A Visit To The Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger Station At Lima, OH

After spending some time in Deshler, I made another 40 mile drive to Lima to visit the beautiful former Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger Station located in the center of the city. The last time a passenger train stopped at this station was in 1990 when Amtrak operated the Broadway Limited which was rerouted over the former B&O after Conrail, then owner of the line behind the station had petitioned Amtrak to move the train off this line as they were downgrading it. The station was built in 1887 for the Pennsylvania Railroad and would later be used by Amtrak. Today, the station is on the National Register Of Historic Places and is used as the offices for the Lima Utilities Department. The interior of the station today is filled with cubicles (as it's a big office now) but still looks great! The railroad behind the station is now CSX-owned but is leased to the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern Railroad. Included here are some photos I took while here, dodging more raindrops in the process!!!

This photo, if taken in say, 1958 would look awful weird with that futuristic automobile in the parking lot!!! I just needed some proof
that I drove my Honda here to see this beautiful station!!!

Looking west down the platform at Lima with the old Pennsylvania main, later the Conrail Fort Wayne Line, and now the
Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern Railroad (track is leased to them from CSX).

This view is looking east. The diamond in the background of this photo is with the CSX Toledo Sub (former B&O main), which is the
same line that crosses the CSX Garrett Sub north of here in Deshler, OH.

The beautiful station building! I just wish for two things, first that it would stop raining, and that once again, someone invent a
time machine so I can go back to 1958 (or any year the train operated on the PRR) and board the train from here!!!

Another view of this beautiful station. They sure don't build them like this anymore!!!

Thanks to one of the maintenance workers at the station, I was able to walk onto the platform to get a few photos, this one looking west.

Looking east from the platform at the diamond with the CSX Toledo Sub (Ex-B&O).

This would complete my railfanning adventures in Northwest Ohio for this trip. The next day was Opening Day at Cedar Point which featured the opening of GateKeeper to the general public. The ride as I've already described, is nothing short of incredible. The crowds at the park on Opening Day were just as incredible as the ride with thousands of people getting their first rides on this world record breaking coaster! Since I had rode it 7 times on Media Day, I focused my day on riding other coasters with shorter lines! I would drive back home to Buffalo on Sunday, May 12th. Despite the weather, this proved to be an excellent trip, visiting places I'm very familiar with along with some not so much. I have some more great road trips planned for 2013 so keep checking back to this portion of the site! Thanks for viewing this travelogue, and until next time, Happy Railfanning!!!