In 1828 ground was broken for the first railroad in the United States. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) began with a fantastic vision: to provide passenger and freight service across the wide expanse of the settled United States from Baltimore to Ohio. The enterprise was deemed so necessary to national security that engineers from West Point were allowed to help with surveying and planning the tracks. The initial offering was a much more modest affair. 13 miles of track were laid and the carriages traversed those miles drawn by horses. Expansion followed. Eventually, passengers and freight could be shipped all the way from New York City to St. Louis, Missouri with major stops in Washington DC and Cleveland. Three trains ran each direction leaving each day. The National Limited offered the highest level of luxury with shower baths, barber shops, fine dining, and many other amenities. The Diplomat was a lower level of luxury without all of the amenities. And the Metropolitan stopped at every station, took a lot longer, and was the blue-collar workhorse of the railroad. The railroad experimented with different forms of propelling the trains down the tracks. An experiment in wind-driven trains was attempted with limited success. Eventually stem locomotives became the dominant means of propulsion.

To support these modern trains with all of their amenities and the volumes of freight which could be shipped, elaborate stations needed to be constructed. These stations were grand buildings, feats of modern architecture, with opulent entryways, high ceilinged grand halls, and scores of restaurants and shops.

After the Second World War, however, passengers declined on the rails. The development of the national Interstate highway system accelerated the decline of the railroads. By the 1960’s railroad companies were being bought and sold, consolidated and reconfigured in attempts to keep them solvent. The stations fell into disrepair, the large staff of cleaning people could not be sustained by the decreased traffic.

Many cities across the nation have faced the dilemma of what to do with the once prominent buildings that at one time were the heart of the urban core. Now the giant structures could be operated only at a loss and the cost of maintaining them continued to rise. A few of them were eventually repurposed.

Union Station in St. Louis, once the heartbeat of the city and the center of social and commercial life is now a hotel and convention complex operated by Hilton. I have been to St. Louis on many trips and have visited many different sights in the city but before this trip, I had not visited Union Station. It is the location of this weeks annual gathering of the Association of Professional Church Educators and I am excited to have the opportunity to wander around this giant building and see how it has been restored and repurposed. As hotels go it is one of the largest I’ve ever visited. I’ll have no problem getting my steps in as I wander around the complex with five restaurants plus a soda fountain and a cookie and cupcake shop, an aquarium, a garden courtyard, an outdoor pool, a carousel and ferris wheel, mini golf and scores of ballrooms and meeting rooms, exhibit halls and a fitness center. I don’t know how many rooms are in the hotel but they are located in at least three different areas and the room numbers in the area where I am staying go up to 6040.

Many of the murals on the ceilings and walls have been restored and there are nightly light shows in the Grand Hall in which colored lights are projected onto the ceiling and walls all set to music. There is also a fire and light show around an artificial lake in the courtyard.

The experience has already made me wonder what other cities have done with their grand railroad stations. It might be an interesting thing to add to a city visit to explore what has been done with the historic structures. I’m sure some have been torn down. Others have become museums. Surely some still serve as train stations even if they now serve fewer passengers than when they were originally designed.

In the vast flow of history the age of trains is a relatively short chapter. Unlike smoother areas of the world where railroads are vibrant and the centers of transportation, railroads in the United States carry few passengers and passenger rail service is not available in many parts of the country. When we traveled in Japan, for example, we were able to go anywhere we wanted within the country from one end to the other by using railroads. The trains are fast, efficient, modern, clean, and reasonably priced. It was far easier for us to use the railroads than it would have been for us to rent a car and drive.

I was fortunate to have had the experience of taking a short railroad trip behind a steam locomotive that our father arranged because it was obvious that diesel electric locomotives would soon replace steam. And we have the adventure of a winter trip from Chicago to Montana and back one Christmas during our seminary years. On that trip the train traveled all the way across North Dakota in sub-zero temperatures. Systems became so cold that the train was delayed by the process of uncoupling and coupling cars that was part of the regular process of dividing the long train that left Chicago into a couple of smaller trains that went in different directions to different destinations.

Like other old timers, I can tell a few “I remember when” stories about train travel. But, for the most part, I don’t really remember. The height of passenger railroads in the United States occurred before my time. Fortunately for me there are a few of the grand stations of the halcyon of railroads in America that remain. And in those stations are a few displays and historic artifacts that help to recall the history.

I’m enjoying my time staying at St. Louis Station, but I got here on an airplane and I’ll be returning home by air as well.