Baxter Avenue Elevated Station (Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky)
USA /
Kentucky /
Louisville /
Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky
World
/ USA
/ Kentucky
/ Louisville
World / United States / Kentucky
interesting place, train station
Baxter Avenue el station, and it's 1.6 mile elevated train line is a former, now abandoned L & N passenger station. It was an east Louisville passenger only station and handled no freight. The station opened on Oct 4, 1937. A former ground level station preceeded it, dating from 1910.
On opening in 1937, the first train to stop at the station was an inbound # 7 from Cincinnati to New Orleans, next station, 10th St., downtown Louisville. In 1937 the stations P A system and train board hailed the arrival and departure of 14 trains daily. These included many distant and some local trains making station stops along the way serving commuters in eastern bedroom communities, like Crescent Hill, St. Matthews La Grange, etc..
Years later in the 1940's when streamlined diesel powered trains started mnaking their glorious runs, many famous trains saw their Louisvile debut at this station. Among these were the Humming Bird, Pan American and the Azalean.
Baxter was an easily accessed station, with comfortable facilities and unique features; weather sheltered under station parking, stairways to platform level on both ends plus a pedestrian ramp walkway on the west and a baggage elevator. The boarding platform was 900 ft. in length and 32 ft. wide. The platform station was 76 feet X 18 feet.
Another station feature was the mail chute which delivered bags of Railway Post Office sorted mail.... destined for Louisville's east end ....were sent plummeting down a secured chute to waiting U.S Mail trucks parked below at street level. The hatch cover remains today, but the metal chute has been removed and a concrete blockade sits at street level where the mail trucks used to wait.
The elevated line itself starts at E. Kentucky St where the Beargrass creek makes a sharp 90 deg. bend and then flows either beside or under the trackage on most of its journey. The elevated line passes atop a twin track, platform line, crossing above five city streets along the way to Baxter station. At the east end of the station platform, it continues atop a raised railbed till coming to earth near Mellwood and East Main Street.
At this juncture at one time it nearly intersected with another elevated line, that of the New York Central which traveled toward a juncture with the C & O elevated line. Electric trains of the Indiana Railroad traveled atop a portion of the NYC elevated on their route from Indianapolis to Louisville. The Big 4 / New York Central elevated line had two of it's own elevated passenger stations in Jeffersonville Ind.. Many decades earlier, in the late 1800's - 1900's three more elevated train stations were strewn along downtown's Short Route elevated railway, served by early 3 car elevated electric trains running between Louisville and New Albany. That line saw anual commuter ridership of 1.25 million passengers annually by 1906 !
The last trains in and out of Baxter ran in late 1963 and it officially closed in 1964.Now the sadly abandoned and derelic station sees usage as a huge canvas for the citys talented grafitti artists and serves as a happenstance shelter to vagrants, while a steady stream of freight trains pass the station daily.
It is Louisville's last standing elevated station out of the half dozen that once existed in our midst. Many locals are totally unaware of it's existance and the facinating history and the existance of Louisville's elevated trains or the elevated rail structures and elevated stations.
On opening in 1937, the first train to stop at the station was an inbound # 7 from Cincinnati to New Orleans, next station, 10th St., downtown Louisville. In 1937 the stations P A system and train board hailed the arrival and departure of 14 trains daily. These included many distant and some local trains making station stops along the way serving commuters in eastern bedroom communities, like Crescent Hill, St. Matthews La Grange, etc..
Years later in the 1940's when streamlined diesel powered trains started mnaking their glorious runs, many famous trains saw their Louisvile debut at this station. Among these were the Humming Bird, Pan American and the Azalean.
Baxter was an easily accessed station, with comfortable facilities and unique features; weather sheltered under station parking, stairways to platform level on both ends plus a pedestrian ramp walkway on the west and a baggage elevator. The boarding platform was 900 ft. in length and 32 ft. wide. The platform station was 76 feet X 18 feet.
Another station feature was the mail chute which delivered bags of Railway Post Office sorted mail.... destined for Louisville's east end ....were sent plummeting down a secured chute to waiting U.S Mail trucks parked below at street level. The hatch cover remains today, but the metal chute has been removed and a concrete blockade sits at street level where the mail trucks used to wait.
The elevated line itself starts at E. Kentucky St where the Beargrass creek makes a sharp 90 deg. bend and then flows either beside or under the trackage on most of its journey. The elevated line passes atop a twin track, platform line, crossing above five city streets along the way to Baxter station. At the east end of the station platform, it continues atop a raised railbed till coming to earth near Mellwood and East Main Street.
At this juncture at one time it nearly intersected with another elevated line, that of the New York Central which traveled toward a juncture with the C & O elevated line. Electric trains of the Indiana Railroad traveled atop a portion of the NYC elevated on their route from Indianapolis to Louisville. The Big 4 / New York Central elevated line had two of it's own elevated passenger stations in Jeffersonville Ind.. Many decades earlier, in the late 1800's - 1900's three more elevated train stations were strewn along downtown's Short Route elevated railway, served by early 3 car elevated electric trains running between Louisville and New Albany. That line saw anual commuter ridership of 1.25 million passengers annually by 1906 !
The last trains in and out of Baxter ran in late 1963 and it officially closed in 1964.Now the sadly abandoned and derelic station sees usage as a huge canvas for the citys talented grafitti artists and serves as a happenstance shelter to vagrants, while a steady stream of freight trains pass the station daily.
It is Louisville's last standing elevated station out of the half dozen that once existed in our midst. Many locals are totally unaware of it's existance and the facinating history and the existance of Louisville's elevated trains or the elevated rail structures and elevated stations.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates: 38°15'0"N 85°43'50"W
- Radnor Yard 254 km
- FIMX/NS Interchange 279 km
- Buckeye Yard (Mothballed) 297 km
- Decatur Yard 330 km
- Fulton, Kentucky 340 km
- Sheffield Yard 429 km
- Cass Scenic Railroad State Park 504 km
- CSX Tilford Yard (Closed) 506 km
- Conway Yard 543 km
- Charlotte Train Yard 550 km
- Phoenix Hill Neighborhood 0.8 km
- Butchertown Neighborhood 1.2 km
- Clifton 1.9 km
- Germantown 2 km
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- Cherokee Park 3.3 km
- Crescent Hill 4.4 km
- Brownsboro-Zorn neighborhood 4.4 km
- Ohio River Greenway 5.7 km
- Clark County, Indiana 21 km
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