Alpha and Omega: First and Last Amtrak Broadway Limited in Fort Wayne

May 1, 1971

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The train gets a Penn Central freight engine to make up for a locomotive with engine problems.

November, 1990

The station, in somewhat unkempt condition at the inception of Amtrak in 1971, had received little in the way of improvement, and to a great degree had continued to deteriorate. The trash-strewn express/baggage elevator stands open to the elements and vandals.

Thieves had stolen the copper flashing from the roof, easily accessible from trackside, allowing water to penetrate and destroy the decorative plaster work on the ceiling vault. The arched windows at trackside had been mostly covered with plywood to protect them from thrown rocks, and neighborhood vermin had tagged the exposed glass. Plywood barriers kept waiting passengers away from areas where they might be injured by falling/fallen plaster.

Note the sign on the station bench in the foreground. You'll see it later.

An overhead drainage system had been improvised to intercept and redirect the water leaking through into the tunnel from the platform above. Plywood blocks off one set of stairs leading to a no-longer-used platform.

Plywood on the upper walls covers the remnants of glass-block windows pulverized by vandals, who also ripped down and destroyed the handrail on the right side of the steps. Stairwells originally were open at platform level, but in an effort to keep out vandals they were closed off with glass doors which were immediately shattered. The glass was replaced with plywood with plexiglas inserts, which got tagged and battered.

In some publication or on-line blog I saw a photo of the train arriving at an eastern station, with the sign still attached. The caption said that the sign had been attached by Amtrak Chicago coach yard workers. Somebody must have just made that up; here's proof:

THE END

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