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 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.
The Kentucky Railway Museum, now located in New Haven, Kentucky, United States, is a non-profit railroad museum dedicated to educating the public regarding the history and heritage of Kentucky's railroads and the people who built them. Originally created in 1954 in Louisville, Kentucky, the museum is at its third location, in extreme southern Nelson County. It is one of the oldest railroad stations in the United States.
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.
Ashland Transportation Center is an intermodal transit station in Ashland, Kentucky. Jointly operated by the City of Ashland and CSX Transportation, it currently serves Amtrak's Cardinal train as well as the Ashland Bus System and Greyhound Lines buses. It is located at 99 15th Street near downtown Ashland.
The Humming Bird was a named train of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N). The train, inaugurated in 1946, originally ran from Cincinnati, Ohio, to New Orleans, Louisiana, via Louisville, Nashville, Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile and later via a connection at Bowling Green, Kentucky, to Memphis, Tennessee. A connection to Chicago was provided by the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad.
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.
The Frankfort and Cincinnati Railroad is a defunct shortline railroad based in Kentucky. Despite its name, it had no connections with Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Night Express was an American named train of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on its route between Detroit, Michigan, and Louisville, Kentucky, with major station stops in Toledo, Ohio, and Cincinnati. The service was numbered Train 57 southbound and Train 58 northbound. The numbers 57/58 operated on the Detroit - Cincinnati line as early as 1921. The service was provided in conjunction with the Pere Marquette Railroad from Detroit to Toledo and with the Louisville and Nashville from Cincinnati to Louisville with connections to New Orleans.
The Fast Flying Virginian (FFV) was a named passenger train of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway.
The Mountaineer was a passenger train operated by Amtrak between Norfolk, Virginia, and Chicago, Illinois, via Cincinnati, Ohio. It was the first train to use the Norfolk and Western Railway's tracks since the creation of Amtrak in 1971 and followed the route of the Pocahontas, the N&W's last passenger train. Service began in 1975 and ended in 1977. A new train, the Hilltopper, operated over much of the Mountaineer's route but was itself discontinued in 1979.
The Dixie Flyer was a premier named passenger train that operated from 1892 to 1965 via the "Dixie Route" from Chicago and St. Louis via Evansville, Nashville, and Atlanta to Florida. However, the train continued until 1969 as an Atlanta to Florida operation, run solely by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and its successor, the Seaboard Coast Line. The Flyer's route varied in early years, but by about 1920 was set as follows:
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.
The Flamingo was a passenger night train operated by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.
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Marion Union Station is a former passenger railroad station at 532 W. Center Street in Marion, Ohio, United States. As a union station it served several train lines: the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway or CCC & St. L., and Erie Railroad. These lines intersected at the station, so it was a significant transfer point between different geographic points.
The Sportsman was a named passenger night train of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. It was the Chesapeake and Ohio's long-standing train bound for Detroit from Washington, D.C., and Phoebus, Virginia, on the Chesapeake Bay, opposite Norfolk, Virginia. It was unique among C&O trains for its route north from the C&O mainline in southern Ohio. For most of its years it had a secondary western terminus in Louisville at its Central Station.
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