You don't have to be keen on trains to appreciate the railroad station. Unlike any other passenger terminal, and especially unlike airports, railroad stations have always had an allure of something going on. People meet for the first time, kiss for the last time, and embark on adventures from airports too, but there is far more cache to these things at a railroad station.

Some of this, surely, is part of the buildings themselves. Most stations, especially large stations, were built in the gilded age, when the railroad was the 800-pound gorilla of commerce, and built temples to themselves. Next to state capitol buildings and cathedrals, no other structure is built with as much permanence and as much sense of self-important grandeur.

Of course, not every station is marble and gold. The allure, however, does not diminish with the small-town depot. In fact, it is in these smaller communities that often times -- if railroad passenger service survives -- the depot is just as much an important part of connection to the outside world as it ever was.  

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