Union Station (Louisville, Ky.)

Main Topics: Education and early life, experience in the road master's office, general baggage and general passenger department around 1922; description of Union Station in the 1920s, description of passengers and troop trains 1920 through World War II; comments on the military bureau, food supplies and army cooks; offices of the L&N and other railroad passenger agents in the Marion E. Taylor and Starks Building on Fourth Street in Louisville; special tours included trips to: Mammoth Cave, Natural Bridge, to ball games in Cincinnati, Ohio, and St. Louis, Missouri; types of accommodations available on the passenger trains; more comments on experience as chief clerk in the Starks Building Arcade office until move toward consolidation about 1959; changes in Union Station over the years; Louisville, Henderson, and St. Louis Railway merger in 1929; experiences that meant a great deal to Birchler and some of the personalities that he remembers. Included in these were an excursion trip to Niagara Falls, New York; tours for school children; special trains for Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Thomas E. Dewey. Private cars-comments and descriptions; local lines and local transportation; comments on the land grant railroads. Special aspects of the L&N Railroads. Local feeling of loyalty to the L&N. Development of the local community because of the L&N Interurban lines. Traveling passenger agents.

William Dudley served as the last station master for the L&N Railroad at the Union Station in Louisville, Kentucky. Main topics: Railroad background of various members of the Dudley family. Usual cargo loads carried by the L&N such as baby chicks and a dead whale. World War II freight and passenger traffic, including the atomic bomb cars. Famous passengers known by Mr. Dudley. Experience as a mailhandler. Comparison of the train master and a station master. Interesting Kentucky Derby stories. Segregation policies and procedures of the L&N Railroad. L&N political activities.