After looking over all the clues, here is what Alan Lepain had so say...

"The 2nd red depot is definitely not the first. It is almost three
stories tall and twice as wide. It is doubtful that this was ever a
depot, freight house maybe, and maybe the train order signal was "added"
to give the illusion of being a depot. One dumb possibility might be
that the depot burned down and that building was semi-converted
partially into a depot. Someone has to go to the local historical
society or find a local train buff for more answers.

The third is a better candidate but the roofs are totally different. In
the original there are large roof overhangs all around with knee braces
supporting and in the latter there is only a standard roof overhang on
the ends. The side overhang of the third are larger with at least 6
small braces supporting, the original has only 4 and the styles are
totally different.

The roof brace highlighted on the red depot is on that 3rd floor level.
If it was the original it should be at the 2nd floor height. Again the
red depot is twice as wide, the second floor has three "full size"
windows at the center below the gable the original might fit two at
best, but only one window would have ever been needed."

"Take a look at my scan (it won't be to the scale of my blowup). If we
make a guess that the floor to ceiling height was 10 feet you can derive
some rough estimates of dimensions. "

"You can see that there is height at the ridge but it reduces drastically
towards each side. The width is nowhere near the scale of the red
depots 2nd addition with 3 full windows on the second floor UNLESS the
2nd addition juts out from the depot wall by at least 8 feet or more.
Pics will help clarify."

Alan and I e-mailed back and forth. Many times. I explained how I thought the "Red" depot was the same as the one in the original postcard view. He didn't think so, but nonetheless created this sketch to show how it MIGHT be possible..

The red depot is clearly two stories with staircases, door and more

But then he added these thoughts later on...

"Your question on the height of the horse made me see the most obvious
clue to the height scale of the station. In the post card view is a
train and if you draw a line from the ends of the roof (overhang) edges
and project it out towards the passenger coach there is not much
difference up or down in the overall height of a passenger coach vs. the
roof edge.

windows on the track side. If you count that gable area that makes three
stories. It means that one story of grade would have to be removed from
what the post card clearly shows. The postcard dose not even show two
full stories, otherwise there would be another set of windows or doors
behind the horse and wagon but you can see a set of stairs (in front of
the horse) with maybe four or five steps coming down from the platform
level to dirt."

And he added...

"...the height of the structure
today is two stories on the track side whereas the original was only a
1-1/2 story. It would mean that the original structure had three sides
blown away to enlarge it for both height and width. The tracks would
have to be moved as well.

Remember Sterling Junction. The original freight house was still
intact. It had an addition added to the front and rear. Other addition
were added to its side but the original track side facade remained. To
rebuild three out of four sides rather than add on to is possible but
why save one side? More pictures will clarify things especially if
there are clear pics of those knee braces.

The original depot shows the land sloping away from the tracks, the red
depot photo shows a concrete retaining wall so it could be a very
heavily modified original with a addition. The train order board
mounting is what I need to see as well as other photos of that 3rd
depot."

So Alan was of the opinion that this "Red" depot was not the same as the one in the original vintage image. And he sure makes a convincing case.

Next....

Click here to see what made me think it WAS, and to see who was right! ;-).

And