Lima station (Pennsylvania Railroad) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lima, OH
inter-city rail station
The former Pennsylvania Railroad depot, served by Amtrak.
Location	424 North Central Avenue, Lima, Ohio USA
History
Opened	1887
Closed	November 11, 1990
Former services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station Fort Wayne toward Chicago Broadway Limited Crestline toward New York Capitol Limited Crestline toward Washington, D.C. Preceding station Pennsylvania Railroad Following station Elida toward Chicago Main Line Lafayette toward New York or Exchange Place Preceding station Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Following station Cridersville toward Cincinnati Toledo Division Cairo toward Detroit
Lima Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger Depot
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location in Ohio Show map of Ohio Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Location	424 N. Central Ave., Lima, Ohio
Area	1.1 acres (0.45 ha)
Built	1887
Architectural style	Queen Anne
NRHP reference No.	03000805
Added to NRHP	August 21, 2003

Lima is a historic former train station in Lima, Ohio, United States. Built for the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1887, it is a brick Queen Anne structure that rests on a sandstone foundation. The Lima station is located 261 miles west of Pennsylvania Station in Pittsburgh, PA, 705 miles west of Pennsylvania Station in New York, NY, and 228 miles east of Chicago Union Station in Chicago, IL along the former Pennsylvania Railroad's mainline between New York City and Chicago. Lima station was formerly served by the Pennsylvania Railroad's Pennsylvania Limited and by its flagship Broadway Limited daily passenger trains between New York City and Chicago in its later years.

Railroad history

Allen County's first railroad line was built by the Indiana Railroad in 1854 and later subsumed into the Pennsylvania Railroad system. By the early twentieth century, Lima was a transportation center located at the confluence of five major American railroads: Pennsylvania Railroad; Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (a.k.a. B&O); New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad (a.k.a. Nickel Plate Road); Erie Railroad; and Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad (a.k.a. DT&I), and its economy was highly dependent on the industry-leading, world-famous Lima Locomotive Works.

Trains at mid-20th Century

Several of the above mentioned railroads had passenger trains making stops at the station.

• Baltimore & Ohio
  • Great Lakes Limited, Detroit-Cincinnati, until 1950, when it was replaced by:
  • Cincinnatian, Detroit-Cincinnati, 1950-1971
  • Night Express, Detroit-Cincinnati, 1960-1971
• Nickel Plate
  • Blue Arrow (Cleveland-St. Louis)/Blue Dart (St. Louis-Cleveland)
• Pennsylvania
  • Admiral, Chicago-New York, until 1964
  • General, Chicago-New York, until 1967
  • Manhattan Limited, Chicago-New York (only eastbound), both directions in Penn Central era, 1968-1971)
  • Pennsylvania Limited, Chicago-New York, until 1971
  • Broadway Limited, Chicago-New York (only in Penn Central/Amtrak era, 1968-1990)

Declining operations

In 1990 the last remaining passenger train, the Broadway Limited, was rerouted out of Lima. Through consolidation of class I railroads and subsequent abandonment and downgrading of redundant lines, the railroad industry in Lima has declined significantly: by the 1990s all passenger train service to Lima was discontinued and the former Pennsylvania's mainline through Lima had been relegated to branch line service by the Norfolk Southern Railway. As a result, Lima's Pennsylvania station went vacant, the rest of the city's passenger train stations, freight depots and other railroad buildings had long since been demolished, and by the late 1990s all of the 67-acres of buildings that once housed the Lima Locomotive Works had also been demolished.

Recent history

Unlike much of Lima's railroad-related structures (e.g., the Baltimore & Ohio, Nickel Plate Road and Erie Railroad train stations and roundhouses), the Pennsylvania Railroad station has survived in good condition. Its well-preserved historic architecture and its place in local history qualified it for addition to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003 as the Lima Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger Depot. One year later, the station was renovated for adaptive reuse: although a new entrance was added and modern restrooms were attached to the station's rear, its historic integrity was little changed, and the yard surrounding the station was kept in its previous state. Working for a Lima business association, the LJB construction company completed the renovation project in May 2004. Today, the station is used as the offices of the customer service center for the Lima utilities department.