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 Terminal Station in Chattanooga, Tennessee is a former railroad station once owned and operated by the Southern Railway and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Chattanooga Choo-Choo is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The station was opened in 1909 and was the latest and largest station in Chattanooga's history. The original Chattanooga Union Station, built in 1858, (demolished in 1973) was outgrown by the rapid expansion in the railroad network serving Chattanooga. A second station, built in 1882, was outgrown in only six years. In 1888, an old freight depot was converted to a passenger facility, while three other depots handled commercial and industrial traffic.
American railroad passenger traffic declined in the 1950s and 1960s, and the last passenger train to serve the station, the Birmingham Special, left Terminal Station in 1970. In 1972, local businessmen bought the building, renamed it the Chattanooga Choo-Choo after the song, and began rehabilitating the building. The 24-acre complex is a convention center, hotel and resort with restaurants and shops. Hotel guests can stay in half of a restored passenger railway car. Dining at the complex includes the Gardens restaurant in the Terminal Station itself (enclosed passenger loading platform), The Station House (which is housed in a former baggage storage, but on original building plans is designated as "Mail Sorting Facility") and the "Dinner in the Diner" which is the complex's fine dining venue, housed in a restored 1938 Class A dining car. |
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Below; The two RV Gypsies
and Karen Duquette's sister, Ilse Blahak, at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo |
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Below: There were several water fountains
at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. |
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Below: The lifestyle of an RV Gypsy -
having time to stop and smell the roses. |
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Below: Guests can stay overnight
in restored authentic sleeper cars, once reserved for only the wealthiest
of passengers during the railroad era. There is again the bustle that
was so familiar in the railroad days at Chattanooga's Terminal Station.
For generations, Chattanooga's Terminal Station has been a place of
many memories made and it continues today. (No, the two RV Gypsies did
not stay in the sleeper car because they live permanently in an RV). |
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Below: Lee Duquette just had
to ring the very loud bell at Chattanooga Choo-Choo each time he walked
by it. |
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BELOW:   FLASHBACKS
TO AUGUST 1977 and 1993 |
additional menu choices below
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you have enjoyed all eight (8) sections, above, please continue on to
the 
