Waggener High School - RingBrothersHistory.com

Jim Herron Collection:L & N St. Matthews Station by Jim Herron (60)The L&N St. Matthews Station was at the corner of Chenoweth Lane and Westport Road. It was a small wood building andmost trains passed right by. However, L&N trains 19 and 20, the “Blue Grass Local” from Louisville to Lexington andtrains 101 and 104, a local to and from Cincinnati, did stop there. Both were discontinued by 1954.I used to ride the Lexington train once or twice a year just for the fun of it. One of the conductors, Les Sandidge, alternatedbetween the Lexington train and the Humming Bird, one of L&N’s finest trains. He was very well liked by folks along theline and took candy to hand out to kids at the many stops the train made and often bought eggs and vegetables from farmerswho showed up to meet the train. It made 23 stops before reaching Lexington, leaving Louisville Union Station at 7:55 AMand arriving at Lexington at 10:45 AM. Returning, it left Lexington at 4:55 PM and arrived in Louisville at 7:50 PM. I lastrode it a few days before it’s last run and I think Dan Schmitz (60) was with me and we boarded it at St. Matthews.During WWII, the station saw a lot more activity with several more trains stopping each day. The St. Matthews depot agentalso handled freight shipments that were loaded or unloaded on a track along Westport Road.In my early years we lived on Staebler Ave and I had a direct view of the station from the back of our house. I used to goover there and watch the agent going about his business. He showed me a lot of things about the railroad and put up withme. There was old derelict boxcar in the field between the station and our house and we’d occasionally fly kites from there,even climbing up on the roof of the boxcar to do it.The depot was torn down in the mid to late 1960’s. If you go to the tracks there, you can still see parts of the asphalt platformwhere passengers got on or off the trains. Strangely, I never took any pictures of the station and I’ve never seen agood one from anyone else, only scenes where it’s in the background.Jim HerronSt. Matthews depot floor plan, built in 1879, the depotwas only 420 square feet. The plan is from L&N files.track platform later replaced by asphalt.St. Matthews depotSt. Matthews depot, reconstructed in Photoshop