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Union Station (Memphis)
Encyclopedia
Memphis Union Station was a jointly owned passenger terminal serving the Missouri Pacific Railroad
, St. Louis Southwestern Railway
, Louisville and Nashville Railroad
, Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway
and Southern Railway
. The terminal was built in the Beaux-Arts style. The station was located on Calhoun Street, between south Second Street and Rayburn Boulevard (now south Third Street). This location in south Memphis was approximately two blocks east of the other major Memphis railroad terminal, Memphis Grand Central Station
.
Memphis Union Station Company was chartered in Tennessee on September 25, 1909, for the purpose of operating Union Station. Construction of the facility began in April 1910 and the new station opened for service on April 1, 1912. The architectural design of the station was a source of pride for Memphis
, and the main building was the largest stone structure in Memphis.
Memphis Union station's purpose was to create a union of the passenger and express railway operations of the major railway lines that terminated at or traveled through Memphis, principally between east and west. Traffic between the north and the south was generally carried by the Illinois Central railway, whose operations at Memphis were large enough to justify a separate Illinois “Central” station two blocks to the west of Union Station.
The railway engineering approach to fulfill this requirement was as a stub-end design, meaning that all trains using the station required a "reverse movement", to access the station's platforms. Arriving trains that at the end of their runs at Memphis pulled directly into the station's platforms and discharged their passengers and express packages. Then the empty cars were backed out by their locomotives, or hauled out by station switcher engines. Trains passing through Memphis stopped on the east-west through tracks south of the station, and reverse moved (backed up) into the station platforms. When these trains were ready to depart, they reverse moved again, pulling out of the station under their own power back onto the through tracks south of the station. The station also had additional tracks for storage and servicing of passenger cars and a roundhouse
and turntable
allowed locomotive
servicing to be accomplished on site.
This configuration served the primary objective of the “western lines”, such as the St. Louis Southwestern (the Cotton Belt
), the Rock Island
and the Missouri Pacific; at Memphis. These lines were primarily interested in receiving passengers, mail and express at Memphis as a gateway to their on-line destinations and their connections to lines which reached the west coast. There was little through traffic presented to these lines at Memphis, since the highest volume of through traffic between the mid-continent and Texas & the far west, was at New Orleans, St. Louis and Chicago. Roads such as the Cotton Belt, Rock Island, Missouri Pacific and Southern Pacific (controller of the Cotton Belt) were fully occupied serving all of the above named gateways. So Memphis held very little interest to them as a source of long distance passenger line-haul revenue.
As passenger train traffic declined after World War II
, studies were performed to assess the feasibility of consolidating all Memphis train operations in either Union Station or Central Station. The various railroads could never agree on consolidation arrangements, and Memphis Union Station continued in operation into the early 1960s.
discontinued passenger service to Memphis in October 1952, and Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway
merged into Louisville and Nashville Railroad
(L&N) in 1957, effectively reducing the number of tenants in Memphis Union Station from five to three. In early 1964, Missouri Pacific Railroad
served notice that their last passenger train serving Memphis would be moved from Union Station into a former freight station on west Calhoun Street. The Missouri Pacific benefitted from being a foreign (not otherwise doing business in Tennessee) corporation in Tennessee, once it’s petition before the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was heard, to cease operation of passenger service to Memphis, it could rely upon legal precedent (as when Gulf Mobile & Ohio, ended service south of Saint Louis, and thereby voiding its joint agreement to fund New Orleans’ Union Station ) to void its joint agreement to support the operation of Memphis Union Station.
The remaining two tenant railroads in in Memphis Union Station were unwilling to assume the full burden for maintenance and operation of the station, as the remaining passenger and express freight revenues of these carriers into Memphis, brought in far less revenue than the continued operation of the station required. Louisville and Nashville Railroad
made arrangements to became a tenant at Memphis Central Station
, and Southern Railway
returned to their ancient freight station on Lauderdale Street. Memphis Union Station was closed on April 1, 1964, fifty-two years to the day from the time the station had opened with great fanfare.
A prolonged court battle ensued, with the City of Memphis claiming that Union Station had been abandoned without the approval of the Tennessee Public Service Commission. After appeals courts ruled against the railroads, both L&N and Southern were forced to reopen part of Union Station on December 1, 1966. Missouri Pacific
had successfully discontinued their last Memphis passenger service, a Memphis to Little Rock
connecting train, in August 1965, and was thus not affected by the order to reopen Memphis Union Station.
