresments in the lounge. I had an excellant beef stew for lunch that day. I arrived in Charlotte around 8PM, visited some friends until early am when I boarded the Southern Crescent to Atlanta. I remember having a delicious Southern Railway dining car breakfast while we passed through Gainesville, GA. From Atlanta I took a bus to Chattanooga, and eventually a bus to Nashville where I took Amtrak's Southwind to Chicago and the Empire Builder back to Grand Forks, ND where I was stationed in the Air Force.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

So what is the story with Charlottesville, VA? (I should know, as mnay times as I have been through there.)
The present timetable just shows one station. But were not at one time two stations, just a stone's throw from each other?

One for the Cardinal-route the other for Crescent-.

If only one is being used today, then I guess that would qualify the other one for obscure status.

Hi Bill:

I changed trains at Charlottesville in August, 1972 from Amtrak's James Whitcomb Riley from Chicago to Southern Railway's Piedmont Ltd to Charlotte. At the time, there was a very good connection in both directions between these trains. At that time, The James Whitcomb Riley made two stops in Charlottesville, the first, a brief stop at Union Station to discharge or pick up passengers from the Southern and 5 minutes later at Main Street where the Newport News section of the JWR split off the train to Washington.

In those days, the JWR was pretty much the same operation as the C&O's George Washington was prior to Amtrak starting. The JWR was Penn Central's Chicago - Cincinnati afternoon train so they dropped the George Washington name in favor of the JWR which a few years later became the Cardinal. At that time Southern still had 3 southbound and 3 northbound trains through Charlottesville. With the 4 Amtrak trains, that gave Charlottesville 10 arrivals and departures including 4 trains to and from Washington. The Southern trains were well patronized. The Piedmont LTD which was a day train from Washington to Atlanta carried 3 coaches and a coach lounge. The day I traveled, the streamlined coach lounge was the Johnson City which was orginally built for the Tennessean. They served light meals and refresments in the lounge. I had an excellant beef stew for lunch that day. I arrived in Charlotte around 8PM, visited some friends until early am when I boarded the Southern Crescent to Atlanta. I remember having a delicious Southern Railway dining car breakfast while we passed through Gainesville, GA. From Atlanta I took a bus to Chattanooga, and eventually a bus to Nashville where I took Amtrak's Southwind to Chicago and the Empire Builder back to Grand Forks, ND where I was stationed in the Air Force.

That brings back tons of memories and I think I have done something similar to that in Charlottesville.

 

[Steve4031]

Elko Nevada has two stations because of the old WP SP arrangement. If you look in the Amtrak schedule, you will see that there are two addresses for Elko.

 

[frj1983]

There is also Fulton, KY!

I've never gotten off in Fulton, but it looks like a pretty lonely place!

It's a stop on the CNO.

http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/fulton.htm

 

[JayPea]

Chemult, OR, looks like a happenin' place, too, judging by the picture. :lol:

http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/chemult.htm

 

[WICT106]

Staples, MN ? or perhaps, Sanderson, TX ? Perhaps Deming, or Lordsburg, NM.

 

[user 683]

Though this is not an Amtrak stop I think the Appalachian Trail station stop near Pawling, New York may qualify as an obscure stop. Its served by Metro North on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays only.

Reference: www.appalachiantrail.org

 

[jamesontheroad]

If you really want obscure, ride the Canadian between Toronto and Winnipeg. Nearly every station could be classified as obscure. Many are flag stops, except for 3 or 4, they do not have platforms or any structures.

Don't forget that with the exception of southern Ontario / Québec corridor trains, any VIA service can be requested (with 48hrs notice) to stop and detrain passengers anywhere along its route. The most frequently flag stopped trains are those that run into northern Québec from Montréal and the Hudson Bay from Winnipeg to Churchill. Here are two stops from my trip on the Hudson Bay in May 2006: Wabowden...

and Thicket Portage, where a lot of freight came off the train for communities (almost exclusively First Nations) near the line.

My "favorite" obsecure Amtrak stop is Winnemucca, Nevada.
The "station" is actually a bus shelter. It makes for a great picture because it says something like "Amtrak station" on the side of the bus-shelter... and yes, it's about the size of a city bus shelter... maybe fits 4 people in it.

And here is Winnemuca, from the same trip but a few weeks earlier :lol:

*j* :blink:

 

[gaspeamtrak]

I just posted on Trip reports my trip to San Francisco orginating at Williams Junction, Arizona, which certianly qualifies as one of the less obvious places to board a train. What others do you know of would qualify? - I hear there are some in Canada! :unsure:

The Via train "ABITIBI" is one of those trains!!!

Just over 20 years ago myself,my dad,his brother and friend took a fishing trip to Windigo,Que.

We got on the train at Pointe Aux Trembles, Que( suburb of Montreal East) by my uncles house around 6;00PM. It was a nice little typical CN station. We saw a couple of the big old baggage carts loaded sky hi with all kinds of luggage, all kinds fishing gear and so many 24's of Labbat 50 beer i couldn't count them!!! We had at least 4 or 5 24's our selves!!

The train had 2 baggage cars with canoes and everything you could think of for fishing and hunting. We all helped the baggage man load everything or we would have lost half and hour or more if we had let him do it by himself!!!

We all got settled down and off we went. We were sitting in the coach and it wa almost completely full of Fisherman and Hunters and i started to notice everybody seemed to be drinking beer and all kinds of whiskey/Jack Daniels etc... .

I thought o'boy the train crew would put a stop to this!!! But they came through and just told to behave or we were off at the next stop with a police escort!!! Needless to say everybody behaved them selves!!!

We all were feeling quite happy needless to say and all napped till we were being aroused by the crew around 01:00 am that our stop was in 10 minutes..We got all of our carry on gear ready to get off. We pulled to a stop and there was no light or nothing we could see.. HHMMM?? The door was opened and down the stairs we staggered down to the ballast and was it ever cold outside!!! This was July or August and we had left Montreal in the 70's or low 80's and it was near freezing here!!!

We started to wonder where we were??? We were on the ballast and all the Windigo station was a sign post in the middle of no where!!! We staggered up to the baggage car as our stuff was being passed out of the baggage into the ballast and surrounding bushes!!! Then a flashlight was pointed in our face and we were asked were we the Thompson Fishing party?

Our answer was yes and we were told follow him down to the boat? HUH??? WE started dragging our stuff down the embankment which dicovered the tracks were right on the St Maurice River.My uncles friend slid down the path and was covered in Mud needless to say he sobered up right away. We all climber in the boat and off we went into the darkness as the only light we had was a flash light was the only light as it was pitch dark!!! We went down the river about a mile downstream bumping into pulpwood that was floating down the river, but it scared the hell out of us and we docked on the other side at the camp.Later that morning when we got up after a few hours sleep we could see the tracks and the sign post that was the Windigo station out in the middle of absolutely nowhere!!! The nearest town was over 50 miles away... What a trip!!! I will never forget this!!! You can still do this trip today but it's a daylight trip and i'm not sure you could drink on the train like we did then!!!