ecember 29, 1968: a snowstorm closed the Albany airport. Buses were stalled in the streets.

Albanv Union Station was packed with travelers-for the first time in decades. "How ironic," smiled Assistant Station Master E.1. Bernard. "Tonight's the last night this old station will see a train." Out on the platform, the sound of the bell of New York Central (now Penn-Central) E-8 No. 4057 grew louder as it glided into the station on the head end of the sixcar Train No. 61, the Chicago-bound latterday replacement of the Twentieth Century Limited, with its model 567 two-stroke engines idling. The Boston section of the train, with E-8 o. 4068, was due to arrive momentarily. The falling snow muted the hubbub of the crowd as the public address system announced Train 61's 9:10 p.m. arrival. ..ten minutes late. Along the length of the train, steam leaked from the stainless

Albany
Union Station
BY TIMOTHY TRUSCOTT AND THOMAS FINNEGAN

1-. 0.,

~ ~
~

steel cars as passengers lined the track beneath the deteriorating canopy. Sixtyeight years' worth of creosote, diesel exhaust, and other familiar railroad odors permeated the falling snow. To the south of the station, a steam-heating car parked on a siding was supplementing the boiler plant, already being shut down. At the instruction of the conductor, passengers boarded the last train out of Union Station. An era ended. Fifty-six feet beneath the sooty ceiling of the waiting room, two college girls, a sailor on a seabag, an elderly man wearing a wide-brimmed stetson, a derelict-part of the crowd of nearly 550 people-had awaited the train's arrival, sitting on the 24foot, double-sided, wooden benches. The granite structure, usually abandoned, had once again hummed with activity. The facling green paint covering the iron facades and balconies of the offices lining the walls of the waiting room gave the impression that surplus Pullman green paint from the West Albany Car Shops had been used years before in the interest of economy. Passengers had passed from the waiting room to the platform beneath a red neon sign marked "To Trains," alongside it a large white sign touting the low cost of sleeping car travel. At the cigar stand, sensational captions headlined the covers of tabloids, while only a few feet away, next to the ticket counter, The Railroad Evangelist magazine promoted a much different message. As if to foretell the fate of Union Station, the Western Union office, once so busy, was deserted; none of the nearby coin lockers were in use; customers still
sat at the lunch counter, though its spare

Above: The famed Twentieth Century Limited departs Albany Union Station on a snowy night in 1967 with one of the most illustrious members of the New York Central's "Great Steel Fleet" (either "Sandy Creek" or "Hickory Creek") carrying the tai/sign that was a virtual trademark of New York Centra/ passenger service. While Hudsons and Niagaras had powered the Dreyfusstyled Century at an earlier time, steam had been gone from the Central for over a dozen years.

dishes were already packed.

Tex Benson, who for ten years had operated "Texas Service" shoe shine stanel (the sign painter had evidently confused the possessive of "Tex" with the 28th state), remarked, "Maybe it'll be better in Rensselaer, but it's still kind of sad to leave here. There are a lot of memories." Eddie Wolf, assistant crew dispatcher, also had lots of memories of the station. He was busy now, though, loading a typewriter into his car for the ten-minute drive to the new Rensselaer ("Albany") station across the Hudson River-a steel and concrete Butler-type building served by a single track and one canopy rather than Union Station's eight tracks and four canopies on the upper level-and two tracks and one canopy on the lower level that served the Delaware & Hudson and the Central's West Shore Line. The first train into the Rensselaer station was due to arrive in two hours. With that throaty E-8 rumble, train No. 61 accelerated into the driving snowstorm towards West Albany Hill, the steepest grade on what had until recently been the Central's four-track main. Earlier in the day, the Delaware & Hudson's PAs, the last Alco PAs in existence, purchased from the Santa Fe by D&H president Frederic C. "Bucky"
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1988/ PAGE 19

Dumaine, had visited the station on the point of the Laurentian and Montreal Limited. After 68 years of hosting great trains, the station was closing to make way for an interstate highway. Along with the development of motive power, coaches, and all other aspects of railroading in America, the railroad passenger station evolved into a prominent structure in almost every community. Much of the social and economic activity (and in places like Albany, political as well) was inextricably tied to the local railroad station; it was often the busiest place in town. It was where business people arrived and departed, where the local Western Union telegraph office was often located, where Christmas gifts and other packages arrived by Railway Express, and where one -could pick up the major out-oftown newspapers. Even more importantly, it was the local terminus for virtually all intercity mail. In the case of Albany, capital of the Empire State, history makers, too, had passed through its station doors for more than a half century-presidents, government leaders, dignitaries such as Teddy Roosevelt, Al Smith, Adlai Stevenson, even Britain's David Lloyd George. It was praised by Grover Cleveland, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Mark Twain.

