Posts (page 2)
This is a sample showing three RIOL presenters dividing classes up into three sessions.
Locations: Westerly Rhode Island, Napa Valley California, San Diego California - 2003 to 2007
Date: June 10th, 1997
The Kingston Station was moved from it's original location at track level.
The new location is forty feet north, twenty feet back from track two, and three feet higher on a new foundation.
Amtrak requested the station be moved away from track two in preparation for high speed trains in 2000.
RIDOT determined that the station would also need to be prepared for the introduction of modern ADA compliant handicap access. The height of the station was set higher to prepare for eventual inclusion of "high level platforms".
Movement from vehicles to the station and out to the train was planned to take place at the same level.
To help save a century old beech tree and to enlarge the parking area the new foundation was set forty feet north.
Historic Preservation required nearly a years delay to sign off on the paperwork involved when requesting a move of any kind to a building registered on the list of historic places.
On the day of the move it was expected that one or more of the local television stations might come to record it.
Fortunately, the station agent on duty had his Sharp Viewcam HI 8 with him as it was the only camera on site. The television crew showed up later in the day and used the agent's recording for the later broadcast that evening.
The station was set upon a newly poured concrete foundation.
The new foundation was the full length and width ( 30X70 feet ) of the station.
Originally the station only had a partial basement at the center of the building under the ticket office. Both the north and south wings of the station were atop of partial crawl spaces which were vented from the central basement but only a few feet above ground level. The furnace was at the bottom of the cellar steps in the central basement area.
The foundation was made up of large granite blocks lined with with red bricks at the top of the wooden sills. Cuts and placement of those granite blocks hinted that the foundation may have held up another, possibly farm structure, before the station itself was built upon it at this location in 1875.
A smaller Kingston depot predated this depot, or wayside station as they were called, going back to 1837, which was located a short walk north up the tracks at Waites Corner Road. The Stonington railroad quickly outgrew this original location on the west side of the tracks and the current station was build with permission of the Sherman family ( farm ) on the eastern side of the tracks with the proviso that businesses would be allowed establish near it.
Eventually a post office, livery, grocery store, and meat market were within walking distance.
Local West Kingston resident Scotti Burns was quick to to scene of the tragic fire with his camera ready. Having a personal interest in trains since his childhood, Mr. Burns understood the importance of the historic Kingston Station. He understood how different this particular morning was in the long history of the station that was built in 1875. This was the only fire the station had ever suffered in its' long history to that date. A difficult decade followed this day in the stations' history, but with great perseverance the local citizens and friends mounted a campaign to save and restore the station.
Today, the station more than doubles the passenger traffic of those days, and it stands as a lovely and proud reminder of how history and pragmatism can persist to serve today and into the future.
[ This photo essay was prepared by Jack.McCabe for the Friends of Kingston Staiton Inc.]
