Railroad Restaurants

Abstract

When the engine's toot and the cars' clickety-clack pass into oblivion, what happens to the railroad pas senger station? Once a monument of civic pride, the impressive gateway to far-off places, the center of bustle when the rails sang and the train thundered in, the station becomes a ghostly reminder of another age. But not for long! Station sites are valuable, most have sizable park ing lots, and municipalities have insatiable appetites for taxes. Some become bus depots; others are con verted to office buildings, industrial plants, trucking warehouses, and even discotheques. Some are torn down to make way for new structures, or have new structures built above them like New York's Pan Am building and Madison Square Garden. In places where the station's design, location, and environment permit, a few are turned into successful restaurants. Two successful station-restaurant conversions and a boxcar night-spot are singled out for review in this article. Both stations were once thriving transport centers along the route of the Lehigh Valley Rail road — at Pittsford, near Rochester, N.Y., and at Ithaca, home of Cornell University.