GREEN ISLAND

Albany Union Station served both the New York Central and the Delaware & Hudson railroads; the Central utilized the upper level of the station, while the D&H occupied the lower level. Immediately to the west of the station, West Albany Hill, the steepest grade on "The Water Level Route," led to the West Albany Shops, Schenectady, Buffalo and Chicago. The Delaware & Hudson's main line to Montreal ran north along the west side of the Hudson River. South of the station, the D&H main ran to Binghamton, with the NYC having trackage rights for a short distance to its West Shore line connecting to Selkirk and New Jersey. For many years, the Central and the D&H jointly operated Beltline service between Albany and Troy in a circular fashion over one another's tracks.

TROY

IRON

WORKS

MAP DRAWN

BY DON BARBEAU

lbany became one of the early centers of railroading in North America when the "De Witt Clinton" steam locomotive and its train of three coaches made its inaugural run between Albany and Schenectady on the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad on August 9, 1831. The Mohawk & Hudson, chartered by the New York State Legislature on April 17, 1826, was also the first railroad chartered in the United States. The operation of the "De Witt Clinton" was preceded only by that of the "Best Friend of Charleston" as the earliest revenue steam train operation in the United States. The portion of the original Mohawk & Hudson right-of-way from the west side of Albany to the outskirts of Schenectady is today the earliest predecessor route of Conrail and Amtrak. The Hudson-Mohawk region in 1831 was one of the most prominent centers of the industrial revolution in North America, a logical place for a major railroad center to develop. The Erie Canal (which, at the time it was constructed under Governor De Witt Clinton, was the largest-public works project ever undertaken by mankind) had opened five years earlier, creating a conduit to western New York and the Great Lakes for finished goods and raw mate-

D&H PAs and New York Central E-units rest in Albany Union Station on March 30, 1968, only a few months before the station closed. While the Es had visited Albany from their earliest days on the Central, the PAs and a dozen passenger cars had just been acquired by the D&H from the Santa Fe in D&H President "Bucky" Dumaine's effort to upgrade passenger service at a time when other railroads were downgrading theirs. No. 19, the PA on the left, was the last of its kind to operate in North America. Leased by the D&H to Mexico, it operated until damaged by a cab fire three years ago when, but is reportedly intact. Several groups are interested in returning this historic locomotive to the United States.

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rials. The canal made the Hudson-Mohawk region the gateway from the Hudson River and New York City to the west. Because of abundant water (for power and transport) and labor, the Hudson-Mohawk region rapidly burgeoned with industrial complexes producing iron products, textiles, and other manufactured goods. The intent Of the Mohawk & Hudson Railway was not to compete with the Erie Canal, but to supplement the Canal by transporting passengers directly between Albany and Schenectady rather than by the circuitous route of the of canal locks. The series of railroads across New York State that were constructed between Albanyand Buffalo during the second quarter of the nineteenth century brought rapid development of communities across the state and promoted expansion of the Midwest. Superceding the Erie Canal, the several railroads were consolidated in 1853by Erastus Corning, an Albany businessman associated with the State Bank of Albany, into the ew York Central Railroad. The charter stipulated Albany as the base of the system in perpetuity. In fact, all annual meetings of the ew York Central were held in Albany until as late as 1938. While the Erie Canal had made longdistance public transportation possible, the creation of the _ ew York Central made it fast and convenient. The ew York Central was merged in 1867 with Commodore Vanderbilt's Hudson River Railroad (which had been built along the east bank of the Hudson River between ew York City and Rensselaer), thus creating the longdreamed-of "Water-Level Route." Subsequently, Albany became a division headquarters astride a four-track mainline. Convenience led to the desire for luxury and even splendor, and the New York Central's general passenger agent, George H. Daniels (reputed to be a former patent medicine salesman), obliged by creating the concept of the prestige passenger train.

Drifting down West Albany Hill, Niagara No. 6004 approaches Albany Union Station with a l3-car consist, having just made the 17-mile trip from Schenectady. The New York Central dedicated the two southern tracks (on the left) of its four-track main line to passenger service, while the two northern tracks were restricted to freight service. West Albany Hill, which was situated between Albany Union Station and the West Albany Shops, was the steepest grade on the Central's mainline. Even the powerful Niagaras (61,570 pounds of tractive force) required pusher service to get long passenger trains up the grade. Below: EL Henry's famous painting, "The first Railway Train on the Mohawk & Hudson Rail Road" -Chartered on April 17, 1826, the Mohawk & Hudson was the predecessor of the New York Central.

