This Delightful NY Train Station Is Like a Mini GCT, Home To Countless Antique Rail Cars

That's because most people have only heard of two major New York train stations. Either the gargantuan but nowadays shabby-looking Penn Station or the slightly smaller but exponentially prettier looking Grand Central Terminal, both in New York City. But New York State is a big old place with amazing rail architecture outside of the city if one goes and looks for it.

This is Utica, New York's Union Station. A delightfully quaint train terminal located 236.7 miles (381 km) northwest of New York City. A station with stunning architecture, loads of history, and a train yard full of stunning rail cars from the golden years of American rail transportation. They sure kick the snot out of modern Amtrak coach cars, that for sure.

Opened in April 1914 in Utica's historic Bagg's Square neighborhood, Union Station is every bit the contemporary of America's more famous pioneering rail stations. An entire section of the nearby Mohawk River needed to be rerouted away from and around the station to ensure water levels never reached the train platforms.

The main train hall, now dubbed the Boehlert Transportation Center at Union Station after a local politician, still retains so much of what made the station a unique place to ride the rails years ago. When entering Utica's Union Station from its rear entrance closest to its three tracks, two platforms, and main parking lot, there isn't much indication that what lies inside is anything all that special.

Most non-driving commuters instead use the station's Italianate-styled front entrance. Complete with the very same central clock surrounded by detailed eagle sculptures on either side that's greeted travelers here since the building opened 108 years ago. Over the decades, the station saw service with a slew of independent rail services in the days before Amtrak semi-nationalized the bulk of interstate commuter rail service.

This included the mighty New York Central Railroad, which, at its peak, served 12 different states and two Canadian provinces. By the mid-1930s, the station used eight passenger platforms serving an impressive 14 tracks. Sadly, New York Central and nearly all of the major rail lines serving Union Station were out of business or absorbed into larger rail conglomerates by the late 1960s, the once mighty New York Central Railroad included.

By the mid-1970s, all but two of the station's platforms and three of its tracks were demolished to make way for commuter parking lots. As if to signify that Americans of this period had made up their minds about preferring driving over rail travel. Today, a total of eight Amtrak trains from the Lake Shore Limited from NYC to Chicago, four trains for the Empire Service from NYC to Niagra Falls, and two on the Maple Leaf between NYC and Toronto.

Additionally, the Adirondack Railroad not-for-profit tourist line uses the station as the start for its scenic trips to Holland Patent, Remsen, and stations near New York's historic Old Forge. Years of wear and tear and on and off restoration work may have diminished the luster of the building's exterior somewhat. But it's an entirely different story once you enter the station's main waiting room.

Here, we find the same marble columns and steam-heated wooden waiting benches installed when the station opened in 1914. At its peak, the station featured two shoe shining stations, a bar and restaurant, three ticket offices, a Western Union office, and a barbershop. Though the Trackside restaurant is currently closed and the Western Union office is now long gone, the barber shop still ensures commuters look dapper as heck before they embark on their journey.

Outside the station near the platforms sits the historic rolling stock of the Adirondack Railroad. With decades-old passenger cars, dining cars, locomotives, and cabooses dating as far back as 1941 on offer, there's every reason to think a taking a ride on this scenic railroad is like taking a trip back in time to when rail travel, not car travel, was the preferred way for Americans to travel. As laughable as they may sound to Americans with modern sensibilities, this really was the case 70 years ago.

In 1978, the Utica Union Station was added to the National Registry of Historic Places and began a restoration process that continues to this day. After a day of walking around and getting a look at the station ourselves, we're somewhat saddened that Utica Union so routinely gets overshadowed by more famous New York City-based train stations that, in some cases, are seen as hollow shells of what they used to be. We're looking at you, Penn Station.

Happily, Utica's prized train station will likely never have this affliction. If anything, it's liable to remain in this semi-preserved historical state pretty much indefinitely. After seeing so many remodels of historic train stations gone wrong over the years, it's more than a welcome change of pace.

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