Lexington Union Station was a union station, serving most of the railroads passing through Lexington, Kentucky. Located on Main Street, just west of Walnut Street (now, Martin Luther King Boulevard) it served the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad from 1907 to 1957. [1]
The horse-breeding history was well-established in central Kentucky by the mid-19th century, particularly in Lexington. By the turn of the 19th century to the 20th, the city was seen as important enough to have Pullman cars carrying sleeping car passengers to eastern cities. [2]
From the 1880s, the railroads serving Lexington had talked about constructing a union station on Main Street to serve every passenger train in the city. The railroads were faced by a challenge in finding suitable land large enough for a downtown terminal. In 1901, the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Lexington and Eastern Railway and the Louisville and Nashville decided to build a station. The Southern Railway decided not to join the other railroads, and instead continued to use its station on South Broadway. [3]
Union Station opened on August 4, 1907. The first train was a Chesapeake and Ohio passenger train, met by an estimated crowd 3,000 onlookers. Union Station's exterior was built with red and yellow brick, and with green and red glass. The lobby was in the center rotunda, which was 50 by 80 feet, with a central dome 50 feet high. The lobby had a Roman arch ceiling and six oak waiting benches. [1]
The station served C&O and L&N trains on competing routes west to Louisville Central Station. The L&N trains made a stop at the state's capital, Frankfort, on the route westward to Louisville Union Station. To the east, C&O trains continued east to Ashland, Kentucky, and further east to Newport News, Virginia and to Washington, D.C. The C&O trains, also stopping in Frankfort, included Louisville-Ashland sections of the company's George Washington and Sportsman. L&N offered day and overnight trains traveling east to Winchester, then to Fleming in southeastern Kentucky. However, the stops in Winchester were not conveniently matched with the L&N's long-distance trains between Cincinnati and Florida which also stopped in Winchester. [4] [5]
By the latter 1950s passenger traffic and high overhead costs led the tenant railroads to abandon the station. The Louisville & Nashville operations were at a comparative disadvantage to the Southern Railway, which offered direct rail service to Cincinnati. The L&N required a transfer in Winchester. The Louisville & Nashville ended its last remaining passenger service from the station, its Lexington-Winchester-Hazard (shortened from its earlier Lexington-Fleming route) train between 1955 and 1956. In the same period, the C&O reduced its departures down to just the #21 Ashland-Lexington-Louisville and #22 Louisville-Lexington-Ashland trains serving the George Washington. [6] [7] [8] [9]
The final passenger train was the C&O's George Washington on May 9, 1957. In March 1960 the station was demolished. In its place the Lexington Police Department and the Fayette County clerk's office were constructed, as well as the downtown's busiest parking garage, the Annex Garage. [1]
However, C&O passenger trains persisted in Lexington beyond the closing of the station. The George Washington made stops in Lexington until 1971. [10]
Preceding station | Chesapeake and Ohio Railway | Following station | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Frankfort toward Louisville | Louisville – Ashland | Chilesburg toward Ashland | ||
Preceding station | Louisville and Nashville Railroad | Following station | ||
Midway toward Anchorage | Anchorage -Maysville | Muir toward Maysville |
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond to the Ohio River by 1873, where the railroad town of Huntington, West Virginia, was named for him.
The Louisville and Nashville Railroad, commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States.
The Union Station of Louisville, Kentucky is a historic railroad station that serves as offices for the Transit Authority of River City (TARC), as it has since mid-April 1980 after receiving a year-long restoration costing approximately $2 million. It was one of at least five union stations in Kentucky, amongst others located in Lexington, Covington, Paducah and Owensboro. It was one of three stations serving Louisville, the others being Central Station and Southern Railway Station. It superseded previous, smaller, railroad depots located in Louisville, most notably one located at Tenth and Maple in 1868–1869, and another L&N station built in 1858. The station was formally opened on September 7, 1891, by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. There was a claim made at the time that it was the largest railroad station in the Southern United States, covering forty acres. The other major station in Louisville was Central Station, serving the Baltimore and Ohio, the Illinois Central and other railroads.
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The Flim-Flam Man is a 1967 American comedy film directed by Irvin Kershner, featuring George C. Scott, Michael Sarrazin, and Sue Lyon, based on the 1965 novel The Ballad of the Flim-Flam Man by Guy Owen. The movie has well-known character actors in supporting roles, including Jack Albertson, Slim Pickens, Strother Martin, Harry Morgan, and Albert Salmi.
The George Washington was a named passenger train of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway running between Cincinnati, Ohio and Washington, D.C. that operated from 1932, the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington, to 1974. A section divided from the main train at Gordonsville, Virginia and operated through Richmond to Phoebus, Virginia. From the west, a section originated in Louisville and joined at Ashland.
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The Union Station in Owensboro, Kentucky, is a historic railroad station, built in 1905. Built mostly for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, the station is made of limestone and slate, and currently is home to several businesses.
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The Fast Flying Virginian (FFV) was a named passenger train of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway.
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Louisville and Nashville Railroad Station, also known as L & N Station, was a historic train station located in downtown Evansville, Indiana. It was built in 1902 for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and was a Richardsonian Romanesque style rock-faced limestone building. It consisted of a three-story central block with two-story flanking wings, and a one-story baggage wing. It had projecting gabled pavilions and a slate hipped roof.
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