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1988 / PAGE 21

UNIONSTATIONAlBANY-N:Y
N\.lYO'-.K<ENT'I\tJ.IIIiUD.SO/'I.1\!~"'1\:CORfOI\.AnOl'!
~1..Ef'-.UTA1""rICoOUDlif.~. -1IOSl'OtI-/1MS-

ELEVATI0f.ITOWA,,<,1\:.1I,:11\.ACK5
5CALf.1fJ"-l-o".

The Empire State Express, a product of the West Albany Shops, was the first of the New York Central's great name trains. Daniels, a promoter at heart, envisioned exhibiting the fastest locomotive in the world at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Therefore, the "999", a super 4-4-0, was built at the West Albany Shops with unusually large drivers. It was designed for the record-setting run of 112.5 miles per hour with the Empire State Express on May 10, 1893, near Batavia in western New York-celebrating the first time humans were able to travel at speeds higher than 100 miles per hour. The power and prestige indicated by name trains and speed records did won-

ders for New York Central's image. As a result, unprecedented numbers of passengers poured into Albany from Boston's South Station (then the largest and busiest station in the country) and the second of what would be three Grand Central terminals in New York City. Albany's modest 1872depot was being overwhelmed. It was time for the New York Central to erect a grand monument to itself and to the capital of the Empire State.

lbany Union Station was designed by the architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the successor firm to H.H. Richardson. Richardson had served

is
~ ~

8 '" ~ [5

Iii
b;: The great station is an immense undertaking. Strong backs and simple shovels excavated the foundations and wrestled IS-ton granite blocks onto the wooden derrick platforms; now the workers use their brawn to elevate track and to construct subterranean walkways and bridges. All while the trains, unimpeded, roll in and out with their visiting spectators.

as architect for Albany City Hall and was one of several involved in the design of the New York State Capitol in Albany. Both firms were well known for their design of a number of public buildings and railroad stations, particularly along the Boston & Albany line (Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge designed Boston's South Station). The general contractors for the building were Norcross Brothers of Springfield, Massachusetts, a well-known and highly qualified firm that had built Albany City HalL The architecture of Albany Union Station is an example of creative eclecticism, incorporating features of both the BeauxArts Classical and the Second Renaissance Revival styles. In general, the pink Milford granite exterior of the station suggests the Second Renaissance Revival style with its clear geometric massing and facades of classical divisions, as well as other characteristics. However, the sculptural decorations that break the skyline profile of the station are examples of Beaux-Arts Classicism. The vast space of the interior design was not a response to functional needs, but to the desire to create palatial surroundings. These features include the elaborately coffered plaster ceiling, cast-iron balconies and galleries with their smallscale ornamentation, and the great arches at the ends that opened into the light wells of the wings. A number of railroad improvements accompanied the station's construction, including the remodeling of the station yard, elimination of grade crossings, and the rebuilding of the Maiden Lane railroad bridge across the Hudson River. Albany Union Station was an early example of the use of subterranean passageways, or "subways," as a means of reaching the platforms from the station interior. This was a major improvement over the dangerous walkways across the tracks in the Old Depot. Finally, the Albany platforms had can-

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PRESERVATION

opies, rather than the mammoth train sheds already out of fashion. "The ew Depot," Albany Union Station, opened without ceremony on December 17, 1900. Shortly thereafter, the Old Depot was torn down. During its life Albany Union Station underwent several minor alterations. In 1902, two years after the station opened, a balcony-like metal structure was added to the north end of the building under the canopy, providing direct access from Broadway Street to Track One. In 1950 the sashes of a number of windows on the north end of the building along Columbia Street were replaced by glass blocks. The exterior of the building was cleaned at least twice, in the 1920sand again in 1941,prior to its most recent cleaning in about 1979. The interior of the building underwent a number of substantial changes. The original mosaic tile floor of the waiting room was replaced during the 1930s with terrazzo flooring. The original horseshoe bar was removed, and other changes were made to the restaurant by 1940. In that year the open light wells in both wings were filled in. This detracted from the spatial conception of the architects' interior design, which had harmoniously connected the light wells beyond the large end arches to the waiting room area. Such changes were for the most part utilitarian, to the detriment of the beauty and integrity of the original concept of grandeur.

