Union Station (Erie)

Infobox Station
name=Union Station (Erie)
style=Amtrak

---

image_size=250
image_caption=Union Station
address=125 West 14th Street
Erie, PA 16501
line=rail color box|system=Amtrak|line=Lake Shore Limited
other=
platform=
parking=Yes; short-term free, overnight paid
bicycle=
passengers=10,182
pass_year=2007
pass_percent=22
opened=December 3, 1927
rebuilt=
ADA=Yes
code=ERI
owned=
zone=
baggage_check=No
services=s-rail|title=Amtrak

Union Station is a train station in downtown Erie, Pennsylvania. It was built on 1927-12-03. It is served by Amtrak, the national railroad passenger system, which maintains a small office in the building. The station building is privately owned and has been developed to include business offices, restaurants, and a microbrewery. The Erie Rail Museum is also housed inside the station.

History

1865 station

The first Union Station was a grand Italianate at-grade structure built around 1865 at 14th Street between Peach and Sassafras Streets. Four railroads provided service: the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad and the Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad, which became parts of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR); and the Buffalo and Erie Railroad and the Cleveland and Erie Railroad, which became part of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad and eventually a part of the New York Central Railroad (NYC). In its heyday, the station served nearly 52 passenger trains a day. Before dining cars were common, passengers would detrain for extended stops at the station's grand restaurant before continuing on their journeys.

1927 station

The station was redesigned in Art Deco style in the 1920's by architects were Alfred T. Fellheimer and Steward Wagner and reopened in 1927. Some of the features of the old station were replicated in the new design, such as the number of external panels and windows and the east facade of the building. The station had a hexagonal rotunda/waiting room with eight ticket windows and a baggage window. The main concourse was quite large and contained retail space including a Union News outlet, a barber shop, and other concessions. The redesign was part of a project to raise the railroad right-of-way onto an embankment through the city to eliminate the many grade crossings. The station is remarkably intact. All of the original building is still in place. Only the PRR platforms have been removed. Recent restaurant and office development inside the building did not make any substantial structural changes to the station.

The original platforms were only about 450 feet long, made of cast-in-place concrete, and were low-level, originally 8" above top-of-rail, with nearly full length butterfly style canopies made of steel frames and wood roof decking. There were four baggage service elevators going from the baggage handling area to the platforms.

The NYC had four tracks (Tracks 1 thru 4) on two island platforms, plus an express loading track adjacent to the station building and a run thru track between Tracks 1 and the express loading track. The PRR had two tracks (Tracks 5 and 6) on one island platform, plus a separate short platform for baggage, mail, and express handling. The southern-most track adjacent to the PRR service platform was a stub track, the only one. All other tracks were run-through tracks. All tracks were of timber tie and ballast construction. The tracks were located above grade with a pedestrian subway tunnel providing access to the platforms via stairways to the platforms above. In 2001, Track 4 was turned over to the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) as part of a track relocation project, which eliminated 1 1/2 miles of NSstreet running trackage on 19th Street through the city that included having NS share the CSX right of way through the city. This change did not materially impact the station.

Passenger operations since 1927

When the new station was opened in 1927, the NYC provided the majority of service. Trains went west to Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis and east to Buffalo, Albany, New York and Boston. The station was located on the NYC Chicago-New York main line, also referred to as the "water-level route." The famous NYC "20th Century Limited" ran through Erie Union Station every night at high speed but did not stop. In the 1960s, the NYC ran appoximately eight trains a day in each direction through Erie. Many additional trains were run in the preceding years, particularly during World War II. This was gradually truncated to approximately four trains a day towards the beginning of Amtrak.

Conversely, the PRR ran trains south from Erie to Pittsburgh and southeast from Erie to Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Washington. Service to Pittsburgh was discontinued in 1946, and service to Philadelphia was discontinued on March 27, 1965. In later years, PRR service consisted of only one train a day each way to Emporium, Pennsylvania where the cars were connected to a Buffalo/Harrisburg train for the continued journey. The PRR train typically consisted of a baggage-RPO car, a coach, and a sleeper which was operated by the Pullman Company. The last PRR train was numbered No. 580 (southbound) and No. 581 (northbound).

While all NYC trains were run-through trains, the PRR had switching operations at the station because all of the PRR trains terminated and originated in Erie. Typically, a PRR switch crew would pick up the train and take it about a mile east to the former Ash Street Wye to turn the train so the seats were pointed in the facing direction of the train. The motive power would cut off and proceed east to the PRR engine terminal on 18th and Wayne Streets for servicing and turning. That was also the crew reporting location. At the station, the PRR had a Porter who cleaned out the train and prepared it for its return run. The PRR also had a steam boiler in the station manned by a full time fireman to provide steam heat for the cars to keep them warm during the day in cold weather. Steam hoses were located in the center of the PRR station tracks for the connection to the cars. Lastly, since the Pullman Company operated the sleeping car service, there was likely an office space for Pullman employees to conduct their administrative business.

Post-1968

The level of passenger service continued after the Penn Central (PC) merger in 1968 between the PRR and NYC. PC later became Conrail in 1976, and in 1996 Conrail became CSX Corporation. However, the PC trains only ran until the beginning of Amtrak in 1971. Prior to the start of Amtrak, PC was running approximately four trains per day. In spite of that, Amtrak reduced the service to one train a day serving Union Station between midnight and 6 AM, thus greatly reducing the quality and level of service. Shortly after that, the one train was discontinued, leaving the city of Erie without passenger service for several years. Service then resumed in 1975 with the "Lake Shore Limited" service, still serving Erie between midnight and 6 AM. Currently, there is a single train each day, greatly underserving the potential travel market that may be available in Erie.

There is currently no ticket sales or baggage handling available. In spite of serious lack of rail service, Union Station still sees over 8,000 passengers a year pass through its doors.

Two other railroads served Erie but had separate depots; they never shared Union Station. The Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad ran trains to Greenville, PA and Pittsburgh; and the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (the Nickel Plate Road) had service to Chicago and Buffalo. Bessemer & Lake Erie service was discontinued in 1955 and Nickel Plate Service (which became Norfolk & Western in 1964 and later Norfolk Southern) was discontinued in 1965. The Bessemer depot was located at 12th and Sassafras Streets and the Nickel Plate Depot was located at 19th and Holland Streets. Over time, both of those depots were demolished.

Other station uses and activities

During World War II, the Bliley Electric Company operated a small defense-related factory on the second floor of the station, where local women worked all three shifts using grinding machines to fashion semiconductors out of galena for use in the cat's whisker detector of crystal radios. The raw chunk lead ore was heaped in the rail yard and the entire operation was guarded by soldiers with Great Danes. [Thompson, Lisa. "Women of the Greatest Generation: Day Three: On the Factory Floor, Leona Justka Helped Win the War", Erie Times-News, 18 March 2008, 1A, 4A]

In the 1960s and 1970s, the station was also used as a crew change point for NYC (and later PC) freight crews between Cleveland and Buffalo. This replaced a former crew change point in Lawrence Park Township, just east of Erie and the site of a former steam engine maintenance facility for the New York Central. CSX no longer uses Erie as a crew change point.

The United States Post Office operated Railway post office (RPO) service on both the NYC and PRR through the station. There was an underground tunnel that went under 14th Street from the station to the main Erie Post Office for the transfer of mail.

References

External links

* [http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/erie.htm Erie Union Station (USA Rail Guide -- Train Web)]
* [http://www.logisticsplus.net/news/10-31-03_Local_firm_buys_union_station_ne.htm Local Firm Buys Union Station]
* [http://www.erierailmuseum.com/ Erie Rail Museum at Historical Union Station]