Steam & Excursion > C&O Elevated Trackage Louisville 1945

C&O Eastbound "George Washington" departing Louisville Ky with doubleheaded Pacifics in 1945. The trackage was owned by ICRR and used by IC, C&O and (preiously) NYC Big Four to reach Central Station at the foot of 7th street, All this trackage was removed for the construction of I-64. The steamboat is the Greene Lines "Gordon C, Greene" which was retired after they acquired the "Delta queen".
The PRR (now L&I) bridge appears in the background. The photo was taken by H. R. "Doc" Blackburn and is now in my collection- JH



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/16 21:27 by Panamerican99.

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Great photo thanks for posring!
 

Super great photo! Especially interesting for me being a Louisville native and lifelong resident except for living four and one half years in Winston Salem.
Central Station together with its platforms and tracks were demolished for construction of I-64. At about the same time, the IC elevated was reduced to single track; and the trackage into LG&E’s Water Street Station was taken out due to its conversion to gas.
The single track elevated remained until it was taken out in the spring of 1985 for waterfront redevelopment. In fact, IC discontinued using the elevated about four years before the line was dismantled. This resulted from the C&O discontinuing operating a freight train into Preston Street Yard because of the CSX merger.
Coincidentally, on August 14, I posted "Derailment On IC Elevated Riverfront Line Aug 13 1971".
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4097462
ALLEN

I was born in 1971, and I remember going to the King Fish restaurant at 4th and River Road with my family and watching IC trains pass on the (by that time) single track line that ran parallel to the river.  Supposedly, the train crews would stop at the restaurant and run in to get fish sandwiches.  They were probably stopped due to a signal indication.  The site of this photo is not too far from there, but obviously earlier when the railroad configuration was different (and no I-64).

Neat photo.  Thanks for posting.

Scott Griggs
Louisville, KY

I think you are off a bit on your timelines.

The Short Route (a wholly-owned IC subsidiary) was single tracked from the PRR junction at around 14th St. to just east of the 7th St. overpass, but the elevated double track on the trestle work stayed in place until at least mid-1977. It ran east under the Belvidere, past the LG&E plant, and came down to ground level at Floyd. St. You could stand on the Belvidere and look down on the Paducah Rebuild barking away in 8th run headed to the Big 4 with the C&O cut, which was
mostly tank cars and usually heavy.

Big 4 (PC) crews did the switching for C&O and made up the C&O outbound train. Similarly, they switched the inbound C&O train, delivered any interchange routed to the L&N at Floyd St., then shoved any IC, K&IT, and PRR (PC) cars into one of the elevated tracks.

An IC engine from Oak St. delivered the IC interchange plus any PRR interchange to the Big 4 yard, then did any Floyd St. switching (there were still a few industries there, such as Borders Meats and Belknap Hardware) then shoved the cut from the Big 4 back to the coach yard, at about 11th or 12th St., delivered the PRR cars there, delivered the K&IT cars to them at the Panama (which, in another life, was B&O's access to Central Station) which was just west of where the PRR crossed over the Panama at Clagg Tower (the drawbridge over the Portland Canal entrance).  Then they ran around the rest.....after grabbing a bite at Kingfish, and went back to Oak St.  I think the Kingfish was at 7th St.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/16 10:29 by Realist.

Realist is correct. I worked the ICG's "River Job" switchers out of Oak Street yard many times. And yes, we patronized Kingfish a lot. 

Great photo Jim.  Thansk for sharing it. 
Regarding the "Short Route," that segment of track was a vital link in Huntington's Chesapeake & Ohio Southwestern. He had to pay a lot more for it than he intended but it was necessary for his envisioned transcontinental railroad. When Huntington's dream disintegrated, the IC bought the C&OSW which included that trackage.  
Since we're looking at Louisville's waterfront, a bit of trivia. Although it served Louisville, the only trackage that the C&O owned in the city was an elevated segment that came off of L&N's Water Street lead and went west to tie into the Big Four (L&JB&RR) just east of the latter company's yard already mentioend above.   

Realist,

I think you're right on the location of the old Kingfish restaurant.  It was on the site what is now the Muhammed Ali Center, which is between 6th and 7th at River Road.  I was off when I said 4th.  That is where the Galt House Hotel is.  :-)

Scott Griggs
Louisville, KY

Yeah, somewhere in that vicinity. Across the street from the parking garage, IIRC.

Long ago, there used to be a heck of a good hamburger joint someplace in the vicinity of the Galt House. Looked like a grounded street car.

For a few years before it was torn down, Central Station was home to Actors Theatre.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/16 15:12 by Realist.

Realist Wrote:
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> Yeah, somewhere in that vicinity. Across the
> street from the parking garage, IIRC.
>
> Long ago, there used to be a heck of a good
> hamburger joint someplace in the vicinity of the
> Galt House. Looked like a grounded street car.
>
> For a few years before it was torn down, Central
> Station was home to Actors Theatre.


I think you're remembering a small hamburger chain called 'Ollie's Trolley'.  There's only one left in Louisville now.

Scott Griggs

 

An incredable image from a space that I travel each day via I-64. Thank you for sharing. Now do you have in your collectiion a train crossing the Big Four bridge? That I would love to see.