Railroads

Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railroad: Cincinnati Spring Grove Industrial Track

The Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railroad (B&O SW) Spring Grove Industrial Track was located in Cincinnati, Ohio and is currently out-of-service.

Brimstone & New River Railroad

The Brimstone & New River Railroad is a disused railroad from the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (CNO&TP, Cincinnati Southern) at New River, Tennessee southeast to Lone Mountain. Chartered as the Brimstone Railroad by the W.M. Ritter Lumber company of Virginia, the logging line followed Brimstone Creek and featured lightweight, unballasted track. The line came to fruition after Ritter purchased the New River Lumber Company. The railroad featured a branch within nearly every hollow, with tracks that ascended the mountains via switchbacks. The Brimstone, from Slick Rock north, was paralleled by the earlier Knoxville and New River Railroad (K&NR). The line operated three shay locomotives.

Chesapeake and Ohio Dawkins Subdivision

The former Chesapeake & Ohio Dawkins Subdivision extends from Dawkins, near West Van Lear, to Evanston and is 36.13 miles long. The former coal-hauling branch has since been abandoned, although it may be converted into a rail-to-trail. It featured three grades of one to one and a quarter percent, and two tunnels.

Chesapeake and Ohio Hawks Nest Subdivision

The Chesapeake and Ohio abandoned the steep rail grade that traveled from Ansted to Hawks Nest, West Virginia from 1890 to 1972. Today, the graveled and dirt trail features two trestles and views of the old mines and support functions for the railroad.

Chesapeake and Ohio Middle Creek Subdivision

Chesapeake and Ohio Middle Creek Subdivision is owned by CSX Transportation and is located from the Big Sandy Subdivision at Prestonsburg to David. It has not been abandoned, although it has not been used in years.

Chicago, Cincinnati and Louisville Railroad

The Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville was the shortest route between Cincinnati and Chicago. Today, much of the line has been abandoned.

Cincinnati, Columbus and Hocking Valley Railroad

The Cincinnati, Columbus and Hocking Valley Railroad is a defunct railroad that was later purchased by the Ohio Southern, and was a route extending from Sedalia to Kingman via Jeffersonville, Ohio. It was once proposed as a connection between Columbus and Cincinnati generally along what is now the Interstate 71 corridor.

Cincinnati and Eastern Railroad

The Cincinnati and Eastern Railway (C&E) was a railroad from Idlewild in Norwood, near Cincinnati, to Portsmouth, Ohio. At its western terminus, it connected with the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern (CL&N) and the Pennsylvania Railroad Richmond Division (PRR), and to a Norfolk & Western line at its eastern terminus.

Cincinnati and Muskingum Valley Railroad

The Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley connected the cities of Morrow, Wilmington, Washington Court House, Circleville, Zanesville and Trinway in Ohio.

Cincinnati and Westwood Railroad

The Cincinnati & Westwood was a short lived suburban railway from the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton to Westwood, then a suburb of Cincinnati. It carried very little traffic from its inception to its closure in 1941.

Cincinnati, Georgetown and Portsmouth Railroad

The Cincinnati and Portsmouth Railway Company was incorporated in March 1873, tasked with constructing a railroad from Cincinnati, Ohio eastward to Portsmouth along the Ohio River. It was later renamed to the Cincinnati, Georgetown and Portsmouth Railroad, although the railroad only reached Russellville, east of Georgetown, before running out of funding.

Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton

Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St Louis and Chicago Railroad (Big Four)

Cincinnati Lebanon and Northern Railway

The Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway (CL&N) was a railroad in southwest Ohio, connecting Cincinnati to Dayton via Lebanon.

Cincinnati Southern

The Cincinnati-owned and financed Cincinnati Southern began operations at King's Mountain, Kentucky, and extended north to Cincinnati and south to Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is part of the Norfolk Southern line today.

Cincinnati Street Connecting Railway

The Cincinnati Street Connecting Railway was a short 2.5 mile line along Cincinnati, Ohio's riverfront, connecting the Indianapolis & Cincinnati and Little Miami.

