St. Louis Union Station was once one of the busier passenger stations in the United States, with trains of numerous railroads calling on the classic structure. Tracks leading into the station entered on the south side from both the east and west, forming a maze of tracks in the form of a complex wye pattern. The tracks were controlled from a large interlocking tower.

By October of 1991, trains no longer called at Union Station. Most of the tracks were long removed and their location occupied by a parking lot, fountain and retail areas as the building was repurposed in the late eighties. The tower still stood sentinel however; unused, derelict and forlorn.

Plaster was falling from the ceiling, the machines were long gone, and most of the windows were broken out.

We were in town to document a pair of break-in runs of St. Louis & San Francisco #1522, which was making its return following the rebuilding of its lead truck. The locomotive was returning downtown where it would be turned on the remaining wye, which was mostly used to turn Amtrak trains that called at a temporary station nearby.

We had parked near the old tower and as we waited for the steamer’s arrival, a few of us noted that the front door was ajar. Curiosity and bravery (likely also dashed with a bit of stupidity) aroused, we decided to have a look inside. I and another fan braved the steps into the upper level where the interlocking machines once controlled the vast Union Station complex.

Plaster was falling from the ceiling, the machines were long gone, and most of the windows were broken out. While upstairs, I took this photo looking out one of the broken windows where operators once handled the business of safely moving hundreds of daily trains in and out of the station.

To me this photo symbolizes time marching on as the unneeded tools of a bygone age step aside to modernity—looking through a window with the ghosts of days gone by.

Mary McPherson – Photograph and text Copyright 2019