The Albuquerque depot that lead to the development of what Albuquerque is today is all due to the village of the original depot location and AT&SF could not agree on a land price. Back when the AT&SF inquired the village of Bernalillo about land the village was wanting $425.00 per acre, where as the railroad was accustomed to only paying about $2.00 per acre. So the AT&SF moved on from Bernalillo and went 10 miles to the south to build what is known today as the Albuquerque Depot in the heart of Albuquerque, NM.
Today the Albuquerque Depot is home to the Amtrak Depot along with the New Mexico Rail Runner Express Depot. The old turn table is gone, the old engine shop and machines shops have been restored for new forms of commerce such as The Rail Yards Market, an avenue for pop up markets and events.
The vacant railyard complex is also a frequent filming location. Such movies filmed there include Beerfest (2006), The Spirit (2008), Gamer (2009), Terminator Salvation (2009), and The Avengers (2012). The pilot episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles also used the railyard as a location.
A photograph of the Albuquerque Depot back in 1881 looking north.
A photograph of the Albuquerque Depot looking north today for comparison to the 1881 photograph.
A historic aerial shot of the Albuquerque Rail Yards AT&SF rail yard in 1930. Here you see the old turn table that was built in 1925 and demolished in 1986. Photograph is from then The Frank Speakman Collection.
A bridge crane at the rail yards circa in 1943. Jack Delano Photographer Farm Security Administration Office of War Information photograph collection (Library of Congress).
The former machine shop will be rehabilitated into commercial space. Image courtesy of Eric Owen Moss Architects.
Today inside the machine shop. This photograph is of a pop up market put on by The Rail Yards Market in 2014.
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