Last week I honored my invitation to speak at an annual convention of fellow engineers. This annual festivity was being held at the Union Station Hotel in downtown St. Louis.
I am now at an irritating point in my life when I awaken at 5:00 am, regardless of when I went to sleep or what time zone I’m in. Opting to make the most of my being awake, I decided to take a walk prior to breakfast and departing for a tour of Old US 66 (more on that in a separate article).
This Mitsubishi 3000GT was parked well away from anyone else in the hotel’s parking lot. It was simply aching to have its picture taken.
The curving roof in the background is Union Station – let’s head over that way.
What’s a train station without a few trains? Well, Union Station doesn’t have anywhere near the train activity it once had but trains are the prime theme found throughout. With an actual train, few things beat having a passenger car labeled “Silver Chalet”.
Or, since silver is so typical on cars these days, how about something in blue that says “Southern Hospitality”?
This engine and the two passenger cars aren’t even scratching the surface of the display. While some were on static display, I didn’t appear all of them were. Quite a few had lights burning inside with several of those having ventilation units operating; perhaps they were part of the hotel. I was able to walk up and down the aisles where these were and it was a wonderful thing to see on an early, humid morning.
Union Station itself has quite a long, varied history. After a period of decline it is on a definite upswing. To the left of this picture is a Landry’s Seafood restaurant and to my right was a Hard Rock Cafe. Both of these chain establishments are much choosier in their locations than is McDonald’s, so it appears they have identified Union Station’s potential.
Here’s a different perspective from the bridge seen in the picture above this. To borrow an adjective used by two of our presidential candidates, this place is “Yuuuge!”
While a lot of this development is finished, there is still more to go. Prior to Union Station becoming a hotel, it had been a shopping mall for a number of years. There is still some of the mall-ness to eradicate, but this place is simply so large it’s easy for a person to stay here and never notice this relic of a previous life that can be found from an overlook in the rear of the lobby (behind the 200′ bar with more beverage varieties than one can count).
Let’s keep going; there is a real surprise to be found. So why don’t we head east on Market Street toward the Arch? And, yes, I recently used Market Street as a setting for one of my “The Passenger” action/adventure installments.
My goodness! An Impala in fleet service. I will give this old girl credit; she’s a 2005 model at the newest and going for at least 11 years in St. Louis is no easy feat.
It reminded me of an investigative report I read in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper in the late 1990’s. Apparently some repair shop was gouging the city as it was found a city owned 1994 Chevrolet Caprice was getting a profoundly expensive brake job with every oil change and a transmission repair with every second or third oil change. GM has certainly had a few challenges along the way, but they were never that bad.
Also owned by the city is this tan Ford Taurus. These were comfortable cars but the one I owned left a rather sour taste in my mouth.
Both of these were sitting in front of City Hall. The adjective I used for Union Station could be used here, also.
Proving that the City of St. Louis does not have any preferential treatment toward domestic auto manufacturers, here’s a Dodge Neon they own. It was parked down the street.
Sitting by the curb was another tan Taurus, but this one appeared to be privately owned. It’s also sitting behind its sister, a Mercury Sable. Seeing this combination together doesn’t happen very often these days.
With having seen three city vehicles so far, let’s go for a fourth. Remember, this is 7 am; the daily activity didn’t get started until around 7:30.
I would love to know some of the stories this old paddy-wagon could tell. Thinking about the unsavory characters who have been granted a ride in this rig, maybe I wouldn’t.
This Chevrolet van was manufactured in Wentzville, about thirty miles west of where it sits.
It’s time to head back toward Union Station; I hadn’t yet eaten and I was growing rather hungry. The grand find was about to stick its head out in the open.
Approaching the post office, I see a black SUV. Can it be? Yes, it is indeed a GMC Typhoon.
Just under 4,700 of these were built in 1992 and 1993 combined. Powered by a 280 horsepower turbocharged 4.3 liter V6 continuously powering all four wheels, these accelerated to 60 miles per hour in 5.7 seconds; Car & Driver compared the similar, pickup based Syclone to a Ferrari 348ts.
This one is obviously a driver and these were only pictures I could manage before it rapidly disappeared.
And as our walk is over, it’s time for me to disappear. Hopefully you enjoyed this walk as much as I did.
Well done Sir, and after reading your excellent Mound City narrative, I realized we’re kindred spirits of sorts. Regardless of what time zone I’m in, I awake @ 4 so if on future travels you spot another soul lurking about in the wee hours, don’t despair.
I spent my early childhood (up to the age of 12) in St. Louis and I remember riding with the folks to Union Station to pick up Grandma as she arrived on the train from Dayton, Ohio. You’re right – the place is huge and I’m glad that the station didn’t get torn down.
Those GMC Typhoons were about as reliable as a Ferrari too.
I missed you by a day or two. I will confess that I poached a couple of finds in your territory, although they were all in motion. I guess weekends are better for car spotting than weekdays are.
I had forgotten all about the Typhoon. That is quite a find, especially being driven normally as it seems to be.
I must say I am impressed how old the St. Louis fleet vehicles were. I sometimes take offense, unfairly probably, when the government of a depressed area is driving around in very new vehicles.
