Tennessee's Oldest Railroad

By Michelle Shocklee

I love trains!

I love to hear them toot-tooting their horns at a crossing a short distance from my house. I love watching as boxcars, tank cars, and passengers cars fly past, clickity-clacking over the tracks. One of my fondest childhood memories is counting trains and boxcars on road trips to my grandmother's house in eastern New Mexico. My uncle worked for the railroad in Clovis, and he often let us kids prowl around inside those enormous, rumbling engines. Man, those were fun times! 

I can practically hear this Santa Fe train clickity-clacking!
Photo from Google

While researching my latest release, Count the Nights by Stars, I had to read up on the history of Tennessee's oldest railroad, the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis. Why? A couple reasons. One, it was the railroad that serviced Nashville in 1897, the year the Tennessee Centennial Exposition took place, which just so happens to be the setting for my novel. Tens of thousands of visitors arrived on the NC&StL over the six-month period the expo was open. But I also needed the father of our heroine, Priscilla, to be a wealthy businessman, and railroad moguls like Cornelius Vanderbilt and others had a lot of power in those days. It also allowed her father to be involved in the exposition, specifically with the Railway Exhibit.

 

This gorgeous NC&StL steam engine resided in Centennial Park until the 1980s.
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Bubba73

Here are a few of the interesting things I learned about the NC&StL:

• The railroad began as the Nashville & Chattanooga. It was founded in 1848 by a group of wealthy Nashville businessmen, including Vernon K. Stevenson. Stevenson would serve as the N&C president for 16 years. (In my book, Priscilla's father is friends with the president of the railroad.)
• The first locomotive in Nashville arrived in December 1850 via the river steamboat Beauty, along with 13 freight cars and one passenger car. 
• The train made its first trip the following spring, traveling 11 miles to Antioch, Tennessee. Antioch is now a Nashville suburb. 
• It took nine years to complete the 150 miles of line between Nashville and Chattanooga, made difficult by the steep elevations of the Highland Rim and Cumberland Plateau between them. The 2,228 feet Cowan Tunnel near the town of Cowan was considered an engineering marvel at the time.
• Towns sprang up during the construction period of the railroad, including Tullahoma and Estill Springs. (HINT: I just *might* be working on a new novel set in Tullahoma, so this is an especially cool tidbit of info to me!)
• During the Civil War, the rail line was strategic to both the Union and Confederate armies. The Tennessee campaigns of 1862 and 1863 saw Union troops force the Confederates from Nashville all the way to Chattanooga, down the line of the railroad.
• After the war, the railroad changed hands several times. In 1873, it was incorporated as the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis, but...
• The tracks never actually made it all the way north to St. Louis. 
• By 1903, the NC&StL covered much of Tennessee. 

NC&StL system map, 1903

Today, the NC&StL no longer exists. It has long been incorporated into other railroads. But here in Nashville, its history lives on in Union Station, a beautiful railroad station that welcomed trains from the 1800s through 1979. Inside the station, which is now a boutique hotel, a train schedule reminds us of bygone days when people traveled across our state and nation on trains with names like The Dixie Flyer, The City of Memphis, and The Carolina Special. 

NC&StL train schedule in Union Station Hotel, Nashville, TN
Photo from Google

Your turn: Have you ever traveled on a train? Tell me about it!

Michelle Shocklee is the author of several historical novels, including Under the Tulip Tree, a Christy Awards and Selah Awards finalist. Her work has been included in numerous Chicken Soup for the Soul books, magazines, and blogs. Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of two grown sons, she makes her home in Tennessee, not far from the historical sites she writes about. Visit her online at www.MichelleShocklee.com

               COUNT THE NIGHTS BY STARS

*A 2023 Christianity Today Book of the Year Finalist*

1961. After a longtime resident at Nashville’s historic Maxwell House Hotel suffers a debilitating stroke, Audrey Whitfield is tasked with cleaning out the reclusive woman’s room. There, she discovers an elaborate scrapbook filled with memorabilia from the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Love notes on the backs of unmailed postcards inside capture Audrey’s imagination with hints of a forbidden romance . . . and troubling revelations about the disappearance of young women at the exposition. Audrey enlists the help of a handsome hotel guest as she tracks down clues and information about the mysterious “Peaches” and her regrets over one fateful day, nearly sixty-five years earlier.
https://www.tyndale.com/p/count-the-nights-by-stars/9781496459930

The History of Union Station, Nashville, TN

By Michelle Shocklee

I love historic buildings. You too? When I take a tour or wander freely (my favorite!) through an old building, my imagination goes wild, with dozens of questions filtering through my mind at the speed of light. Who walked where I walked? What's their story? What secrets do the walls hold? And on and on.

Union Station Hotel (Trip Advisor)

Hence is the case with Union Station in Nashville, Tennessee. The moment I saw this beautiful old building I knew I had to find out more about it.

Union Station, 1900. Tennessee State Library

In 1900, the first trains to roll through Union Station were operated by the Louisville & Nashville and the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis railroads. Engine No. 5 of the NC&StL's was given the honor of being the first train to stop at the terminal. For the next seventy-eight years, thousands of passengers would arrive in Nashville via trains with names like Dixie Flyer, Dixieland, Floridian, and the Carolina Special. The station was also used by streetcars prior to their discontinuance in Nashville in 1941.

