HENDERSON, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Railmark Holdings, Incorporated (www.railmark.com) announced today that it has chosen Henderson, Kentucky and its historic Union Station as the company’s new corporate office home. Henderson will also serve as a new location for Railmark’s Rail Service Center network. Henderson Union Station opened to the public exactly 120 years ago today on July 1, 1902 as both a distinguished and eloquent train station. This unique train station consolidated into one facility the passenger rail services of the three railroads serving Henderson at that time: Louisville & Nashville Railroad; Louisville, Henderson & St. Louis Railroad; and the Illinois Central Railroad. These three railroads, each with unique routes, provided local citizens and businesses with the best of rail transportation, small package shipping, and rail service amenities. Henderson’s unique Union Station, ahead of its time in design features and served by three different railroads, set the city apart from typical small town passenger train stations across America.
Throughout the years Henderson Union Station served as a critical waypoint in the region. Businesses depended upon it for their trade of goods and commodities. The station was used by many local servicemen who departed and returned from war, as well as students traveling to and from college. The station hosted four American presidents - Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. At the height of World War II, 28 passenger trains stopped at Henderson Union Station daily, but by April 30, 1971, the station was to see its final passenger train depart. The railroad vacated its station offices in August 1978 and the building has sat mostly empty until Railmark’s purchase on December 29, 2021.
The company’s plans are to combine both its 1045 4th Street and 1047 4th Street properties into one campus which will be home to Railmark’s Corporate Office, a Railmark Rail Service Center, and a special community venue sponsored by non-profit Railmark Foundation. This venue will encompass the entire south end of the train station and will include a reconstructed passenger train platform. This area of the station will be used by Railmark Foundation as a permanent depository and interactive educational venue commemorating Henderson’s railroad history, early Henderson railroad entrepreneurs and visionaries, and how the efforts by these rail entrepreneurs significantly influenced the growth and success of the early western Kentucky economy. The Railmark Foundation portion of the facility will be available for use by the public as an event venue and will be designed to serve as a future Amtrak or regional rail passenger train station stop. Other portions of the south campus are being considered as community-partnered rail tourism venues. Railmark Foundation will soon be releasing its detailed plans for these public spaces on its website www.railmark.org.
ABOUT RAILMARK: Founded in 1998, RAILMARK® provides unique, cost-effective, integrated and environmentally safe rail services, products, and solutions to the North American and international railroad industry, rail transportation users, transit agencies, and governments, that reflects "A NEW TRAIN OF THOUGHT ...®". Railmark’s principal operating subsidiaries are RAILMARK TRACK WORKS INC., RAILMARK RAIL SERVICES INC., RAILMARK INDUSTRIAL RAILWAY INC., YREKA WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY, and TRAIN TRAVEL, INC. Railmark offers the industry’s only EPA-approved and USDA-designated biobased rail lubricants under its ECORail products line.
