By Jennifer Moonsong / Glasgow News 1
The Louisville & Nashville Railroad No. 109 passenger car, built in 1911, came to the end of its line in 1955 and remained near the tracks at the Glasgow Railway Depot for many decades as a shell of its former self.
It was also known as the Jim Crow car, because it segregated passengers by race — divided by a luggage rack — and is one of the few cars of its style that still exist today.
Passengers cars were once America’s most popular and speediest ways to travel. John Stover’s book, “The Routledge Historical Atlas Of The American Railroads,” points out the very first passenger cars were designed to mimic stagecoaches.
The car was built by South Louisville Shops of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad for use by the Glasgow Railway Co.. The company began as the Barren County Railroad Co., with lines constructed in 1856, with the intention of connecting with the L&N, which was still under construction. Community leaders raised the monies via taxes to fund the rail line owned by the Robert Lessenberry and others with a public-private partnership. It was later owned by the Lessenberry family and others, including William Logan Porter.
In 2011, the severely dilapidated remains of the 109 were moved to the Historical Rail Park and Train Museum in Bowling Green, where it was refurbished to its original state. It exists today as a reminder of a time when rail travel was the prominent mode of transportation in the contiguous 48 states, as well as a sorrowful reminder of the racial divide of its generation, and man’s inhumanity to man.
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