Fifty years ago, in the May 1975 Trains Magazine, prolific author William D. Middleton visited New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. His 14 page article opened on a down note, with Middleton writing:
Grand Central’s great long-distance trains are gone now. deposed by the airplane and the automobile: and no longer do the rich, the powerful, and the celebrated pass through the terminals train gates bound to and from their missions of importance.
1975 was not a glowing chapter in Grand Central’s history. The great passenger trains were gone, Amtrak, just four years old, was struggling to maintain a semblance of long-distance service with hand-me-down equipment. Middleton’s article largely focuses, in considerable detail, on the terminal’s stunning architecture and its glorious past. Happily, better days were ahead for the Manhattan landmark.
Would love it if the author had included a link to the 1975 article.
Interested railfans and poetry lovers can read the short but concise poem “Grand Central” by the great American poet Billy Collins in the link below…
https://poetrysociety.org/poetry-in-motion/grand-central
Dr. Güntürk Üstün