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Field Trip Report: Part 6 of 7 – New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York

Click on each image for a closer look!

As we came to the end of our trip, we visited Fellheimer & Wagner’s 1933 Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo station, now the Hamilton GO Centre. F&W used the Art Deco architectural style which came into vogue in the late 1920s. Unfortunately few Art Deco railroad stations in North America were built because of the Depression. The Hamilton station was considerably reduced in scale from F&W’s original plans, which is why the building appears to be larger than it actually is when you get close to it

#17- 1933 Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo station, now the Hamilton GO Centre.

#18- The interior of the station on Hunter Street, which has been beautifully restored. Four GO trains a day connect Hamilton with Toronto Union Station.

#19- In 1928, Fellheimer & Wagner were commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway to secretly prepare a variety of plans to rebuild Windsor Station in Montreal. In its place would have risen the most spectacular railway terminal ever contemplated in Canada, with 34 tracks and a 40-storey office tower reminiscent of the RCA Building in New York City’s Rockefeller Centre.

#20- The planned ticket lobby/concourse would have dwarfed the Great Hall in Toronto Union Station. Had these plans been carried out, the venerable 1889-1914 Windsor Station would have been demolished.

#21- The concourse was to include this colossal animated map showing CP’s world-wide transportation network. This scheme was abandoned by CP because of the Depression.

Click here to return to Part 1

Posting and pictures by Derek Boles, TRHA Historian

http://www.trha.ca