Shreveport Union Station | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Location | Shreveport, Louisiana | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 32°30′32″N93°44′54″W / 32.5088°N 93.7482°W | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
History | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | 1897 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Closed | November 3, 1969 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Services | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Shreveport Union Station was a passenger station on Louisiana Avenue, at Lake Street, Shreveport, Louisiana. Built in 1897 by the Kansas City, Shreveport & Gulf Terminal Company, it was the oldest of Shreveport's four passenger railroad stations. With a tall tower, the station became a landmark in downtown Shreveport. It had its highest levels of service in the 1920s, typically hosting 35 passenger trains a day. [1]
As a union station, it was served by trains of the Kansas City Southern Railway, Illinois Central, St. Louis Southwestern Railway (Cotton Belt), and Southern Pacific. [2] [3]
Noteworthy passenger trains in 1958 included: [4]
Noteworthy passenger trains in 1951 consisted of: [5]
By 1965, service reduced to the Illinois Central's Southwestern Limited and the Kansas City Southern's Kansas City, NewOrleans and Port Arthur trains. [6]
The Southern Belle, the last train to serve Union Station, had its final run on November 2, 1969. The station closed the next day. The station burned two days after the station's closing. The fire department indicated that the fire began in the basement. The remaining parts of the building were soon demolished. [2] [1] [7] The Texas and Pacific's remnant of its Louisiana Eagle was the final train to serve Shreveport, at the T&P station in the city.
The Kansas City Southern Railway Company was an American Class I railroad. Founded in 1887, it operated in 10 Midwestern and Southeastern U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. KCS had the shortest north-south rail route between Kansas City, Missouri, and several key ports along the Gulf of Mexico.
The City of New Orleans is a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on an overnight schedule between Chicago and New Orleans. The train is a successor to the Illinois Central Railroad's Panama Limited.
The Missouri Pacific Railroad, commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad operated 9,041 miles of road and 13,318 miles of track, not including DK&S, NO&LC, T&P, and its subsidiaries C&EI and Missouri-Illinois.
The Illinois Central Railroad, sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and thus, the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. A line also connected Chicago west to Sioux City, Iowa (1870). There was a significant branch to Omaha, Nebraska (1899), west of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and another branch reaching Sioux Falls, South Dakota (1877), starting from Cherokee, Iowa. The IC also serviced Miami, Florida, on trackage owned by other railroads
The Louisiana and Arkansas Railway was a railroad that operated in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. The railroad's main line extended 332 miles, from Hope, Arkansas to Shreveport and New Orleans. Branch lines served Vidalia, Louisiana, and Dallas, Texas.
The Southern Belle was a named passenger train service offered by Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS) from the 1940s through the 1960s, running between Kansas City, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana.
The St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company, known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply "Cotton Belt", is a former Class I railroad that operated between St. Louis, Missouri, and various points in the U.S. states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas from 1891 to 1980, when the system added the Rock Island's Golden State Route and operations in Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The Cotton Belt operated as a Southern Pacific subsidiary from 1932 until 1992, when its operation was assumed by Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
The Alton Railroad was the final name of a railroad linking Chicago to Alton, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri. Its predecessor, the Chicago and Alton Railroad, was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1931 and was controlled until 1942 when the Alton was released to the courts. On May 31, 1947, the Alton Railroad was merged into the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Jacob Bunn had been one of the founding reorganizers of the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company during the 1860s.
Memphis Union Station was a passenger terminal in Memphis, Tennessee. It served as a hub between railroads of the Southwest, the Missouri Pacific Railroad and the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, and railroads of the Southeast, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway and the Southern Railway. The terminal, completed in 1912, was built in the Beaux-Arts style and was located on Calhoun Street, between south Second Street and Rayburn Boulevard. It was demolished in 1969. This location in south Memphis was approximately two blocks east of the other major Memphis railroad terminal, Memphis Grand Central Station.
Memphis Central Station, referred to as Grand Central Station prior to 1944, is a passenger terminal in Memphis, Tennessee. Located along Main Street and G.E. Patterson Boulevard in Downtown Memphis, it currently a service stop for Amtrak's City of New Orleans route, arriving in late evening northbound and in the morning southbound. It is also served by the MATA Trolley system. The building was opened in 1914, and is located within the city's South Main Arts District. It is also an contributing property to the South Main Street Historic District of the National Register of Historic Places, as are the National Civil Rights Museum and other historic properties within the district boundaries.
Baton Rouge station is a historic train station located at 100 South River Road in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was built for the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad which got absorbed by the Illinois Central Railroad. The station was a stop on the Y&MV main line between Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana. The building now houses the Louisiana Art and Science Museum.
New Orleans Union Station was a railroad station in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was designed by Louis H. Sullivan for the Illinois Central Railroad and opened on June 1, 1892. It was located on South Rampart Street, in front of the current New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal.
The Meridian Speedway is a 320-mile (510 km) span of railroad track between Shreveport, Louisiana and Meridian, Mississippi. An important rail link between the Southeastern and Southwestern United States, it is operated as a joint venture of Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), which owns 70% of the partnership; and Alabama Great Southern Railroad, a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern Railway (NS).
The Queen and Crescent Route was a cooperative railroad route in the Southeastern U.S., connecting Cincinnati with New Orleans and Shreveport. Inaugurated in the 1880s, the name was retained by Southern Railway when they consolidated ownership of the entire route in 1926, and given to their named passenger train for the route through 1949.
Shreveport Central Station is a historic train station in Shreveport, Louisiana. It was built in 1910 by the Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad, a railroad that was eventually acquired by the Kansas City Southern Railway. By the opening of the 1940s the L&A and the St. Louis Southwestern Railway or 'Cotton Belt' moved its passenger operations from Central Station to Shreveport Union Station.
The following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.
The Pelican was a named train of the Southern Railway which ran from New York City to New Orleans and back until 1970.
The Kansas City–Florida Special was a pooled night train and the premier train of the Frisco Railroad and the Southern Railway. Operating from Kansas City, Missouri to Jacksonville, Florida, it was unique as being one of very few long distance passenger train to traverse the Mississippi River south of St. Louis, Missouri and north of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Southwestern Limited was a night train, as #205 of the Illinois Central Railroad in the Southeastern United States. Running on the IC subsidiary Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Vicksburg Division, from Meridian, Mississippi's Union Station to Shreveport, Louisiana's own Union Station, it was one of the few trains spanning the Mississippi River south of St. Louis, Missouri and north of New Orleans, Louisiana.