Union Station, in Kansas City, Missouri, was built in 1914, replacing the original depot that was built in 1878. The structure was constructed in the Beaux-Arts style, and consisted of a Grand Hall with three large hanging chandeliers and ornate ceiling work, and the Grand Plaza, or North Waiting Room. A large clock hanging from the central arch divides the two sections of the building. This station was originally served by the Alton Railroad; the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe; the Chicago Burlington & Quincy; the Chicago Great Western, the Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul & Pacific; the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific; Kansas City Southern; Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, Missouri Pacific; St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, Union Pacific and Wabash Railroad. Annual passenger traffic peaked at 678,363 passengers in 1945. By 1973, under the operation of Amtrak, only 32,842 passengers were served at this station. The station was beginning to look ragged in the '70s, but in 1996 voters in the five counties that make up the Kansas City metropolitan area, in both Missouri and Kansas, approved a "bi-state" tax (⅛ of a cent sales tax), helping to fund about half the cost of renovating this station. Work began in 1997 and was completed in 1999, and the remaining funds were raised through private donations and federal funding. Because this station now serves just a few Amtrak trains per day (a pair of "Southwest Chiefs" and four "Missouri River Runners"), most the station was repurposed. Today it is the home of Science City (an interactive science center), Regnier Extreme Screen (a five and a half story tall movie screen), the Irish Museum and Cultural Center and the Gottlieb Planetarium, along with temporary exhibits (such as "Dead Sea Scrolls," "Bodies Revealed" and "Dinosaurs Unearthed"), restaurants and shops, and the Kansas City Ballet occupies the station's old powerhouse - as a result the station today receives no public funding. There is also a large display of model railroad layouts housed here. At night, the station is illuminated blue to commemorate the city's baseball team, the Royals, and their World Series win in 2015. While they are not all there to ride trains, today there are a lot of people once again visiting this magnificent station each day as it enjoys its new life.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
