Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: train station

Admittedly the detail isn't baroque, but C.U.T. does represent Art Deco and Neo-Classical sort of combined into one in a very beautiful way, at least in my opinion. Of course, if you've seen the frescoes inside the building, then maybe you'd beg to differ with my opinion about it not matching baroque buildings.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that my favourite series of architectural shots I ever took in the United States were taken of a railroad station. Not only am I a railfan, but in the U.S., few other buildings except for post offices and government buildings were built to quite the same spectacular standards, with the exception, perhaps, of some university buildings and churches. This amazing fog-enshrouded tower is Cleveland Union Terminal, or Tower City as it's now known, originally built in 1930 for the New York Central Railroad. Wow... When I first saw it, I was astonished to know that it still existed, as I had only seen it in old photos, and as everyone knows, the U.S. has an unpleasant habit of destroying its most beautiful buildings in favor of strip malls and parking lots. Not this one, though.

C.U.T. is so huge, at 216 meters (708 feet) in height (not to mention its unusually large footprint for even such a tall building), that when it was built it was the second tallest building in the world, and the tallest building outside of New York City until 1967. This would undoubtably also make it the tallest railroad station in the world, as I'm absolutely positive that no other station in the world could even come close. It's so tall that from the street it's impossible to see the top, especially on a foggy day like this one, and the sensation of looking straight up absolutely blows away the view of York Minster that I have elsewhere on this site. If you ever want to see the most amazingly, eye-wateringly spectacular railroad station in the United States, this one would definitely have a lot to recommend it over New York's Grand Central Terminal or Washington's Union Station. I've seen both of them, and although I would rank Washington Union very highly too, it's far more common in its design, even if it's still huge. GCT is surprisingly mundane in comparison with either Washington or C.U.T., and holds its ranking as "world's biggest railroad station" only because of its extensive system of underground tunnels. Aboveground, it doesn't even come remotely close to C.U.T. in any respect whatsoever, at least in my opinion. :-)

This is one of the most spectacular art deco railway stations in the Czech Republic, even if it's not in mint condition (it is, actually, in fairly decent condition). This stained glass window (whether real or painted), depicting the old CSD logo, is my favorite part.

I look at Hradec Kralove Hlavni Nadrazi (the main train station, as Hlavni Nadrazi means main station in Czech), and I think of it as a great art deco building. Nevertheless, I'm no expert, so if it's really cubist or something please let me know. :-) In addition to being an important mainline station for the whole region, and for that matter for the Czech Republic, it's also a local landmark of sorts. The cantenary you see above, by the way, is not for trains or trams, but for trolleybuses, or unibuses as I've sometimes heard them called. In Czech, a trolleybus called a trolejbus.

Here's another one of my black and whites of Amsterdam Centraal. I loved that trainshed, and I figured I had to shoot it in black and white. In spite of the copyright date, I shot this in December 1998.

Here's yet another shot of Amsterdam Centraal. I loved that trainshed, and I figured I had to shoot it in black and white. This is a closer view than Picture 1. In spite of the copyright date, I shot this in December 1998.

This was taken minutes after my "arriving in" shot, which has gotten so much attention. I've been praised for the puddle reflection on this shot, but I'm posting this mainly because it goes with the other one.

I saw this coming from a long way off, but didn't get the classic angle of it bearing down on me, although I regretted it somewhat later, as I never got the number. This Ceske Drahy Class 371 electric was pulling a MAV (Hungarian State Railways) Eurocity from somewhere in Germany to Budapest, via Prague, so it obviously wasn't going to stop in Roztoky, and I wanted to be sure that I got this pan shot. I set my camera up, passed up the offset head-on view, and swung my body around for the pan. It worked perfectly, and now I have this, which may be my best pan shot ever. I hope you like it.

This is another black and white conversion from my Fujicolor 100 in my Lomo 135. I saw this scene and thought of how it perfectly represented the Communist ugliness of much of Prague's outskirts, although in honesty American capitalists are at least as good at making suburbs look repulsive. Actually, though, Nadrazi Holesovice, Prague's international train station (it's bus and Metro terminal is in the foreground, dedicated, appropriately, in 1984), is one of the best-run in Prague, and maybe the very best. Although, not being Czech, and can't speak for all Czechs, I do know that people come from other parts of Prague just to make reservations and get railcards here because it's less of a nuisance than at the other Prague stations.