A railroad station accommodating the volume of traffic found at Albany demanded supporting facilities. The Rensselaer engine terminal, located on the east shore of the Hudson River from the station and connected by the Maiden Lane bridge, was an integral part of the operation of Albany Union Station. As many as 22 0-8-0 switchers were on hand at the Rensselaer facility for use as pushers on westbound passenger trains heading up West Albany Hill out of the station, as well as serving in other switching capacities at the station and in Rensselaer. Often two pushers would be required on a passenger train headed up the hill. Pushers would normally be cut off at Tower 3 at West Albany. This seemingly ceremonial but functional pushing of long passenger trains up West Albany Hill in order to maintain tight schedules was exciting and almost a calamity on at least one occasion. Frank Doherty, a conductor for 41 years on the line, recently related that the coupler on the front of the 0-8-0 pusher jammed, thus fastening the pusher to the rear of what became a high-speed train once it reached the crest of the hill. This mismatch of a powerful and speedy "Niagara" with a little 0-8-0 was definitely not in favor of the small locomotive. During the pre-radio era there was no direct communication available between the head end and the rear of the train. The little pusher was dragged past the West Albany Shops and towards Sche-

nectady at nearly 80 miles per hour, its 52 inch drivers revolving furiously. Fortunately, the operator at Tower 3 (West Albany) observed the difficulty and attempted to remedy the situation by sending word up the line. The engineer on the "Niagara," however, did not get the signal until he reached Tower 7 at Carman, 12 miles from West Albany. The overwrought 0-8-0 was towed back to West Albany Shops for repair, its siderods clanking from speed inflected wounds. The sprawling West Albany complex, for many years the principal shops of the New York Central, included facilities for heavy steam locomotive repair as well as passenger car repair. The busy West Albany yards, which at one time had contained stockyards important to the transport of cattle from the Midwest to New York and Boston, were largely replaced

Below: The westbound Twentieth Century Limited with heavyweight cars pulls into Albany Union Station off the Maiden Lane Bridge with K-3d Pacific No. 3385 on the point in 1927. Tracks of the Delaware & Hudson "Albany Main" serving the lower level of the station are visible on the left. To the right beyond the signal tower is part of the post office facility which handled virtually all of the mail in and out of Albany at that time. Transportation traffic in this area was remarkable; the Albany boat basin, where Hudson River Dayliner steamboats docked, can be seen adjacent to the bridge.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY

1988/ PAGE 23

around 1925 by the Selkirk yards to the south of Albany. Albany Union Station was host to an array of classic steam power, as well as to classic passenger cars on name trains. In addition to the New York Central's "Hudsons" (some streamlined for a period) and the 4-8-2 "Mohawks," the 4-8-4 "Niagaras" (in many minds the most beautiful steam locomotives ever built) closed out the steam era. Besides the Twentieth Century Limited and the Empire State Express, name trains such as the New England States Limited, The Lakeshore Limited, The Pacemaker, and Ohio State Limited in later years carried name cars of the "Creek" series, the "Brook" series, the "Stream" series, and many others. The first streamlined Twentieth Century Limited, styled by designer Henry Dreyfuss, was introduced by the New York Central in 1938.This train most often was powered by "Hudsons" (until the "Niagaras" began service in the mid-1940s), although it occasionally used "Mohawks," and featured smooth-sided Pullman-Standard cars in the classic two-tone grey paint scheme and the familiar round-end observation cars with illuminated tailsigns that became a virtual trademark of the New York Central. After World War II, the most famous of the Central's lightweight cars, "Sandy Creek" and "Hickory Creek" (smoothsided, 5-double bedroom, lounge-observation cars) replaced the prewar observation cars on the Twentieth Century. The prewar

EarlyJ-la Hudson and crew at AlbanYJn 1928.

observation cars were inherited by the Commodore Vanderbilt. In the late 1940s the stainless steel "Brook" series of roundend observation cars were substituted on the Century. The "Wingate Brook" carried the famed Twentieth Century Limited tailsign on that train's last westbound trip through Albany Union Station on December 3, 1967. This wonderful array of long-

haul passenger trains operated by the New York Central came to be known as "The Great Steel Fleet." Albany Union Station also began hosting the famous Dreyfuss-styled Empire State Express, a stainless steel consist built by the Budd Company, when that service was inaugurated on December 7,1941. The Empire State Express was particularly

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Albany's Visitors
A number of noteworthy locomotives and trains visited Albany Union Station in its lifetime. Perhaps the most unusual was the Coronation Scot, newly constructed for the London Midland and Scottish Railway when it stopped in Albany on April II, 1939, during an eastem states tour culminating in a display at the New York World's Fair. The locomotive and tender, streamlined as a unit, were about one half the weight of a typical American pair and visibly smaller than domestic equipment. On a test run, though, the "Scot" did a creditable 114 miles per hour. The Albany public got a good look at the train's eight sumptuously appointed air-conditioned cars, a point of climax to railroading's age of opulence.

Almost exactly five years earlier, a slippery speedster of a more forward-looking bent was at Albany Union Station: the Burlington's stillexperimental No. 9900, the original Zephyr. The crowd which passed through on inspection may have glimpsed the futuristic diesel-electric powerplant which, a month later, would set a world speed record

by covering 1,015 miles nonstop in just over 13 hours. In the words of David P. Morgan of Trains magazine, "this sliver slip of a train which doesn't look or feel or sound like a train at all" went on to log over three million miles before it was retired in 1960. Today it is preserved at the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago.

