Smallest Amtrak station?

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That looks a bit nicer than when I was there...this is more what it looks like (thanks to SubwayNut):

elko1.jpg
 
Stretching it a bit but the Via hut in Grimsby, Ontario, Canada not far from Niagara Falls is served by the Maple Leaf. There was a beautiful station there but it burned down a couple of decades ago and was replaced by something slightly larger than a phone booth.

Gord
 
Eastbound and westbound versions of the CZ used to stop in different locations -- on opposite sides of the freight yard. The shelters then were uber-grim.
 
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Two more to consider are Yazoo City, MS and Green River, UT. I have no photos, but can report that Yazoo City is similar and perhaps plainer than Benson, and that Green River is nothing but a very short, rough platform next to what appears to be a small, abandoned, bunker-type railroad building.
 
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When the CZ was routed across southern Wyoming in the early 1990s, the Cheyenne, Wyoming stop was at Borie (BOR). I just remember it being after dark when we stopped, and there was not so much as a light to be seen other than on some sort of shuttle bus that was parked near the tracks. The location seemed very remote, but then that's not unusual for Wyoming. :)

http://wikimapia.org/5894646/Former-Borie-WY-Amtrak-Station
 
Back in the day, a lot of "stations" didn't have platforms at all.

This is pretty much illegal now. ADA and OSHA rules, along with personal injury lawsuits, have required all new or renovated stations to build platforms, even if they're just wood, and Amtrak has aggressively built platforms at all of its stations.

There are still some stations where trains stop at the second track and passengers have to stagger across one track in order to clamber on the train -- so they don't really have platforms -- but every effort is being made to eliminate this, as it's considered a serious liability risk.

There are a lot of Amtrak stations which just have platforms, and very short ones. Windsor Locks is a good example.
 
BCL said:
I suppose the absolute minimalist station would have no pad (I've boarded on ballast before), no shelter, no seating, and only a single sign post with a bus stop style sign.
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That describes a lot of VIA flag stops along the Canadian and the Churchill trains. In fact, VIA even has a category of station known simply

as "sign post" These are primarily in very rural areas, so I I haven't been able to find a good example on Google Maps. But here's an example

of how VIA lists it on its website:

http://www.viarail.ca/en/explore-our-destinations/stations/prairies-and-northern-manitoba/atikameg-lake
 
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VIA Rail will go even farther on certain routes if you give them 48 hour advance notification. The train will stop to either let you off or pick you up at the mile post of your choice as explained here: http://www.viarail.ca/en/explore-our-destinations/stations/stops-between-two-explore-our-destinations/stations In the area North of Lake Superior the route is infested with mosquitoes, rivers, lakes and trees - just the thing for the avid outdoorsy type. It's the land of the real Winnie The Pooh.

Most of those places don't show much on Google Maps because there's no road. However, you can get a little idea of what one such place is like by searching for "Collins, ON, Canada" on Google Earth. The details are pretty fuzzy probably due to only satellite imagery available for that area. I can just hear the trout under the ice on Collins Lake calling my name!

Edit: Collins is, however, an advertised stop on VIA's trans-Canada route. It was given merely to give Google Earth something to home in on. Want to try your luck fishing that lake between Collins and Allanwater? Give VIA its mile post and they'll drop you off there.
 
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EsseX Mt. might not be much of a station but you would be hard pressed to find a better place for supper - the stop is for the Izaak Walton Inn - albeit an EB whistle stop. She Who Must Be Obeyed had one of the best meals of our trip while watching the BNSF freight foll by
2014%20Glacier%20Phojne%20Pics%20209_zpsug35txec.jpg
roll by (we caught the EB in East Glacier)

2014%20Glacier%20Phojne%20Pics%20208_zpse7b9ibc6.jpg
 
After reading this post, I can only imagine how great rail travel must have been with a closed and heated station in just about every small city and town in the 40's, 50's and 60's. . Sadly most have be raised or have been re-purposed. Some in the small towns like Lambertville, NJ were made of stone and quite magnificent for a small service area. The one that I am referencing is now Lambertville Station Restaurant which was on the old Bel-Del PRR route that ran along the Delaware river. The automobile and air travel really took its toll on train travel and it was nearly lost, but thankfully 30.9 million riders still use Amtrak today and the number is growing.