The striking building is built in the architectural style described as Richardson Romanesque. The entire building, designed by Richard Monfort, chief engineer for the L&N, is made of gray stone and marble from right here in Tennessee. The total cost at the turn of the century came to $300,000. I'm not good at math but even I know that would be in the millions of dollars in today's money.   

A bronze statue of Mercury, the mythical Roman god of speed, stood atop the clock tower, which housed an early version of a digital clock. Unfortunately the statue was blown off in the 1950s by a tornado. 

Leaving for war, 1943. Tennessee State Library

In 1943, Union Station served as a shipping-out point for thousands of soldiers headed to war. 

Saying goodbye, 1943. Tennessee State Library

Waiting area, 1970. Tennessee State Library

Sadly, train travel began its decline in the 1960s, forcing many stations to close. By 1978, with less than six trains per day, Union Station joined them. Preliminary plans to convert the building into a federal office complex fell through, and Union Station was eventually sold to hotelier Leon Moore of Gallatin, Tennessee. Determined to retain the original design, Mr. Moore employed local craftsmen and created a beautiful, up-to-code hotel. 

Today, Union Station is a luxury boutique hotel in the heart of downtown Nashville. The elegant lobby reminds visitors of bygone days when passengers waited for their trains. Well-appointed guest rooms now fill spaces where railroad offices were once located, and a restaurant and bar offer more than peanuts and a Coke. 

Someday I hope to splurge and stay a night or two in this lovely and fascinating place!

 

Union Station Hotel lobby. Wikipedia

Your turn. 

Have you traveled by train?

I haven't, so tell me about your experience!

Michelle Shocklee is the author of several historical novels and is a Selah Awards finalist. Her work has been included in numerous Chicken Soup for the Soul books, magazines, and blogs. Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of two grown sons, she makes her home in Tennessee, not far from the historical sites she writes about. Visit her online at michelleshocklee.com.

UNDER THE TULIP TREE

Sixteen-year-old Lorena Leland’s dreams of a rich and fulfilling life as a writer are dashed when the stock market crashes in 1929. Seven years into the Great Depression, Rena accepts a position interviewing former slaves for the Federal Writers’ Project. There,

she meets Frankie Washington, a 101-year-old woman whose honest yet tragic past captivates Rena. Frankie’s story challenges Rena’s preconceptions about slavery, but it also connects the two women whose lives are otherwise separated by age, race, and circumstances. Will this bond of respect, admiration, and friendship be broken by a revelation neither woman sees coming?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085F4YQ11/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Denver's Union Station

Blogger: Amber Schamel

Union Depot Original Structure
Courtesy of the Denver Public Library - Used by permission

During the late 1800’s, the population of Denver Colorado was exploding. The popularity of railroad travel and the connection of the transcontinental railway to Denver resulting in large amounts of travelers and a rapid rate of growth. But with four different railroad companies now carrying passengers, a problem arose. Transferring passengers and freight between railroad lines required traipsing dirt paths between the four different stations became glaringly inconvenient. To resolve this problem, the four companies came together and agreed to build a joint terminal to combine the operations. Plans for the historic Denver Union Station were underway.

Photo Showing Fire Damage
Courtesy of Denver Public Library - Used by Permission

The companies selected a promising location and hired A. Taylor from Kansas City as the architect. The station was designed in a Romanesque style using rock from quarries around the state. The foundation and walls were built with stone from the Castle Rock area, while the sandstone trip came from areas like Morrison, Colorado. $525,000 dollars later (about what it would cost to build 750 four room houses), the Union Depot opened in June of 1881 as the largest building this side of Kansas City. It turned out to be a great move on the part of the railroad companies, as well as a benefit for Denver. Just a few years after the completion of the station, Denver’s population had grown to be ten times its pre-1881 size.

After Fire.
Courtesy of Denver Public Library - Used by Permission.

Only 13 years after completion, March of 1894, an electrical fire ignited in the ladies’ restroom and destroyed much of the original structure, however they were able to reopen the main areas the following day.
Rebuilding commenced immediately. This time the clock tower was built of stone rather than wood and it was raised 40 feet taller than the original.

In 1906, a metal archway was constructed to welcome travelers. Originally it said ‘welcome’ on both sides, but soon the welcome was replaced with the Hebrew word Mizpah, which means “may the Lord watch between you and I while we are apart.” This arch was dismantled during the Great Depression due to financial and safety concerns.

Mizpah Arch
Courtesy of the Denver Public Library - Used by Permission

The station underwent more improvements throughout the years, but it became an icon of the American West, welcoming Presidents, foreign queens, celebrities and millions of people through its doors.

This beautiful station is one of the settings for a pivotal scene in my new release, Solve by Christmas. It was so much fun to incorporate it into the story.

*****

Amber Schamel writes riveting stories that bring HIStory to life. She has a passion for travel, history, books and her Savior. This combination results in what her readers call "historical fiction at its finest".  Her title, Dawn of Liberty, was awarded the 2017 CSPA Book of the Year award in Historical Fiction. She lives in Colorado and spends half her time volunteering in the Ozarks. Amber is a proud member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association. Visit her online at www.AmberSchamel.com/ and download a FREE story by subscribing to her Newsletter!