Nostalgia & History > Cincinnati Railroads, December 1974

Nine days of leave in December 1974 afforded me three days to shoot the Queen City's (my hometown) railroads. The weather was a far cry from the sun and warmth of Southern California in which I had spent the last year, but you play the hand your dealt.

1. First image was DT&I GP40 #402 leading a northbound train of Louisville & Nashville lake coal through Ivorydale Junction, Ohio.

2. As I headed south over the Ohio River, I saw a southbound Southern freight on their bridge. I continued driving south to Walton, Kentucky, where I shot SD35 #3088 on the point of this train. The bridge visible in the distance carries the Southern main line over L&N's Cincinnati-Louisville Short Line.

3. Relocating to Erlanger, Kentucky, I shot a work/wreck train passing by the station behind GP7 #8229.

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4. B&O GP40 #4035 brought a southbound pool train through Erlanger.

5. Pool train continued south at Crittenden, Kentucky.

6. Final train of the day was this L&N freight, southbound on the Short Line, crossing Bank Lick Creek trestle five mlles south of Latonia, Kentucky. Over the years the Short Line was a favorite of mine to railfan, from the day I turned 16 and got my driver's license. Why? I'll just quote from Ingles and Hamilton's recently released "Cincinnati Railroad Heritage, Color Pictorial 1950s-1970s": "The 'Short Line,' as L&N's roller-coaster 101-mile route to Louisville is universally known, has many curves, trestles, and grades--nearly 25 percent of the line has climbs of 1 percent or more." After experiencing the glories of Tehachapi 1973-74, I began to consider the Short Line my "eastern Tehachapi."

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7. U23B #2716 was on the point of this Louisville-bound manifest.

8. Weather was much the same for my second day of railfanning. Here a southbound Southern train crosses into Kentucky at Ludlow, with SD35 #3052 on the point.

9. I again relocated to Walton, Kentucky. This time I framed the southbound passing beneath the classic wooden highway bridge that I had previously shot from.

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10. For whatever reason, perhaps the approaching holiday, traffic died down. On the way home, I assuaged my disappointment by lensing B&O GP30 #6928 crossing Mill Creek south of the former location of the Winton Place station.

11. My final day of railfanning, after Christmas Day, brought sun...and the coldest temperatures of my leave period. In early morning light, Southern SD45 #3109 brought its charge up Erlanger Hill at Crescent Springs, Kentucky.

12. I crossed back over to the north side of the Ohio River and drove to Glendale, Ohio, which was a location that had been within bike riding distance of my home. I had shot many a poor black and white or Kodacolor image with my Instamatic at the B&O depot in Glendale, sipping a Coke waiting for the crossing gates to drop. Now I occasioned on a first, Georgia & Florida hack #6900 on the back of the B&O switcher working the local.

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13. The B&O crew invited me up to the cab of their GP. Told of an approaching southbound, I moved outside to shoot C&O GP38 #4826 bringing southbound Train #94 through Glendale. I like this shot because it shows that center siding that B&O used to effect meets and stab the locals so superior trains could pass in either direction.

14. Final train of my leave period was this Chessie System freight dropping downgrade from C&O's Cheviot Yard to the Ohio River plain in the Mill Creek Valley. My father was driving me out to Greater Cincinnati Airport for my LAX-bound flight. But he had to make a delivery at Deaconess Hospital (he was a detail man for Merck for 40 years), and never one to pass up an opportunity, I asked him to go via Cheviot Yard. Seeing this southbound ready to depart, he dropped me off beneath one of the five trestles that carried the C&O line down to Mill Creek Valley. While he "worked" so did I, lensing this southbound on a very cold late December morning.

Four days later I was shooting on SP in San Timoteo Canyon. Those were the days!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/12 02:11 by captrr.

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Nice photo essay thanks for sharing!

Chris

Very nice shots - thank you for sharing!

Rob H.
Keymar, MD

Great times in the good old days.
JB

Is that Bank Lick Trestle that the L&N U-23b is on? I remember riding behind the 614 on an excursion to Louisville in May ,81 across that bridge. Great stuff. Got more?B

mopacrr, yes that is the same trestle you crossed behind laboring #614 in '81. I was there for that occasion, and have already posted those shots on TO. I'm not too sure how you search the archives, but they are there.

Re more Cincy area shots, yes, I just finished '75, which is very short, as I arrived on Christmas Eve due to a "special weapons" inspection that kept me in San Diego much later than intended. Then, when I got to Cincy, a lot of snow came with me. I got one day of shooting in and that was it. Roads were too bad, and I didn't want to tear my mother's car up. But I've also already scanned Cincinnati Roads '77 and '78 which have quite a few slides. I have to convert the color profile, etc., but I should be posting them in the next week or so.

I don't want to overload TO with Cincy shots, as I recognize much of the clientele is Western Lines oriented. But there is still some good stuff, particularly on L&N's Short Line, that should garner some interest. But I've only scanned a little over 5,000 slides to date...and still have about 18,000 to go, including a lot of BN-SF-D&RGW Joint Line work (700+) I did between Castle Rock and Pueblo '93-'96. At least I won't be scratchin' my head and wondering what to do when I finally retire!

Outstanding pictures.

Please overload TO with Cincy area photos. Cincinnati had a tremendously large number of railroads in that time period and is great to see them.

Keep them coming.

Never refrain from posting the eastern US photos!

After looking at the Blank Lick trestle at Google. I panned to the right to the Licking River trestle. I noticed an abandoned lighter weight trestle adjacent to it. Was this used by an interurban railroad?

BaltoJoey

That was a utilities bridge use to carry gas and water mains.

I do remember the photos you posted,but it looked like trestle curved to the left, and the photo of the L&N unit looked like curved to the right. In any case I can look them up. Great stuff keep it coming.

Keep them coming. Especially the shots of Cheviot Hill operations. That line isn't often shown in photos.

Dale

Don't hesitate to post eastern shots, it's about time things evened out on here.