New York Central 5429 in 1941.

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1988 / PAGE 25

unique in that its J-3 "Hudson" locomotives (Nos. 5426 and 5429) sported stainless steel skirting, while the tenders were sided with fluted stainless steel. This train, like the Century, was known for its roundend observation cars, although unlike the Century these were stainless steel. All the cars of the Empire State Express were named for New York State governors. The Delaware & Hudson also graced Albany Union Station with its classic "Pacific" and "Northern" type steam locomotives, outfitted with "elephant-ear" smoke lifters. (While for years the New YorkMontreal name trains of the D&H, the Laurentian and the Montreal Limited, bypassed Albany and stopped at Troy, beginning in the fifties these trains, too, came into Albany.) The Laurentian and the Montreal Limited were actually jointly operated by the Delaware & Hudson and the New York Central, with the Central carrying the train between New York and Albany (or Troy in earlier years) and the D&H carrying the train between Albany (or Troy) and Montreal. In the fifties it was common to see a New York Central stainless steel round-end observation car on the rear of these trains. While the D&H had a long tradition of heavyweight passenger equipment, probably their best-known lightweight cars were the so-called "World's Fair Cars," built by American Car & Foundry Company in 1939 in an effort to cash in on traffic to the New

York World's Fair. These six cars, Nos. 201 to 206, were used on the Laurentian up until that train's demise. Painted grey with a classic maroon window band and fitted with curved end windows and the distinctive round "porthole" windows in vestibule doors, these cars were the product of famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy. In 1967 D&H president Frederic C. "Bucky" Dumaine committed his railroad to upgrading passenger service when every other railroad in the northeast was downgrading theirs. That year Dumaine acquired a dozen cars from the Denver & Rio Grande (five lightweight coaches, four baggage cars, two diner-lounges, and a buffetlounge), as well as the Alco PAs, soon to become the trademark of the Delaware & Hudson. All of this newly acquired equipment, as well as the "World's Fair" cars and the remaining heavyweights, were painted

grey with a blue window band, yellow stripes, and silver roofs and undercarriages. The PAs, which had been purchased from the Santa Fe Railroad, were affectionately known by D&H employees (and still today by D&H veterans) as the "Santa Fe's." They closed out the D&H passenger era in Albany Union Station. At its zenith in the early 1920s, the New York Central's net income was approaching $50 million. Trains were still supreme, and the Twentieth Century Limited was the luxury train on the North American continent. At the time, of course, those golden days were little appreciated as such. Now, decades later, we can look back and identify that time as the apex of the business curve ...and know what was to follow. Many railroads struggled through the Depression. The New York Central did better than most, but it was never again sub-

On May, 1946, a one-year-old Niagara heads out of Albany for New York City with the Missourian. Great stations are known in part by the power that served them, and the Niagara was one of the most significant engines to pass through Albany-often in charge of one the 12 daily trains (in each direction) between Chicago and New York. Niagaras produced 6700 horsepower on test and averaged 26,000 miles per month. Using features like the large firebox from the 4-6-4 Hudson for steam generation and eight coupled drivers for tractive force from the 4-8-2 Mohawk, the Niagara demonstrated that modern steam could be at least as economical as the diesel. According to P. Kieler's An Evaluation of Railroad Motive Power (Simmons and Boardman, 1948), the total annual operating cost for the 4-8-4s per mile was $1.22 versus $l.ll for a 4000 horsepower two-unit diesel. The test tended to solidify the already prevailing diesel majority, which argued that operating cost for a diesel was much lower than that for steam. Steam advocates claimed foul because the 6000 horsepower Niagara was being compared to a 4000 horsepower diesel. See "Did we Scrap Steam too Soon," Trains June 1974.

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stantially profitable. Only the unnatural press of wartime troop movements could reverse the steady decline in passenger revenues. Yet despite declining revenues, who would have thought that giant steel leviathans like the New York Central and great stations like Albany's would ever disappear? It was inconceivable. But by the fifties the crisis was inescapable. Costs had to be reduced, somehow, somewhere, anywhere. An easy target were the money-losing passenger operations and their supporting stations. The New York Central announced plans in 1956 to close 406 passenger stations, including the downtown terminals in Albany and Schenectady. "Excess and obsolete property," they were called. Albany Mayor Erastus Corning II- ironically, the great-grandson of the founder of the New York Centralknew that the closing of Union Station would mean the death of Albany's downtown commerce. He began a long and eventually acrimonious struggle with the unyielding railroad management to keep the station open. Even fellow Albanians were not always allies. A 1961 Albany Times-Union editorial said, "No longer the monopoly it once was in transportation, the Central does not require any longer the huge, hangar-like, expensive-to-run Albany depot. Its needs now are for a much smaller, more comfortable, modern terminal." The battle for Union Station was being fought in a new, post-railroading era.

