Newbern Depot facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Newbern Depot
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| Location | 108 Jefferson Street Newbern, Tennessee United States |
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| Coordinates | 36°06′45″N 89°15′45″W / 36.1125°N 89.2625°W | |||||||||||||||||
| Line(s) | Illinois Central (CN) | |||||||||||||||||
| Platforms | 1 side platform | |||||||||||||||||
| Tracks | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
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| Status | Flag stop; unstaffed | |||||||||||||||||
| Station code | Amtrak: NBN | |||||||||||||||||
| Traffic | ||||||||||||||||||
| Passengers (FY2019) | 3,208 (Amtrak) | |||||||||||||||||
| Services | ||||||||||||||||||
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Newbern Illinois Central Depot
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 Newbern Depot
Location in Tennessee
Newbern Depot
Location in the United States
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| Location | Jct. of Main and Jefferson Sts., Newbern, Tennessee | |||||||||||||||||
| Area | 1.5 acres (0.6 ha) | |||||||||||||||||
| Built | 1920 | |||||||||||||||||
| Built by | Illinois Central Railroad | |||||||||||||||||
| Architectural style | Combination Depot, American Craftsman | |||||||||||||||||
| NRHP reference No. | 93000213 | |||||||||||||||||
| Added to NRHP | March 25, 1993 | |||||||||||||||||
The Newbern Depot, also known as the Newbern Illinois Central Depot, is a cool train station and museum in Newbern, Tennessee. It's a special kind of stop for the City of New Orleans train route. This means the train only stops here if someone has a ticket to get on or off. The building was built by the Illinois Central Railroad in 1920. It's so important that it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993!
Contents
A Look Back: The Depot's Story
Building a New Station
The Newbern Depot was built in 1920 by the Illinois Central Railroad. This wasn't the first train station in Newbern. It was actually the third one! The station before it was made of wood and sadly burned down in 1918.
The new building was made of strong brick. It was a "combination depot." This means it was designed to handle both people (passengers) and goods (freight) all in one building. It also had an office for the railroad company.
Design and Purpose
The depot was built with a standard design. It didn't have a lot of fancy decorations. But if you look closely at the windows and the roof edges (called eaves), you can see influences from a style called Craftsman.
Right next to the depot building, there was a special platform for loading cotton. Farmers would bring bales of cotton from their wagons. Then, the cotton would be loaded onto train cars. This was very important because Newbern was a big center for preparing and shipping cotton from nearby farms.
From Station to Museum
The Illinois Central Railroad stopped offering passenger train service to the depot in 1965. After that, the building was used for storage until 1990. That's when the city of Newbern bought it. Their plan was to turn it into the Newbern Depot and Railroad Museum!
To help pay for fixing up the old building, the town started a fundraising event called "Depot Days." This event became a yearly celebration in Newbern. The depot was carefully restored to look like its original design. Because of its history, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 25, 1993.
Amtrak Service Today
In 1992, Amtrak train service moved from a smaller stop in nearby Dyersburg to the restored Newbern Depot. This way, the depot could serve both towns. That's why it's sometimes called the Newbern-Dyersburg station.
Amtrak's City of New Orleans train passes through Newbern twice a day. The depot is a "flag stop." This means the train only stops if passengers have tickets to get on or off. There are no staff at the station to sell tickets or handle luggage.
What You Can See at the Museum
The museum inside the depot is full of cool things! You can see old photos, tools used by railroad workers, train uniforms, and old train schedules. There are also model trains and artwork that celebrate the town's history with trains.
Did you know? This station and Memphis Central Station are the only Amtrak stations in the whole state of Tennessee!
