Saturday, March 15, 2008

Richmond Road Trip - Part 2 - The Other Train Station

One of our favorite things about Richmond is the Main Street Train Station, which you feel you could reach out and touch from the I-95 overpass that curves around the south facing cliff of Richmond's tallest downtown buildings. Until we found out about the Science Museum being a train station, we thought this was the only grand old lady of railroading in Richmond. In this first photo I-95 is passing overhead on the left. Click the image for a larger view - she's worth a closer look.

Here is a photo from the front porch of the station, looking under the I-95 overpass, where a long train trestle, underneath, runs over numerous streets which run east out of downtown. The addition of a long string of parked train cars made this magic for me, and gives the photo scale.

Here is the inside of the station - an upstairs waiting area. The station has had a long and checkered history - but I think Moomin Light will be telling those stories, so I won't do so here.

Our youngest has always loved the station, and it's the first thing he thinks of when we mention Richmond. So after touring St John's Church (where Patrick Henry gave his famous speech) we deliberately drove back into town the half mile or so and parked outside the station. He was surprised and delighted - and so was I. The sky was full of racing clouds, the sunlight flickered rapidly on and off, and the gusty air was electric with the roaring arrival of spring. We explored into every space we could, inside and out.

No comments: