Railroad Forums 

Discussion relating to the B&O up to it's 1972 merger into Chessie System. Visit the B&O Railroad Historical Society for more information. Also discussion of the C&O up to 1972. Visit the C&O Historical Society for more information. Also includes the WM up to 1972. Visit the WM Historical Society for more information.
 #57218  by william powers
 
Over the years, there were B&O stub trains providing through cars to the B&O mainline trains between Cincinnati and St Louis.. The line that I am familiar with came north from Louisville Central Station via Charlestown.. I have seen very little photo documentation of these services that must have lasted to about 1960. Does the North Vernon station still stand.. Any young-at-heart photo documenters of this operation? Or passengers? whp

 #59923  by MR77100
 
I am sure the B&O station at North Vernon is still standing. The diamond with the PRR Madison branch is still there. I videotaped a CSX train hitting the diamond in May, 2001. CSX recently filed to abandon the B&O east of North Vernon to Cincy. Lately they have been using it for detours, and perhaps they will see the value in it and not rip it up. Maybe....

 #209200  by Erie2532
 
I rode that line once during WWII. At that time they had about five trains each way. Most of them connected with main line trains at North Vernon but a couple of them continued on to Cincinnati. Ted

 #261559  by mmi16
 
As a young Telegrapher I had the opportunity to work the Operator postions at North Vernon and asl WS Tower at Watson on the branch to Louisville.

My most vivid memory of North Vernon was attempting to hand up train orders to Eastbound trains. The Madison Branch diamond was not inerlocked, it was a 'Statutory Stop' for B&O trains, that could proceed if the diamond was no occupied. Eastbound the grade was slightly decending, the Eastbound Trailer Trains and hot merchandise trains had plenty of power. After making the stop for the diamond, the engineers would be heavy on the throttle, accelerating the train on the decending grade. While the head end of the train passed the depot at a walk, and was thus easy to hand up train orders, the caboose (yes they had occupied cabooses back then) would be rolling 40-50 MPH as the rear of the train crossed the diamond, and diamonds being what they are.....a dust and dirt generator...made being able to see the markers of the caboose difficult (one doesn't want to be close to a moving train except when absolutely necessary - for safety reasons) then to move into position to hand up the train orders.

WS Tower was outside Jeffersonville, IN and was a interlocking with the PRR for entry into the Charlestown Ammo Depot - which was a big deal in WW II but was no longer being utilized in the late 60's. Walking the limits of the interlocking on the PRR trackage one was blocked by trees growing in the middle of the track....inidicative of the fact that the PRR had not used the interlocking since the WW II days, however ICC regulations in force at the time prevented the PRR from abandoning the trackage and it was the B&O Signal maintainers responsibility to see that all the siwtches and signals for the PRR routes were in operating condition, even though it would require a small army of loggers for the PRR to ever be able to operate at train again.

 #368540  by CPL Signal
 
MR77100 wrote:I am sure the B&O station at North Vernon is still standing. The diamond with the PRR Madison branch is still there. I videotaped a CSX train hitting the diamond in May, 2001. CSX recently filed to abandon the B&O east of North Vernon to Cincy. Lately they have been using it for detours, and perhaps they will see the value in it and not rip it up. Maybe....
To update this thread to 2007, this line is currently seeing a revival and is far from being abandoned. In fact, CSX is placing money into the line to help reverse some of the neglect that has taken place.

Look for traffic to remain on this line for the forseeable future.

CPL
 #1425508  by majordad
 
While I don't have much to add to the conversation; I would like to comment on the fact that grandfather (died in 1938) worked on the B&O between Cinci and St. Louis...I am not sure of his job title but, he lived in Seymour, IN and boarded the train in Seymour. He would either head east or west depending?? His name was John "Hap" Sage. I also had a great uncle, Hap's brother, James Sage who was killed in a train accident near Rivervale (Mitchell), IN in 1913. He was just in his early 20's when he died and had only worked on the railroad for about 2-3 months. I am working on my first N Scale layout (69 years old) and want to model the B&O during the transitional period of the late 30's, 40's, and 50's.

:-)