As for small Amtrak station they are too many to list. My vote goes to the Elko, NV station. It is a tiny but enclosed unmanned station on the CZ route.
 
BCL said:
I remember when the Berkeley, California station was open in the 90s, it didn't have a platform (built in 2005) and only had a bench and what looked like a bus stop pole. I was riding my bike around there once and it basically looked like a bus stop. It might have had a couple of concrete pads. However, it did have the benefit of being placed (and still is) under the University Ave overpass, so it had a built-in shelter.

However, that station was constructed where Southern Pacific used to have a real station with a station building. There was a Chinese restaurant in the old station building, but now houses a pub.
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Said pub has a very special relationship with some of the folks who frequent this board, since they had a gala dinner there last year!
 
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niemi24s said:
VIA Rail will go even farther on certain routes if you give them 48 hour advance notification. The train will stop to either let you off or pick you up at the mile post of your choice as explained here: http://www.viarail.ca/en/explore-our-destinations/stations/stops-between-two-explore-our-destinations/stations In the area North of Lake Superior the route is infested with mosquitoes, rivers, lakes and trees - just the thing for the avid outdoorsy type. It's the land of the real Winnie The Pooh.
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Alaska Rail Road will stop at any path crossing it, to pick up or set down people. To get set down you just have to let the Conductor know which path you want tog et off at. To get picked up you just wave the train to stop. This is mostly in the area between Talkeetna and Hurricane, where there are many off grid homesteads that depend almost exclusively on the railroad for their existence. Somehow neither FRA nor anyone else bothers about various niceties like platforms around there since it literally is a matter of life or death for these folks.
 
jis said:
BCL said:
I remember when the Berkeley, California station was open in the 90s, it didn't have a platform (built in 2005) and only had a bench and what looked like a bus stop pole. I was riding my bike around there once and it basically looked like a bus stop. It might have had a couple of concrete pads. However, it did have the benefit of being placed (and still is) under the University Ave overpass, so it had a built-in shelter.

However, that station was constructed where Southern Pacific used to have a real station with a station building. There was a Chinese restaurant in the old station building, but now houses a pub.
Click to expand...
Said pub has a very special relationship with some of the folks who frequent this board, since they had a gala dinner there last year!
Click to expand...
I remember the big sign for China Station. It was viable from the freeway. Apparently it later became some fusion Asian restaurant called Xanadu, but that must have been pretty short. The building was unoccupied until Brennan's moved in. A few times I got there and waited for my wife to pick me up. I stopped for a beer a few times (she was driving) and one time got a turkey drumstick.
 
Brennan's was most enjoyable as the site for our Gathering Dinner last Oct.

Good food and drink @_reasonable prices!

One of our members is a Californian and hung out there when going to school @ Cal.

I'd go back next time I'm in the Bay area where there are a lot of places to choose from!
 
jimhudson said:
Brennan's was most enjoyable as the site for our Gathering Dinner last Oct.

Good food and drink @_reasonable prices!

One of our members is a Californian and hung out there when going to school @ Cal.

I'd go back next time I'm in the Bay area where there are a lot of places to choose from!
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I'm a Cal guy, but for the most part I didn't hang around that area. It's well off of campus. When I was a student (I had a car) that wasn't exactly where I'd go. I watched movies in Emeryville, which has a then state of the art 6(?) screen multiplex. I'm not sure how many it opened with since they added screens and tinkered with the layout. I also hung around the Emery Bay Public Market. The beans and rice plate/burrito at Taqueria Aguilar was pretty good for this cash-strapped college student.

It was also a little bit after I'd graduated, but I spent summers and some off days in grad school around the area when the Emeryville station opened.
 
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