Yes, it is gawd-awful. The worst thing is that it is tied to one of the best pieces of architecture in the city, Union Station. The best thing about it is if this ever becomes the transportation hub that it ought to be they will have to tear this junk out anyway.
The train shed at Union Station is actually historic. Supposedly there are only 12 or so such structures left in the United States. It's seven acres big and contains 14 elevated tracks.
I haven't been up there, but it looks like the majority of the structure is brick. The backside of it appears to only enclose a small portion and could probably be ripped off without damaging the historical integrity of the station.
I guess if we talk about ripping out the train shed we should be clear that we don't mean the old brick part. If you look at the satellite photo the pole barn part has a bright red roof and just covers the thru tracks for the freight trains. Whether Amtrak runs on these tracks I don't know.
I assume that the original part of the train shed covering the two(former Conrail, now CSX) through tracks had to be torn away to allow for greater clearance. The only reason for it to be covered is if the Amtrak trains also use the freight tracks.
However, I don't see why that side couldn't be redone in brick, as it's quite visible from LOS.
I am pretty sure there are not 14 through tracks any more; those became the upper-level food court when Union Station was remodeled in the early 80's. (I think that area is now the offices of RW Armstrong and A2SO4.)
7 comments:
Don't you just love the pole-barn steel siding on the train shed? It just screams "Downtown Hoosierville".
There is way too much of this stuff around Indy. If I were the sole ruler of Indianapolis, I would banish this type of siding forever :)
Yes, it is gawd-awful. The worst thing is that it is tied to one of the best pieces of architecture in the city, Union Station. The best thing about it is if this ever becomes the transportation hub that it ought to be they will have to tear this junk out anyway.
The train shed at Union Station is actually historic. Supposedly there are only 12 or so such structures left in the United States. It's seven acres big and contains 14 elevated tracks.
I haven't been up there, but it looks like the majority of the structure is brick. The backside of it appears to only enclose a small portion and could probably be ripped off without damaging the historical integrity of the station.
I guess if we talk about ripping out the train shed we should be clear that we don't mean the old brick part. If you look at the satellite photo the pole barn part has a bright red roof and just covers the thru tracks for the freight trains. Whether Amtrak runs on these tracks I don't know.
Right - I'm only talking removing the pole barn part, not the historic portions of the train shed.
I assume that the original part of the train shed covering the two(former Conrail, now CSX) through tracks had to be torn away to allow for greater clearance. The only reason for it to be covered is if the Amtrak trains also use the freight tracks.
However, I don't see why that side couldn't be redone in brick, as it's quite visible from LOS.
I am pretty sure there are not 14 through tracks any more; those became the upper-level food court when Union Station was remodeled in the early 80's. (I think that area is now the offices of RW Armstrong and A2SO4.)
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