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Amqui Train Station | History
In 1850, Kentucky was granted a charter for building and operating a railroad from Louisville to the Tennessee state line in the direction of Nashville. In 1852, the General Assembly of Tennessee granted a charter to the Edgefield and Kentucky 
Railroad to build a railway line connecting Bowling Green and Clarksville. The Louisville and Nashville (L & N) is born. Madison Stratton, a leader within the Haysboro community, sold land to Charles E. Woodruff on which a new station and tracks could be built. In his honor, the town was renamed “Madison Station,’ which would later be shortened to just Madison.
With the start of the Civil War in 1861, the Confederate and the Union armies had reason to be concerned about the area around Madison Station, as the railroad including the Louisville Branch and Gallatin Turnpikes, were firmly established at this time.
In 1864, Confederate General John B. Hood conducted raised against Federal rail lines to Chattanooga. Sherman sent troops to Tennessee, where they defeat the Confederates in battle near Nashville. The Confederates retreat from Tennessee for the last time, leaving the state’s railways completely in Federal hands.
Tennessee’s railroads are damaged with most of its railroad companies in financial straits by the close of the Civil War. The governor set about reconstructing the entire railroad system and by 1869, the General Assembly had appropriated millions of dollars for railroad companies.
By 1873, Madison Station was described in the Nashville City Directory as a “small station of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.” In 1910 Amqui Station was built and the community continued to grow around a switching train depot that changed the landscape of the community. At its height, Amqui served as many as 40 to 50 trains daily.
With the need for modernization of the switching and signaling railway system, L & N vacated Amqui in the second half of the 20th century.
In 1979, country music superstar Johnny Cash purchased the old train depot because of his great love of trains. He moved Amqui Station to his property in Hendersonville, a suburb northeast of Madison, and restored it to display his collection of train memorabilia.
Over the years, Amqui Station served not only as a mini-museum adjacent to the House of Cash, but also as an antique shop for June Carter Cash’s vintage treasures collected during her international travels.
Upon Cash’s death in 2003, Halo Properties purchased Amqui Station and donated it back to Madison. It returned home in June 2006 to be revitalized as a museum and an education center.
After many fundraising efforts, which are still ongoing, Amqui was put on its’ final foundation in May of 2008. In July 2008, the top the station was rejoined with the bottom. Now it is ready for the restoration process!