At the reopening ceremony, I told someone that the reason I wanted to be there was to see the waiting room before it had been defiled by mankind. So yesterday afternoon I walked down to the station to see what the waiting room would look like after three days of occupation by Amtrak. I was there at last boarding call for train 509, about 5:30. Here are some photos I took with my phone.
As you can see, they dragged some of the old vinyl seats back in, so now there are three different seating styles in use. I wish they would pick one and stick with it, to cut down on the rummage sale effect. I see the vending machines are back in their old places, at the lower left in this photo.
The kiosks for checking in for the Cascades are in place. There are temporary door number signs on stands -- at least I hope they are temporary. They were boarding 509 through door 5, at the center of the photo. The sign for the Empire Builder, which would have left about 50 minutes earlier, is sitting on the floor by door 4, to the left of door 5. I assume permanent signage will be up on the walls soon. Announcements on the public address system were a little hard to decipher up in the mezzanine where these pictures were taken, probably due to a combination of echoes and the fact that the speakers are below the mezzanine and pointed downward.
The nice new doors at the southwest corner will probably never get used, not for boarding trains anyway, as construction south of the station means there will not be tracks there again. These would be doors 7 and 8 if anyone bothered to number them.
One feature you can just make out is the actuators on the upper windows that allow them to be remotely opened and closed to help control the temperature inside the building. They were ever-so-slightly open when I was there.
Somebody said the waiting room looks like the inside of a wedding cake but I'd say it looks like a wedding cake turned inside out; all the shiny white plaster ornamentation does remind you of the decorative icing on a wedding cake.
For anyone interested I have a few more photos
on my Flickr page.