A pair of -8s glide into Albany with the westbound Empire State Express on January 24, 1963. Dominated by the. sentinel towers of the Delaware & Hudson office buildings, a montage of early twentieth century architecture guards the background.

In October 1967, the New York State Public Service Commission approved construction of a passenger station in the suburb of Colonie (and thereby the closing of Union Station)-but only if the New York

The Rensselaer engine terminal, across the Hudson River from Albany, was an integral part of Albany Union Station's 24-hour operation. The coal tipple, as well as a large roundhouse and other facilities, serviced road locomotives and as many as 22 0-8-0 switchers kept on hand for use as pushers on westbound passenger trains heading up West Albany Hill out of the station, as well as to serve in their normal switching capacities at the station and in Rensselaer. A second Rensselaer roundhouse accommodated Boston & Albany locomotives.

Central maintained "a passenger stop facility" somewhere in downtown Albany. There was little doubt about the eventual decision. On December 14, 1966 the headlines shouted: "UNION STATION SOLD." New York State took custody of the station and leased it back to the New York Central. On December 3, 1967, the Twentieth Century Limited made its last stop at Albany Union Station. Eleven months later, the station was closed. Initially, there was much hope that the building could be put to new use. Proposals came and went: central library, state governmental archive, office and retail shopping complex, railroad museum, planetarium, aquarium, bowling hall of fame. Deliberations took time, but vandalism did not. Within months of the December 1968 closing, the copper roof flashings had been stripped (the scrap rate was up around 50 cents a pound because of the Vietnam war), and rain began seeping in. Every transportable fixture in the interior was carried off. In November 1971 the State held two auctions, asking only $320,000 for the granite white elephant and its prime downtown real estate. Even though the building was by then on the National Register of Historic Places, the terms of sale would not preclude demolition. There was not a single bid. As the years passed, rain trickled and then streamed into the interior. The ornaJANUARY-FEBRUARY 1988 / PAGE 27

Is there still something here worth saving? It took courage to answer "yes. " For 16years Albany residents struggled with that question. At first their answer was "No." In 1971the asking price for the building was a mere $320,000; but no one bid. As the years passed, countless salvation schemes came and went. The trees on the roof grew taller. But during the 16 years of uncertainty over the fate of the deteriorating building, there emerged a consensus that Union Station was valuable and had to be saved. Norstar's April/984 announcement to save the building elicited universal excitement.

mental plaster was soon waterlogged, the bricks soaked. Ceiling tiles fell away, and mahogany doors and railings sprouted mildew. The splendid cast iron pitted; even massive structural steel members were corroding away. By 1977 small trees were visible on the roof. Not one developer had managed to combine feasible idea with committed funding. Merchants were fleeing Albany's badly depressed downtown, humbler buildings were razed for "temporary" parking lots (still there a decade later), and an arterial highway now swept ominously past the hunkering "eyesore" of Union Station. (True, Albany Union Station looked awful. Rain and snow were passing directly into the interior, and large sections of the ornate ceiling had fallen.) In 1978,concerned architects warned that the building would not survive another upstate New York winter. That warning coincided with a growing public sentiment now becoming attuned to rehabilitation, a resurgent consciousness of the value of old buildings. In 1979 the state spent one million dollars on a temporary roof and other measures; the landmark structure would at least survive. Then the wait for a buyer resumed. In the fall of 1983, IBM announced it was looking into purchase and renovation of Union Station for its Albany regional headquarters. Hope arose, then subsided: there had been too many false alarms already. Sure enough, on January 16, 1984, IBM backed out. LocallV stations gave out the discouraging news that evening. One of the viewers in the well-to-do Albany suburb of Loudonville, Peter D. Kiernan, took in the news story before going to bed. Then, while shaving the following morning, he had an inspiration. Kiernan was president of Norstar Bancorp, an Albany-based Fortune 500 bank holding company. Like most Albanians, he'd been following the Union Station saga for years. In fact, back in 1969,as owner of a successful insurance business, he'd even considered converting Union Station into a
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downtown insurance center-complete with parking in the waiting room space! But now a finer idea presented itself. Norstar Bancorp had evolved from the State Bank of Albany, founded in 1804, financier of the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad as well as the Erie Canal. Hadn't that same Erastus Corning of New York Central fame begun his career as a loan officer in charge of railroad investments at the State Bank of Albany? Who better than Albany's pre-eminent banking company could work the catalytic magic that would revitalize the building and its Broadway neighborhood? Could there be a more appropriate buyer for Union Station? The news was released at a jubilant press conference on April 11, 1984. It was exactly 25 years after Trains magazine had run "New Look at Union Station," a feature that analyzed the obsolescence of large downtown terminals, using as a case study

