CINCINNATI — The U.S. Postal Service will hold its first-day-of-issue event for “Railroad Stations Forever,” a five-stamp series, at Cincinnati Union Terminal on Thursday, March 9, at 11 a.m. EST.
The stamps, which depict Cincinnati Union Terminal, along with stations in Point of Rocks, Md.; Richmond, Va.; San Bernardino, Calif.; and Tamaqua, Pa; were announced last fall [see “Classic railroad stations to be honored …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 31, 2022]. The stamps can be pre-ordered here. A total of 30 million of the stamps have been printed.
All five stations are listed on the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places. The ceremony in Cincinnati will feature Daniel Tangherlini of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors and Elizabeth Pierce, president and chief executive officer of the Cincinnati Museum Center.
I vote for 30th St Station in Philly or Wilmington Del’s station for the next run of stamps .
If a special stamp provesvery popular the PO will issue more along same teme. Maybe a more stations later issue?
Main Street Station in Richmond has seen more than its share of turmoil and trouble since service by SAL and C&O ended decades ago. 2 fires, several floods, and failed attempts to make it into a retail marketplace, and later a state office building, have clouded its history and left it on the brink of demolition. Adding insult to injury, I-95 was located immediately adjacent to it in 1958, a pointed reminder that the passenger train was in serious decline. The building stood abandoned and forlorn for many years as the exterior decayed, its crumbling facade providing a less-than-warm welcome to northbound travelers crossing the James River on the interstate.
The tracks within, and approaches to, the shed have long since been removed, leaving tracks on either side to function now as part of CSX’s (ex-C&O) Peninsula Sub to Newport News, and the (ex-SAL) Bellwood Sub to South Yard, Bellwood Yard, the Hopewell Sub, and the connection with the former ACL at Centralia. North of the station the lines meet at AM Junction near the sites of SAL’s Brown St. Yard, and C&O’s 17th Street Yard/Church Hill Tunnel line, to allow Amtrak trains from the Peninsula Sub to reach the RF&P Sub to Washington and points north. Buckingham Branch RR operates the former C&O Piedmont and Mountain Subs through Doswell to Charlottesville and Clifton Forge.
After the 1983 fire, the decision was made to save the building, enclose the trainshed, and turn it into a shopping mall. After the mall failed, the Commonwealth took it over to use as an office building, but its location away from the state capitol in pre-internet days made it a logistics nightmare and it was closed again.
Since Amtrak moved back in to serve the Newport News-Richmond-Boston market in 2003, Main Street Station has been completely restored. The trainshed was daylighted, exposing the beautiful steel framework, and restoring the clerestory windows and wooden roof timbers. It now serves as a transportation hub and event center with the headhouse and glassed-in trainshed giving clients a choice of venues for weddings and other events.
How cool would it be to have your wedding in the trainshed interrupted for a few minutes by a passing train?
https://mainstreetstationrichmond.com/
Well they covered the east coast and the west coast and left out the most scenic part America, as usual. I recall that Salt Lake City and Denver have nice stations on the NRHP and I am sure there are others such as in Chicago, Kansas City and more, especially in the antebellum south.
Maybe they should have picked one from each state that Amtrak passes through…
Agree. It’s just a handful of stations on these stamps out of many. Anyone reading these pages could come up with a long list.
I have a feeling that the USPS will get plenty of positive comments as well as a lot of very valid complaints about any number of stations that weren’t covered. I’d like to see more – White River Jct, VT comes immediately to mind; the list is almost endless, especially since the stations don’t have to be currently served by Amtrak. I’d like to see Brightline’s Orlando station covered as a celebration of new, privately owned, and hopefully wildly successful passenger train operations.