I'm new to this hobby, so please forgive me if I make mistakes here in terminology......And I apologize if these questions appear basic in nature, I'm curious, what can I say. As part of my job, I occasionally have used the TRI-RAIL commuter train system from Miami to West Palm Beach...Two 'stations' seem to catch my eye: the (ex) Delray Beach and the (ex) Boynton Beach stations..The Delray Beach station still appears relatively well kept, tho it is no longer used for trains, and now houses an Environmental Services firm...The Boynton Beach station appears in some deterioration, and houses a company called "Four Steel".. Does anyone know what year (date if that's possbile) that these 2 stations each went out of service to trains? Also, curious to me that next to the ex Boynton Beach station, there is a wooden building, apparently older..Was this structure the original Boynton station, then??

thanks, any help is appreciated --TS

-- Tony Simon (d054432c@dc.seflin.org), December 08, 1998

Answers

TS; if your still interested in the delray beach / boynton stations you may e-mail me or call my office at 561 272 9086. i owned the delray bch depot in the late 80s. also, the bldg next to the boynton depot is the fec frt station

-- rick brautigan (sadbadbare@aol.com), March 05, 2000.

The Boynton Beach station is shown in the July 1,1967 SCL's first public timetable merely as a flag stop for the PALMLAND. When that train was cut back to a New York to Columbia service in May 1968, Boynton lost all scheduled service; no other trains stopped there. I was lucky to take some photos of it in 1977 before it was white-washed. I'm not sure about the large wooden structure behind it, but I have heard of it being referred to as the freight house. Delray Beach station lasted longer in passenger service than Boynton, as it was included in the Amtrak system. (both stations were built around 1926-27). Problems for the Delray depot started with the advent of TRI-RAIL, primarily over the issue of parking. The situation continued to spiral downward, and TRI-RAIL was the first to vacate the old SAL depot in favor of its own "station" to the south (guessing around 1996). I'm not sure of the details, but I believe Amtrak may have been evicted by the structure's owner at the time (sometime around 1997???), so Amtrak bunked in with TRI-RAIL at their facility and that's the current state of things. BTW- check out the Deerfield Beach station, nicely rennovated, plus the old FEC freight depot for Delray is back at trackside in that city's historic downtown. Hope this is some help.

-- Bob Venditti (bobvend@bellsouth.net), January 25, 1999.