a hypothetical "old 1900-era structure, inspired by an actual building"". unmistakably Albany's. It would indeed be getting a new look, but instead of "clearing some valuable real estate for development" this Union Station was about to bring an entire downtown area back to life. Not the largest of the recent station rehabilitations across the country, Albany Union Station was remarkable in another sense. This would be the first major railroad station to be adapted for reuse by a single, private-sector corporation. Many preservation-minded citizens and municipal officials saw in this fact both blessing and warning. As had been made clear in St. Louis and Indianapolis, funding was always the developer's bane. Wouldn't private corporations be the ideal saviors for medium- and large-sized terminals in many American cities, if only the right inducements could be found? But how

could the rigorous, and rightful, demands of historic preservation be satisfied while accommodating the quite different needs of commercial occupancy? Consider the challenge. The huge volume of Albany Union Station's central space, the waiting room, was of little practicality in a modern office environment. Yet preservation officials would surely not approve of dividing it up and ruining the characteristic sense of grandeur. Strict guidelines from the Secretary of the Department of the Interior applied to the gamut of problems, from the largest (reduce the waiting room space?) to the smallest (how to choose doorknobs?). These federal guidelines all had to be met if Norstar were to receive historic-preservation tax credits, which would permit one-fourth of the rehab investment to be deducted from taxable corporate earnings. Then consider the consequences. If Norstar met the requirements, it would be a showcase triumph for both corporate and preservation interests. Throughout the United States there are countless buildings of architectural and historical value, empty and awaiting rehabilitation, if only the people with the means can be enticed into pursuing such civic-minded ends. Doesn't business stand to benefit from the intangibles of community goodwill engendered by saving a beloved but derelict landmark? Can the lofty ideal of architectural restoration and the reality of the bottom line be reconciled? Albany Union Station, renamed Norstar Plaza, has proved to be the litmus test. The 56-foot-high waiting room had cost the New York Central a fortune to heat. Yet Norstar had to simultaneously preserve that feeling of space while somehow doubling usable floor area. This really was the central problem in the adaptive-use project. The second major problem was the word "restore," which some people touted interchangeably with "renovation." Here was a serious question of degree, touching

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on issues as divergent as restoring 85-yearold plaster figurines and installing modern revolving doors at the entrances. Adaptiveuse renovation must begin with the assumption of restoring where possible. It then moves on to questions of altering where practicable, and customizing for the new owner's convenience where permissible. Norstar's chosen architectural and engineering firm, Einhorn Yaffee Prescott of Albany, devised a brilliant solution. In the central cube of the waiting room, the entire floor would be raised 12 feet, thus creating a secure data-processing area beneath. The two-story-tall, cast-iron gallery facades that ran along the east and west sides of the waiting room would then be raised and moved inward some 15 feet, thus adding considerable office space within the galleries. Finally, in the north and south wings three stories would become four with the extension of the raised lobby level through what had been the tall ground-level baggage and restaurant areas. With nearly
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1988 / PAGE 29

twice the existing floor space then usable, the interior would nevertheless look large and every bit as grand as before. The simple sketch was difficult to execute. The owner and architect agreed to "fast-track" the project, the incentives being earlier occupancy and reduced financing expense. But there would not be time to complete and approve a finalized set of engineering plans before work began. Executive Vice President Robert H. Sloan, Norstar's man in charge of the entire project, knew what that meant. "I've been told," he said, "that any straightforward historic preservation project offers plenty of surprises and delays. But on a fast-track schedule, problems are exacerbated." Partial demolition, cleanup work, and structural modifications would have to begin even before management knew how much to budget for each of hundreds of tasks and subcontracts. The field drawings would literally change from day to day as work proceeded and troubles appeared. They appeared from day one. Asbestos removal far exceeded cost and time estimates; the stuff turned up everywhere. Yet it all had to be extricated before anyone else could come on-site and get started. Then the bulldozers and cutting torches launched into interior walls, floors, and frames. Concurrently, engineers examined the corroded steel members and evaluated their findings. The new steel skeleton took shape; masons and electricians contemplated boring through solid stone and twofoot-thick brick walls. Up in the attic, a single original iron light fixture was discovered, as were the hand-wrought numerals of the Broadway clock face. From
PAGE 30 / LOCOMOTIVE & RAILWAY PRESERVATION

these remnants, new lighting units and a restored clock could be designed. Work proceeded against time and the unexpected. During the steel erection, the boom of a crane brushed a column. Unanchored steel beams twisted and crashed; ironworkers hung on, jumped, or scrambled to precarious perches. Amazingly there was only one minor injury. But everyone had a fright, and a long delay ensued while the remaining steel structure was reinspected and recertified. The best of the four giant plaster cartouches was gently lowered to the floor to---o""~=='~ be taken away for restoration, but it shattered as it touched down. Dovetail, Inc., of

