Today this one-time grain elevator is a police sub-station. It sits high up on the bank, benevolently overlooking the complex. But just 15 years ago this strange creation served as Montgomery’s train station…yes, Montgomery, which in 1900 boasted the two grandest railroad depots in all of central Alabama. Union Station was closed in 1979 when AmTrak service thru here was discontinued (the other station became the Biscuits baseball stadium). Ergo, when AmTrak service was renewed in 1989 with limited connections,  AmTrak contracted depot service with a travel agent that had his office in the bottom of the former granary.

The infamous Silo Depot.. From 1989 – 1995 AmTrak operated its “crack passenger train”, the Gulf Breeze, which ran from Birmingham to Mobile, with a stop in Montgomery. In 1992, afraid that passenger trains would soon cease to exist, my wife and I took the grandchildren on a fun ride from Montgomery to Greenville. I delivered them to the train depot, then raced down I-65 to pick up the group when they de-trained in Greenville. Having to depart from this ignominious station certainly diminished the adventure, and the silo depot made a mockery of Montgomery’s glorious past as a railroad transportation center.

Now I believe it operates as a bar for the riverfront area.

-Charles Humphries