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The Chattanooga Choo Choo

The Chattanooga Choo Choo today is a living historical railroad structure and has its roots dating back to the Southern Railway, which originally constructed the station in the early 20th century. After being saved from near-certain destruction over 30 years ago today the station serves in a similar fashion to that of St. Louis Union Station, a modern shopping and entertainment venue with history well represented.

The Southern Railway, forever remembered by its famous slogan, “The Southern Serves the South – Look Ahead, Look South” (it was also known for the slogan "The Southern Gives a Green Light To Innovation"), was created from a number of smaller railroads, which merged over the years to form the Southern Railway. Perhaps the railroad’s famous green paint scheme was fitting for the railroad as it became the most respected and arguably the best managed railroad of its day before it disappeared into a merger with the Norfolk & Western Railway (N&W) in 1982 to form today’s Norfolk Southern Railway (NS).

In the Southern’s final days the railroad was a well-oiled machine. Even as the railroad industry hit an all-time low in the 1970s with many bankruptcies and outright liquidations (this was most prominent in the Northeast), the Southern continued to roll in profits, topping out at almost $1.8 billion in revenues in 1981, its last year as an independent company.

The property that the Chattanooga Choo Choo (or Terminal Station as it was known then) is now located on was purchased by the Southern Railway in 1905 for around $72,000. The railroad quickly demolished the one house on the grounds and began construction on its new station in 1906. The building would be built in the Beaux Arts design and an American, Don Barber would be the architect overseeing construction.

Barber hailed from Paris's Beaux Arts Institute and the Southern's president of the time was so impressed with the architect's design for the Chattanooga station that Barber was actually requested in person for a face-to-face meeting. One interesting note about the station's interior is upon the Southern president's request the interior was designed after the National Park Bank of New York City.

Terminal Station would be completed by late 1908 and featured a grand concourse which was highlighted by a beautiful arched dome (something which was actually rather common for the large stations of the time). The dome spanned the entire length of the concourse, which was 68 feet by 82 feet and featured four beautiful brass chandeliers.

Terminal Station would open for business on December 1, 1909 and became a gateway to the west seeing nearly 50 trains every day and thousands of daily passengers. Unfortunately, passenger traffic declined following World War II and by the 1960s the station was seeing just a few trains a day. By 1970 Terminal Station saw its last train leave the platform and was in serious danger of being demolished soon after.

Luckily, a group of investors saw an opporunity in the old building and purchased it, spending nearly $4 million on the complex restoring it to its former glory. Known as the Chattanooga Choo Choo it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and has become one of the city's featured attractions with restaurants, retail shops, hotel, convention center and more housed in the building.

If you are ever in Chattanooga you should definitely plan a visit to the Chattanooga Choo Choo which has a little bit of something for the entire family! For more information about visiting the station please visit their website.

For more reading about railroad stations you might want to consider a copy of America's Railroad Stations from author Brian Solomon. While the book is just a very general overview of some of the great stations that once stood in this country it is quite good with lots of historical photographs, including that of Grand Central Terminal and the late Pennsylvania Station (it also gives a history of the thousands of small depots that existed in most communities). All in all if you’re interested in stations and depots you’re sure to enjoy Mr. Solomon’s book on the subject.

One other book of interest is Kevin Holland's Classic American Railroad Terminals. While Mr. Solomon's book looks at depots and stations, large and small, found across the country Holland's work looks only at America's most famous and best remembered terminals. If you're interested in perhaps purchasing either (or both) of these books please visit the links below which will take you to ordering information through Amazon.com, the trusted online shopping network.

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