June 15, 2019 – Waiting on a train at the north wye, on the Buster Pike overpass, north of Danville, Ky on the NS CNO&TP First District, during a day of railfanning will fellow photographers, David Higdon Jr, Bryan Burton, Ryan Scott and a Facebookless, Bill Crecco! A great time by all and a great day of railfanning with friends!
June 15, 2019 – RJ Corman’s (RJC) My Old Kentucky Dinner Train with FP7A # 1940 and a string of dining cars, passes the old T.W.Samuels Bourbon buildings, on the RJC Bardstown Line at Deatsville, Kentucky as heads back to Bardstown with its My Old Kentucky Dinner train.
June 15, 2019 – NS 7630 leads a northbound Intermodal as it passes the old depot on the CNO&TP Second District at Danville, Kentucky where it’ll take the NS Louisville District towards Louisville, Ky, at the wye just north of the city.
According to American-rails.com, It used to be called the Rathole Division when it was the Southern Railway and is often remembered as a road with relatively flat and tangent main lines due to the region in which it operated. However, the system did feature its share of steep, circuitous main lines such as Saluda Grade in western North Carolina and its famed “Rathole Division” through Kentucky and Tennessee that reached as far north as Cincinnati.
Technically, this stretch of the Southern main line was known as the 2nd District of subsidiary Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific (CNO&TP), which was plagued for years by numerous tunnels resulting in its famous nickname by the crews which operated over it.
Over the years the Southern worked to daylight or bypass these obstacles as the route saw significant freight tonnage, a task finally completed during the 1960s. Today, the Rathole remains an important artery in Norfolk Southern’s vast network.
June 13, 2019 – BNSF Reroute, CSX R901 with 9101 and 8400 as head end power, approach the Hwy 41 overpass at Mortons Gap, Kentucky as it heads south on the Henderson Subdivision with a loaded coal train.
June 15, 2019 – RJ Corman 1941 and 1940 pull the evening My Old Kentucky Dinner train as it pulls past one of the many rickhouses, used to store bourbon, as it heads into Bardstown, Kentucky on it’s return trip.
June 21, 2019 – A bald eagle surveys its domain from the perch of a old tree in the wetlands just off of Highway 70 west between Madisonville and Richland, Ky, where I live. While this shot isn’t truly a waiting on a train photo, you can barely see the Paducah and Louisville Railway line through the trees in the lower part of the frame.
June 20, 2019 – CSXT 5412 leads Q501-20 as it makes its way through the S curve at Nortonville, Ky as it head south on the Henderson Subdivision on track 1.