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Lowell, Massachusetts, then spent a full month piecing it back together in order to make a mold and cast the four largest plaster pieces they'd ever done, each seven feet tall and weighing a thousand pounds. So it went for eighteen intense months. The expected tug-of war among SHPO (the State Historic Preservation Office), owner, and architect became instead no more than a muscle-flexing scrimmage, as a surprising confluence of interests served to bring the parties together in pursuit of a mutually beneficial goal. Each party understood the satisfaction, if not the glory, to be had from successful completion of the project and final approval by Interior; time and again they found ways to defuse arguments and propose compromises. The promise of

(Continued on page 60)

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1988/ PAGE 31

ALBANY UNION STATION ..

(Continued from page 31) the private-sector/preservationist collaboration was materializing. As Sloan put it, once the people working inside the building could see what was taking shape, "Everyone fortunate enough to get really involved in the project understood that we were doing something unique. What a thrill for all of us to have been a part of it." But Norstar kept the brilliantly decorated interior under wraps; the papers and the public could only speculate on what they were going to see.

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A stunning contrast, the sheen of the renovated interior of Norstar Plaza underlines the paradox of adaptive- use historic preservation. The achievement is breathtaking. And yet ...the most meticulous of craftsmen is powerless to resusci-

tate the one thing which, unavoidably, is lost in

even faithful restoration: the highly personal story which each of us finds at the heart of a train station's history.

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or the 68 years in which Union Station was just "the station" to the people of Albany, it may have been appreciated as a handsome building, but its value was still primarily utilitarian. During the 13 years that the New York Central and Mayor Corning battled over the need for a downtown passenger terminal, the station's value was still seen in terms of convenience. But during the 16 years of uncertainty over the fate of the vacant and deteriorating building, there emerged a consensus that Union Station was valuable and had to be savedalthough most people could not articulate why. Norstar's April 1984 announcement elicited universal interest and excitement in the community at the knowledge that the building would be saved. That excitement grew as people saw the granite facade cleaned, tucked, and pointed, and as the newspapers reported on the progress, even if the interior renovation remained unseen. But it was not until the grand opening, on September 19, 1986 (in the city's tricentennial year), that the true value of Albany Union Station became apparent. One hundred thousand people came down to Norstar Plaza for the outdoor festivities, enjoying food, music, extravagant fireworks, and a laser light show. That weekend people began filing in on tour. In the days and weeks that followed, an astounding 30,000 people queued up for a lingering look at the refurbished "station." Many of the older visitors were visibly moved as they recollected earlier experiences. More than a year after the grand opening, there is still interest enough to merit regular public tours of this now private space. Norstar has made the building available to organizations wishing to schedule anything from a tour to a ball. A half-hour motion picture on the renovation, "Portrait of a Landmark: Union Station Reborn," was so well received that it's been aired five times on the Albany-area public television station.
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This building evokes nostalgia in people who knew it as "the station," and wonder in those too young to have known anything other than Amtrak and Conrail. Whether the visitor murmurs, "We used to sit right over there, by the heater, on those cold afternoons while we waited for the train to take us home from shopping," or "Why did they put up all that gold, and those big heads?," the immediacy and uniqueness of the experience is clear. Some people, on seeing Albany Union Station, recall how their ancestors boasted about "working for the railroad," about how generation after generation of the family was in railroading. Others get their first glimpse of an era whose physical plant has all but disappeared from the social/industrial landscape. There are trains today; there will always be trains. But Railroading is no longer with us. To see a restored steam locomotive is to be awed at the might of the railroad. To see a rehabilitated downtown terminal is to glimpse how the railroad shaped the lives of millions. Such a building is no less a prized survivor of our railroading heritage than are the coaches,

Pullmans, and locomotives that fused those stations into a nation. Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy is surely the former Union Station's most eloquent champion. A rhapsodic chapter in his 0 Albany! incants the magic of the place for little boys and celebrity-watchers alike. Union Station, Kennedy says, was "an idea, a state of mind, a minor architectural wonder that led you not only to.the trains but to the idea of trains." Norstar Plaza, the reincarnated Albany Union Station, preserves that idea for this and coming generations, as do the other grand railroad stations saved or yet to be saved across the country. We are all heirs to that good fortune.

Timothy Truscott is a former president of the Mohawk & Hudson chapter, NRHS. He has contributed to numerous Railroad reo lated publications. Torn Finnegan is an freelance writer and is currently working on a book on Albany Union Station.