Union Station, also known as Columbia Railway Depot is an historic

train depot A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a Rail transport, railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passenger train, passengers, freight rail transport, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one railwa ...

in the city of Columbia, Maury County,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. The depot was completed in 1905 by the

Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway was a Rail transport company, railway company that operated in the U.S. states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It began as the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, ...

(NC&StL) and the

Louisville and Nashville Railroad 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. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of ...

(LN) as a

union station A union station, union terminal, joint station, or joint-use station is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway company, railway companies, allowing passengers to connect conveniently bet ...

. The building was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

listings in Maury County, Tennessee on October 23, 1986.

History

The Duck River Valley Narrow Gauge Railroad (NGRR) was chartered in 1870 and began construction in Columbia in 1874. By 1876, six miles were completed with the first 1.75 miles ran as a

dual gauge Dual gauge railroad track has three or four rails, allowing vehicles of two track gauges to run on it. Signalling and sidings are more expensive to install on dual gauge tracks than on two single gauge tracks. Dual gauge is used when there i ...

on the then Nashville and Decatur (Louisville and Nashville) main line. By 1877 NGRR offered rail service from Columbia to Lewisburg (20 miles) and to Petersburg (34 miles) by 1879. The company ran into financial difficulties and in 1879 leased the tracks to NC&StL. The line was completed to

Fayetteville Fayetteville may refer to: *Fayetteville, Alabama *Fayetteville, Arkansas ** The Fayetteville Formation *Fayetteville, Georgia *Fayetteville, Illinois *Fayetteville, Indiana *Fayetteville, Washington County, Indiana *Fayetteville, Missouri *Fayette ...

(48 miles) on March 16, 1882, where there was a

break-of-gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally canno ...

. NC&StL purchased the line on March 21, 1888, converted the entire tracks to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

by January 1, 1889, and the tracks were renamed the Columbia spur.

Union Station

NC&StL and LN built ''Union Station'' in 1905, and the depot was shared with LN until 1945 when the Columbia to Lewisburg tracks were abandoned. The Lewisburg to Fayetteville section was abandoned in 1961. Union Station was listed on the Tennessee Preservation Trust, "Ten in Tennessee" list of endangered properties in 2009. The building was used for offices and apartments but became vacant in 1983. David and Debra Hill bought the property in foreclosure in 2012 with plans on restorationWSMV.com
Retrieved 2014-08-27

References

Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Buildings and structures in Columbia, Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Maury County, Tennessee Columbia Former railway stations in Tennessee

Columbia, Tennessee Columbia is a city in and the county seat of Maury County, Tennessee. The population was 41,690 as of the 2020 United States census. Columbia is included in the Nashville metropolitan area. The self-proclaimed "mule capital of the world," Colu ...

Railway stations in the United States opened in 1905 Railway stations in the United States closed in 1945 {{Tennessee-railstation-stub