Railroads
The first railroad through Clarksville was the Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville Railroad, which began service Oct. 1, 1859. The line eventually connected with other railroads at Paris, Tenn., and Guthrie, Ky. After service interruption during the Civil War and an 11-day strike that began Feb. 6, 1868, the railroad’s financial woes mounted. In 1872 the railroad was purchased by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, the namesake of the 
L&N Railroad Station, still standing on 10th Street downtown. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad operated trains between Guthrie and Memphis as its Memphis Branch. Traffic continued to decline, and the last passenger train, the “Night Train to Memphis,” stopped at Clarksville in February 1968. Freight service continued over the line into the following decades. CSX, the subsequent owner of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, sold the line to R.J. Corman in 1987, and the regional railroad still operates trains over the line. A second railroad – the Indiana, Alabama and Texas Railroad, incorporated on Feb. 22, 1882 – operated a 36 mile line between Clarksville and Gracey, Ky. A third railroad – the Tennessee Central Railway – opened in 1903 and connected Harriman and Hopkinsville, Ky. A portion of the former Tennessee Central line, between Ashland City and Nashville, is still in use as a short line railroad.