Saranac Lake Depot - Saranac Lake, NY - Train Stations/Depots on Waymarking.com

In Saranac Lake, at the end of Depot Street, is the Saranac Lake Depot.

The depot is just north of the center of the village, off the intersection of New York Routes 86 and 3.

The depot is a wood structure with stone trim. It is one and a half stories tall with the upper floor windows in dormers poking through the shingle roof. The tracks are behind. The roof extends beyond the building to provide shade on the platform and around the building.

A sign nearby has the following about the depot:

"...Railroad service first reached Saranac lake on the Chateaugay Railroad late in 1887. Shortly after Robert Louis Stevenson, famous auth or and T.B. patient, arrived here for his health. With easy rail access and national publicity, tuberculosis treatment flourished and the community propsered, incorporating as a village in 1892.

Rail History

Saranac Lake's Union Depot was built in 1904 by the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, consolidating the passenger operations of the Chateaugay Railroad from the East, and the New York Central Railroad from the West. The largest railroad station the Adirondacks, Union Depot handled 18 to 20 scheduled passenger trains per day between 1912 an d1940. The New York Central closed Union Dept in 1965. The remaining property of the New York Central Railroad's Adirondack Division was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. The Union Depot was restored in 1997-98."

In addition to the Adirondack Scenic Railroad, another operation, Rail Explorers, also operated out of the station. These are like hand cars, except, instead of a mechanism that you push, you have a chain and pedals like a bicycle. We took the 7.5 mile trip and pedaled through the late summer wooded landscape.

However, the scenic railroad is in jeopardy of losing the tracks that it is on. The State of New York is planning on changing the tracks to a rail trail.

However, the scenic railraod

Adirondack Almanac
(visit link)

Adirondack Scenic Railroad
(visit link)

Is the station/depot currently used for railroad purposes?: Yes Is the station/depot open to the public?: Yes What rail lines does/did the station/depot serve?: Adirondack Scenic Railroad, Saranakc lake and Lake Placid RR, New York Central RR Station/Depot Web Site: [Web Link] If the station/depot is not being used for railroad purposes, what is it currently used for?: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   11/03/2017 petendot visited it