Memphis Union Station

Company History: MUSCo. opened in 1912 to provide a union station for most of the east-west Class One railroads through the city. Missouri Pacific, Cotton Belt, Louisville & Nashville, Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis and Southern Railway all served the station. Terminal switching was provided by MUSCo.’s own fleet of switchers. Streetcars of the Memphis Street Railway served the other side of the terminal. The station was a stub ended affair with arriving trains backing through the wyes to the platform tracks.

It’s worth noting that Frisco and Illinois Central used IC’s Memphis Central Station about two blocks away and Rock Island had their own facility in the city.

Cotton Belt was the first to pull out. They ended passenger service to the city in 1952. In 1957, NC&StL merged into the L&N. In 1964, Missouri Pacific moved out, building a small facility for passengers in their former St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern freight depot a few miles away. That left only L&N and Southern holding the bag for the large terminal’s upkeep. On April 1 of that year, they both moved out – L&N to Memphis Central Station and Southern to their freight station a few miles away.

The city claimed the station had been abandoned without permission from the state’s Public Service Commission and late in 1966, Southern and L&N were forced to re-open the station (Missouri Pacific had by that time stopped offering passenger service to the city all together.) Again faced with covering the expenses of the facility, Southern and L&N instead petitioned to discontinue the few remaining trains that served the city. Four months to the day after they were forced to re-open the station, the last train departed Memphis Union Station.

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