I don’t know what St Louis’s fleet budget is. However, they buy all sorts of fleet items like dump trucks, street sweepers, loaders – all kinds of high dollar items. For what they spend, a few Impalas are pretty minor purchases. Besides, in that environment one can spend a boat load on repairs and it’s sometimes cheaper in the long run to buy something new. And this applies to many cities, counties, and other government entities.
In smaller cities you’ll see some surprisingly optioned-up fleet cars. Usually that meant that a dealer made their bid based on something they had on the lot.
My wife and I rode out of Union Station on Amtrak for the last time in 1977. After that, we either caught the train at Kirkwood heading west or Alton if heading north.
Union Station certainly has had its ups and downs, and after a few years of becoming a mall of sorts, it began to fade again.
Since leaving STL in 1992, we’ve only been back to the station a few times.
At least Cincinnati Union Terminal is still actually used as a train station, albeit three times per week, but the museum is rockin’ constantly.
After that, we either caught the train at Kirkwood heading west or Alton if heading north.
We’re getting a new “multimodal” train station here in Alton scheduled to open later this year or early next. Not sure what’s to become of the little GM&O depot on College Ave.
You’d never know Amtrak has been running at a loss since 1971 based on the parking lot of the Alton station. It’s always completely full, with more cars parked along the street leading to it.
Great story, and greatly enjoyed on this end!
Interesting tour of a city I know little about other than the Cardinals and Arch.
Nice, I really enjoy the walkaround articles. It’s remarkable how a gold Taurus becomes infinitely more interesting when someone puts up a picture and describes the setting it was found in and/or says a few kind words about it.
The Hotel looks very interesting as well, nice to see buildings being re-purposed in imaginative ways, in this case, not just once but several times over the years. Hopefully it does well for itself.
What a fascinating complex: a station turned mall turned hotel! That City Hall is absolutely beautiful too.
What is that building in the Typhoon picture? The giant one?
thats the front door for Union Station. Where I referenced it toward the top, where the restaurants are, is toward the rear.
Great write-up! I love the history, architecture and distinctiveness of our different cities. Always an interesting and enjoyable read.
As far as the featured cars are concerned, when I was selling Mitsubishis I sold quite a few 3000GT’s back in the 90’s. They were a great car to drive. As long as they weren’t beat to crap and the servicing was kept up on them, they were a very reliable and good-looking sports car. The rare VR-4 was an absolute rocket. I probably sold a total of 3 of them as they were extremely hard to get from the factory and rather expensive for the time.
When you get old like me you will probably find that you wake up in the middle of the night as well as early morning.
If that happened tonight, it wouldn’t be a new experience.
Nice article! I have a friend with a Typhoon
I was in St Louis in 2013 and was surprised to see the police department still had a marked 2000-2005 Impala in service. It’s nice to see vehicles kept longer.
I’ve always been an unabashed fan of the 3000GT, I’m not a fan of transverse front engines, not a fan of V6s, not even a particular fan of Mitsubishi as an automaker, but I put all those biases aside for these, these just looked great and were fun(granted I only ever sought out the VR4 and similar Stealth R/T, so my personal experience is with the best of them). They provided a legitimate and unique car at a time where, in my opinion, Japanese sports cars were at their peak as far as performance and style.
Typhoons are cool too, it’s like so many other GMs of the time though, the top of the line ridiculously obscure model just utterly eclipses the rest of the POS model it’s based on, including price, in a sort of self fulfilling prophesy or self mutilation for success. It’s funny seeing this one just randomly driving down the street and disappearing forever, that’s been my track record for encounters with them as long as they’ve been on the streets, I never see them at dealers, never see them at car shows, never see them anywhere really for more than a fleeting couple seconds. They’re like ghosts.
The Silver Chalet is stunning! And the walk was, as always, fascinating 🙂
Love the Vista domes on US trains, I know where I’d be riding and that stainless silver Chalet is cool.
Actually, that’s a 2004 or older Impala. The 2005 Impalas had a gold bow tie, not the blue one seen before. And for the civilian models the 2005 Impalas don’t say Impala on the side either.
This was interesting, I’ve been there but we travelled on the train/light rail and entered from the other side of the building and did not see the trains parked on the west side. We got the impression the mall part was perhaps in the process of being vacated, there weren’t many businesses still there.
We did see the old main hall of the station which is now the entry to the hotel, it is an impressive restoration to its past glory.
Interesting license plates on those city owned vehicles and the lack of rust proofing on the Paddy Wagon’s accessories is amusing in a disappointing way.
What an impressive building, and a very creative method of reuse. Actual old train cars used as decoration/sculptural pieces is very cool, and they actually built a lake under the shed roof? Wow. But that massive Richardsonian romanesque headhouse is the star of the show. Richmond still has its 1901 Main Street Station, which is a functioning station (albeit with few departures each day as the 80’s Amtrak station elsewhere in the city still has the bulk of the departures/arrivals) and its trainshed is currently under renovation for some sort of commercial reuse. I doubt it will be as creative as this one (it’s big but nowhere near that big).