Bardstown station
The Bardstown station, also known as Old L & N Station, is a historic railroad station on the National Register of Historic Places in the northernmost section of the Bardstown Historic District of Bardstown, Kentucky. Long owned by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, it is currently used as the station for the My Old Kentucky Dinner Train, owned by the R.J. Corman Railroad Group.
History
The impetus for a railroad departing south from Louisville was begun in 1832 by the citizens of Bardstown. However, after a $300,000 bond issue was defeated by other residents of Bardstown, the main line of the Louisville and Nashville instead bypassed Bardstown.The station was built in 1860 by the Bardstown and Louisville Railroad, which the Louisville and Nashville Railroad purchased the assets of in 1864. It was the only railroad station in Kentucky built of dry-stone. However, the line to connect the station to the L&N's main line wasn't until March 1860.
On February 1, 1888, the line was lengthened to connect Bardstown to Springfield, Kentucky.
In 1953 service was discontinued to the station by the L&N, and the passenger section of the station demolished. In 1987 CSX, who had purchased the L&N in the meanwhile, sold the old Bardstown line, including the station, to the R.J. Corman Railroad Group, which has since used it as a shortline railroad.