College Hill Railroad

The College Hill Railroad was a line connecting the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton at Spring Grove Avenue in Cincinnati, Ohio, to the College Hill and Mt. Healthy neighborhoods to the north. An extension to Ross was once planned but never constructed. Due to competition from an adjoining streetcar line, the railroad was electrified and became an interurban, before succumbing to financial troubles in 1938.

Covington and Lexington Railroad

Includes the abandoned Paris, Kentucky depot.

Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad

The Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad (DT&I) is a defunct railroad that had its beginnings as the Iron Railroad Company, which connected Ironton to the coal and timber reserves in southern Ohio. Through acquisitions and mergers, the DT&I stretched for over 370 miles from Ironton to the automobile manufacturing plants in Michigan.

Flemingsburg and Northern Railroad

The Flemingsburg and Northern Railroad was a standard-gauge railroad that existed from the Louisville & Nashville line at Flemingsburg Junction, Kentucky to Flemingsburg. It was financially plagued and reorganized on seven different occasions before being abandoned in 1955.

Hocking Valley Railway

An overview of the Hocking Valley Railway, including the Gallipolis, McArthur & Columbus Railroad and the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway in southeast Ohio.

Little Miami Railroad

Chartered as Ohio's second railroad, the Little Miami connected Cincinnati to Xenia and Springfield. It later connected with Columbus. The Little Miami was one of the most profitable railroads in the United States, although its usage and importance declined after World War II. After consolidations and mergers, the Little Miami was dismantled in 1976, and was revived less than a decade later as the longest rail to trail in the United States.

Louisville, Cincinnati and Lexington Railroad

The Louisville, Cincinnati and Lexington Railroad connects Louisville, Kentucky to Cincinnati, Ohio. It later became part of the Louisville & Nashville and is part of the CSX Transportation system today.

Marietta and Cincinnati

The Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad (M&C) is a defunct railroad that connected Cincnnnati, Ohio to Parkersburg, West Virginia. Through acquisitions during the 1800s, the M&C commanded over 270 miles of railroad, from Cincinnati to Marietta and south to Portsmouth and Hillsboro. The line was later absorbed into the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern, and some of the route has been dismantled.

Michigan Central Station

Michigan Central Station, located in the Corktown district of Detroit, Michigan, was constructed in mid-1913 for the Michigan Central Railroad at a cost of $15 million. Replacing an earlier passenger rail depot that had burned, the station boasted decent ridership until post-World War II. Attempts were made to sell the station during the 1950s and 1960s due to sharply falling passenger counts, and was nearly closed until Amtrak renovated the station in the 1970s. The last train rolled out in 1988.

Norfolk and Western Twelve Pole

The Norfolk & Western, as part of the Ohio Extension from Elkhorn, West Virginia to Coal Grove, Ohio, snaked through the mountainous canyons throughout the rich coalfields. A part of this alignment, from Lenore to Wayne, West Virginia, was abandoned in 1933 when improvements were made to the line along the Big Sandy River.

Norfolk Western Portsmouth, Ohio Depot

Oneida and Western Railroad

The Oneida & Western Railroad is an abandoned rail line between Jamestown and Oneida, Tennessee. The line served vast pockets of virgin timber and coal mines before it was abandoned in 1954 after many years of financial troubles.

Gallery

Chesapeake and Ohio Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Spur

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (USEC), located in Piketon, Ohio, was part of a United States government program to produce highly enriched uranium to fuel nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. Operations began in 1954 and ended in May 2001, when enrichment operations were moved to Paducah, Kentucky. In 2002, transfer and shipping operations were also consolidated at Paducah. Today, the USEC is home to the American Centrifuge Demonstration Facility and work has begun on the American Centrifuge Plant, a next-generation uranium enrichment facility.

The plant was served by a Chesapeake and Ohio spur from Germany westward, which was constructed prior to the USEC's opening in 1954. It included a significant trestle above Happy Hollow. The line was dismantled some time after 1995 and before 2006. The facility was also served by the Norfolk Western, now known as Norfolk Southern, from the west, which remains active.