Passenger traffic into Memphis on both the L&N and Southern was negligible, and the added expense burden of reopening Union Station caused both roads to soon plan train discontinuance proceedings of their own. These efforts were ultimately successful, and Union Station was again closed for a second and final time on March 30, 1968, following the departure of the last Southern Railway passenger train from Memphis. The Memphis Union Station property was sold to the United States Postal Service
for construction of a new mail sorting facility, and the station itself was demolished by February 1969.
Missouri Pacific Railroad
The Missouri Pacific Railroad , also known as the 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, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway , Texas and Pacific...
, St. Louis Southwestern Railway
St. Louis Southwestern Railway
The St. Louis Southwestern Railway , known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply Cotton Belt, was organized on January 15, 1891, although it had its origins in a series of short lines founded in Tyler, Texas, in 1870 that connected northeastern Texas to Arkansas and southeastern...
, Louisville and Nashville Railroad
Louisville and Nashville Railroad
The Louisville and Nashville Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States.Chartered by the state of Kentucky in 1850, the L&N, as it was generally known, grew into one of the great success stories of American business...
, Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway
Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway
The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway was a railway company operating in the southern United States in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia...
and Southern Railway
Southern Railway (US)
The Southern Railway is a former United States railroad. It was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894...
. The terminal was built in the Beaux-Arts style. The station was located on Calhoun Street, between south Second Street and Rayburn Boulevard (now south Third Street). This location in south Memphis was approximately two blocks east of the other major Memphis railroad terminal, Memphis Grand Central Station
Central Station (Memphis)
Memphis Central Station, referred to as Grand Central Station prior to 1944, is located at 545 South Main Street, on the corner of Main Street and G.E. Patterson Boulevard, just south of the downtown business district...
.
History
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, and the main building was the largest stone structure in Memphis.
Memphis Union station's purpose was to create a union of the passenger and express railway operations of the major railway lines that terminated at or traveled through Memphis, principally between east and west. Traffic between the north and the south was generally carried by the Illinois Central railway, whose operations at Memphis were large enough to justify a separate Illinois “Central” station two blocks to the west of Union Station.
The railway engineering approach to fulfill this requirement was as a stub-end design, meaning that all trains using the station required a "reverse movement", to access the station's platforms. Arriving trains that at the end of their runs at Memphis pulled directly into the station's platforms and discharged their passengers and express packages. Then the empty cars were backed out by their locomotives, or hauled out by station switcher engines. Trains passing through Memphis stopped on the east-west through tracks south of the station, and reverse moved (backed up) into the station platforms. When these trains were ready to depart, they reverse moved again, pulling out of the station under their own power back onto the through tracks south of the station. The station also had additional tracks for storage and servicing of passenger cars and a roundhouse
Roundhouse
A roundhouse is a building used by railroads for servicing locomotives. Roundhouses are large, circular or semicircular structures that were traditionally located surrounding or adjacent to turntables...
and turntable
Turntable (railroad)
A railway turntable is a device for turning railroad rolling stock. When steam locomotives were still in wide use, many railroads needed a way to turn the locomotives around for return trips as their controls were often not configured for extended periods of running in reverse and in many...
allowed locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
servicing to be accomplished on site.
This configuration served the primary objective of the “western lines”, such as the St. Louis Southwestern (the Cotton Belt
Cotton Belt
Cotton Belt may refer to:* Cotton Belt , a term applied to a region of the southern United States* St. Louis Southwestern Railway, commonly known as the Cotton Belt Railroad...
), the Rock Island
Rock Island
- Islands :* Rock Island * Rock Islands , an island in Ontario- Communities :* Rock Island, Quebec, a community within the ville of Stanstead- Islands :* Rock Island , one of the minor Elizabeth Islands...
and the Missouri Pacific; at Memphis. These lines were primarily interested in receiving passengers, mail and express at Memphis as a gateway to their on-line destinations and their connections to lines which reached the west coast. There was little through traffic presented to these lines at Memphis, since the highest volume of through traffic between the mid-continent and Texas & the far west, was at New Orleans, St. Louis and Chicago. Roads such as the Cotton Belt, Rock Island, Missouri Pacific and Southern Pacific (controller of the Cotton Belt) were fully occupied serving all of the above named gateways. So Memphis held very little interest to them as a source of long distance passenger line-haul revenue.
As passenger train traffic declined after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, studies were performed to assess the feasibility of consolidating all Memphis train operations in either Union Station or Central Station. The various railroads could never agree on consolidation arrangements, and Memphis Union Station continued in operation into the early 1960s.
