L & N Historic Railpark

I can not, in good faith, recommend this place to anyone. The outside of the building looks nice and it has several train cars outside but do not go out of your way to tour this place like we did. We do our research and go out of our way to introduce our kids to these «Iron Horses» but even though we arrived at 3:30 pm and the sign clearly states that they close at 5:00 pm, they apparently take the last tour before 3:30pm. There was no offer of apologies even try to accommodate us in anyway. If you do decide to go out of your way to visit this museum, don’t say that you weren’t warned.

This is a great place to see some L & N history. i road the train form Louisville to Bowling Green when I was a kid. So to come here and see the old engine and cars was quite a thrill and a treat. There is a great model train exhibit and a gift shop inside the depot. They offer tours although on the day we went we did not take the tour. It is a marvelous experience that you should not miss.

Opened in October of 1925, this is Bowling Green“s 3^rd train depot to exist. The depot lobby is magnificent in itself as it has 1925 architect.
If you just want to see the museum like I did and not the train tour, you pay just half price which was $ 6. However, I now wished I had paid $ 12 to see the rail car guided tour.
You can also see a film in here on the second floor of the museum in the theatre. It’s short and has plenty of seats.
Features: it has interactive exhibits where you push buttons to make it come on. They have real passenger cars and one was involved in a light accident. They have a great gift shop just as you walk in with an attendant. They also have a model rail road layout exhibit. It has a button you push and a model train starts going around the track. As I understand it, it has a group of volunteers that meet here and they art building it. It has unbelievable details.
This train depot was operational up to 1979. It stayed vacant until the 1990’s when they decided to restore it. In 1995 it was a library but finally now is a rail road museum,
Once in here, don’t for get to check out the train depot lobby. Just open the doors and walk in. You can picture it being busy back in the day. There’s no telling who came thru there long ago.

Great way to spend several hours, and learn a lot about the history of train travel. Well done museum, though the indoor part was a little small. The tour of the rail cars was definitely worth it, SO interesting and informative. We got to see a postal service car and see where mail was sorted, tour a dining car, sit in the drivers seat of the locomotive, even see a wooden private presidential car! The tour guides are all volunteers, and ours was knowledgable and clearly passionate about what he does. The actual tour was a bit long for our young ones though, lasting about an hour and a half. The gift shop is very kid friendly with several places for them to sit and play.

If you want the best tour guide in the world who is so into what he does and it completely shows in his tours, then please go to L&N Historic Railpark and get a tour from Ed Schwab. I guarantee you’ll leave happy and filled with knowledge about the trains from the era. Ed said he has been there from the day they opened 7 years ago and he still loves it!
Unilocaler Melissa B. wrote a lot about the history so I won’t. However, she said that a AAA discount is not available. It is… there is a sticker on the window and also one on a sign by the registers where you pay. You get 10% off which I used.
L&NHR has some completely refurbished railcars that were all done by volunteer work. The facility is air conditioned and so are some of the railcars but not all. There’s the engine, Pullman car, dining car, Presidential car, Duncan Hines car (not what you’re thinking!), mail car (fascinating), and Ed gives you such a vision of what it was like to be on each. He answered all questions, and even went at least ½ hour over his «allotted» time… he was on OT for his volunteer shift! And this would have been very bad for the timing of the trains back in the day. But for my family and one other, it was so much pleasure listening to Ed.
L&NHR is presently trying to refurbish an Army Medical Car, a Jim Crow Car, and a couple of others. As Ed said, they may not be the biggest train museum, they cannot offer rides, but they do offer the most precise refurbished cars. And with a tour guide like Ed who cares so much for the facility and trains and their future it did not matter to me about the other things he said they did not have.
If you’re in the area and like trains, you want to come and see L&N Historic Railpark. You’ll spend a few quality hours here.

Saturday, April 12, 2014, Tony and I visited the Historic Rail Park Train Museum and L & N Depot. They were going to have a wedding reception there, so we were limited to what we could see. I was able to take a few pictures outside of the trains and the depot.
Admission is $ 12 per adult. and $ 10 per kid… I think it was a little high.
too costly for me and they don’t offer any AAA discounts.
The Historic Railpark and Train Museum, formerly the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Station in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is located in the historic railroad station. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 18, 1979. Opened in 1925, the standing depot is the third Louisville & Nashville Railroad depot that served Bowling Green.
The first Bowling Green railroad depot was built in 1858 prior to the L&N’s rails reaching Bowling Green. The first Louisville & Nashville station in Bowling Green was a brick (sic, no photos or descriptions exist) building.
The line from Nashville reached Bowling Green on August 10, 1859. The line between Louisville and Nashville was complete on October 18, 1859, and was celebrated by 10,000 Nashvillians.
During the Civil War, the young L&N found itself to be a point of contention between the North and South. Kentucky was integral to the war and President Lincoln summed up the situation in this manner: «I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game». Bowling Green was critical to both sides with its proximity to the Confederate state of Tennessee. The L&N branched just south of Bowling Green with routes to Clarksville, TN, and the line to Memphis, TN, opening the path to the Western war plans. By 1863 the L&N was the only railroad to cross both Union and Confederate Territories. The actions of L&N President James Gutherie resulted in a contentious relationship with the U.S. War Department, after the Battle of Perryville sealed Kentucky’s alliance, but saved the L&N’s future.
When the Confederates were forced to retreat from the city in February 1862, they burned downtown and all the supplies they could not carry, as well as the depot and trains. The Union troops occupying the city set about building a new depot. It was a wooden building and served the railroad and people of Bowling Green into the 20^th century.
In 1878 malaria broke out from New Orleans to Memphis, Tennessee. Residents of Memphis wishing to escape the epidemic boarded the L&N trains, but residents from other towns refused to let them leave the train at their towns. Bowling Green’s station was the first place they could leave the train, but enormous bonfires were built in order to deter infection. The evacuation of Memphis lasted a few days, until Memphis was quarantined

The restored cars – especially the mail car and cooking portion of the dining car were fantastic. I loved seeing the compact areas and considering what it might have been like to work in those cars so many years ago. Our tour guide, Bob Barnes, was a wonderful story teller and great guide and shared the history with colorful commentary. And if the cost for that alone had been six bucks or so, I’d give it a solid 5 for value on the dollar.
Alas, the tickets are $ 12 each which for a 30 minute narrated tour and family was more than it deserved. The tour included miniature trains (pretty cool) and an exhibit upstairs that consisted primarily of narrated videos and reading material. I’m a buff for artifacts of the time, and they were lacking.
They are in the proces of restoring a hospital car and caboose, and I think this will add to an already stellar set of rail cars. I’d love to see them restore piece by piece (so as not to disrupt the exhibit) the dining car of the once might yL&M CEO (who swore he’d bar Bowling Green from a future RR depot) to its original mahogany. I’d also love to see a more equitable price.
I’m giving it a four, but for the price, it’s a hard rating to give. If I compare this to yesterday’s tour of The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home, at $ 19 each, this doesn’t compare. I spent 3 ½ hours or more and loved every minute of it.
So, it’s still worth a peek, but I’d try to negotiate the price.