As a trains enthusiast and a practical traveler, I have often used Portland’s Union Station to start and end my travel. Trips to Seattle for conferences and client meetings, rides to Eugene for weekends with the now-ex, rides back from the Bay Area after a combination of business and pricey dates (don’t get me started on that one unless you’re buying the beer).

My familiarity with Union Station is basically limited to the waiting rooms and the train availabilities. I’ve now learned this after reading and rereading “The grand dame,” the feature article on Portland Union Station in the just-released November issue of Trains magazine.

While the article does pay tribute to the facility’s 109-year history as a working terminal, it tends to concentrate on how the building is showing its age.

For example, did you know that:

1. The roof titles have enough holes in them to let sunlight in;
2. The attic is filled with buckets to catch rain (of which we get plenty);
3. The limestone sills are crumbling;
4. The bricks and windows would fare very poorly in a temblor (funny, always thought the word should be “tremblor,” but who am I to change the language);
5. The wood around the windows have rotted to the point where they can’t sustain yet another badly needed coat of paint;
6. The electrical wiring is a mess, a matter complicated by the fact there is no comprehensive diagram of the building’s wiring history. (I once had a 1966 Chrysler Newport like that). Recently, it took three days for crews to isolate a partial power failure to one junction box.;
7. The station’s basement is so asbestos-polluted that when crews go in there to clean (ya don’t wanna know what), they quite literally need hazmat suits;
8. The facility’s offices can’t be wired for broadband cable Internet access because of the power issue;
9. That same wiring is so old, that brownouts often occur when electronic equipment in the station as well as the building’s offices are all running.

Yes, but Portland’s Union Station, our faded grande dame, is still standing. Few cities of any size have a working railroad station even approaching its age.

For that, we ought to be thankful.

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