Demise
St. Louis Southwestern RailwaySt. Louis Southwestern Railway
The St. Louis Southwestern Railway , known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply Cotton Belt, was organized on January 15, 1891, although it had its origins in a series of short lines founded in Tyler, Texas, in 1870 that connected northeastern Texas to Arkansas and southeastern...
discontinued passenger service to Memphis in October 1952, and Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway
Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway
The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway was a railway company operating in the southern United States in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia...
merged into Louisville and Nashville Railroad
Louisville and Nashville Railroad
The Louisville and Nashville Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States.Chartered by the state of Kentucky in 1850, the L&N, as it was generally known, grew into one of the great success stories of American business...
(L&N) in 1957, effectively reducing the number of tenants in Memphis Union Station from five to three. In early 1964, Missouri Pacific Railroad
Missouri Pacific Railroad
The Missouri Pacific Railroad , also known as the 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, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway , Texas and Pacific...
served notice that their last passenger train serving Memphis would be moved from Union Station into a former freight station on west Calhoun Street. The Missouri Pacific benefitted from being a foreign (not otherwise doing business in Tennessee) corporation in Tennessee, once it’s petition before the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was heard, to cease operation of passenger service to Memphis, it could rely upon legal precedent (as when Gulf Mobile & Ohio, ended service south of Saint Louis, and thereby voiding its joint agreement to fund New Orleans’ Union Station ) to void its joint agreement to support the operation of Memphis Union Station.
The remaining two tenant railroads in in Memphis Union Station were unwilling to assume the full burden for maintenance and operation of the station, as the remaining passenger and express freight revenues of these carriers into Memphis, brought in far less revenue than the continued operation of the station required. Louisville and Nashville Railroad
Louisville and Nashville Railroad
The Louisville and Nashville Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States.Chartered by the state of Kentucky in 1850, the L&N, as it was generally known, grew into one of the great success stories of American business...
made arrangements to became a tenant at Memphis Central Station
Central Station (Memphis)
Memphis Central Station, referred to as Grand Central Station prior to 1944, is located at 545 South Main Street, on the corner of Main Street and G.E. Patterson Boulevard, just south of the downtown business district...
, and Southern Railway
Southern Railway (US)
The Southern Railway is a former United States railroad. It was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894...
returned to their ancient freight station on Lauderdale Street. Memphis Union Station was closed on April 1, 1964, fifty-two years to the day from the time the station had opened with great fanfare.
A prolonged court battle ensued, with the City of Memphis claiming that Union Station had been abandoned without the approval of the Tennessee Public Service Commission. After appeals courts ruled against the railroads, both L&N and Southern were forced to reopen part of Union Station on December 1, 1966. Missouri Pacific
Missouri Pacific Railroad
The Missouri Pacific Railroad , also known as the 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, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway , Texas and Pacific...
had successfully discontinued their last Memphis passenger service, a Memphis to Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
connecting train, in August 1965, and was thus not affected by the order to reopen Memphis Union Station.
Passenger traffic into Memphis on both the L&N and Southern was negligible, and the added expense burden of reopening Union Station caused both roads to soon plan train discontinuance proceedings of their own. These efforts were ultimately successful, and Union Station was again closed for a second and final time on March 30, 1968, following the departure of the last Southern Railway passenger train from Memphis. The Memphis Union Station property was sold to the United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
for construction of a new mail sorting facility, and the station itself was demolished by February 1969.
See also
- Central Station (Memphis)Central Station (Memphis)Memphis Central Station, referred to as Grand Central Station prior to 1944, is located at 545 South Main Street, on the corner of Main Street and G.E. Patterson Boulevard, just south of the downtown business district...
- Humming Bird (passenger train)Humming Bird (passenger train)The Humming Bird was a named train of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad . The train, inaugurated in 1947, 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...
- Lone Star (SSW passenger train)Lone Star (SSW passenger train)The Lone Star was a passenger train operated by St. Louis Southwestern Railway between Memphis, and Dallas, with through connections via Cotton Belt parent, Southern Pacific, for San Antonio, El Paso, and ultimately Los Angeles. there was also through cars operating between Memphis, Lewisville and...
- Morning Star (train)
- Tennessean (passenger train)Tennessean (passenger train)The Tennessean was a named passenger train jointly-operated by the Norfolk and Western Railway and the Southern Railway . Inaugurated on May 17, 1941, its route ran from Washington, DC to Lynchburg, Virginia on the SR, then on to Bristol, Tennessee on the N&W, terminating at Memphis Union Station...