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Site
Notes
01/28/23
History and additional photos
of the Cincinnati Western Railroad have been posted. The search
for the tunnel portals stalled with no timeline for picking back
up. However, the information and photos that were gathered are
ready for sharing.
02/27/22
Catching up on some overdue photo updates, I have revised galleries of the CM&B, East Walnut Hills and O'Bryonville streetcars, and Hyde Park and Madisonville streetcars. Thanks to Anthony Wood at Tap Wood Farm
for photos of old CM&B bridge abutments at Stonelick Creek, and
Kerry Devery for photos of exposed rails at Madison and Kenwood in
Madisonville.
01/25/22
I have finally completed a major update to the
history of the Cincinnati, Lawrenceburg
& Aurora Electric Street Railroad.
What was originally a somewhat anemic write-up has
become one of the most comprehensive. While no
books have been published on its history, the late
Earl Clark Jr. had amassed a great deal of
resources, including numerous photographs from the
collection of the late Cliff Scholes, among others,
that I have added to the galleries of the main line and Harrison branch.
Many thanks to Bill Van Doren for loaning me Earl's
research. Additional thanks go to Lou Lockwood
and Robert Deffinger for providing more historical
information.
The extensive CL&A updates include a revised map, which has already
been online for a couple of weeks while I've ironed
out performance issues and tested a new production
workflow. In addition I imported a much better
quality base road map for Montgomery County.
Since the CL&A history is very much intertwined
with that of the adjacent Big Four
Railroad (now I&O CIND), I updated its
history as well, including additional relevant photos. I expect
to have some minor tweaks to these pages here and
there, but they're now ready for publication.
04/13/21
The written history of the Dayton & Cincinnati Short Line
Railroad and the Deer Creek Tunnel has been
greatly expanded with additional information and
photos/diagrams. Those and a few additional photos
have also been added to a new gallery.
Because it relates so closely to the CL&N, that
history and gallery
has been updated as well, adding some new photos of
the Oak Street Tunnel, a dug up industrial siding on
Bedinger Street, a drawing of the railroad trestle
above Accommodation Street prior to filling in the
creek, and a few new photos in Lebanon as well.
Extensive updates to the CL&A history and
concomitant map updates are still in progress
pending verification of some last bits of
information. This will include a heretofore nearly
unknown route along Miamiview Avenue and the Lost
Bridge to Elizabethtown, which only operated from
1900 to 1903 at which point the Lost Bridge burned
down. I have also obtained photos of the bridge
reconstruction at the Great Miami River at Cleves
after the 1913 flood, as well as a photo of the
power house after it was destroyed by an explosion
in 1915. Many thanks to Bill Van Doren for relaying
the information and photographs from the collection
of the late Earl Clark, Jr.
Updated history and additional photos of the Cincinnati Western
Railroad's Roll Hill Tunnel are also
forthcoming, including photos of the tunnel breach
near the west portal at Baltimore Avenue in the
1970s, and current photos of the east portal
location and associated spoils below Faraday Road.
Precisely locating both portals is a project that's
been in the works for the last couple weeks and is
continuing unabated. Once that settles down a bit
the information and photos will be posted.
01/09/21
Two new galleries have been added to the site,
showing the route of the Dayton & Western Traction
Company including the New
Paris branch. The history has been tweaked a
little bit as well to add some additional (but still
incomplete) information about the Richmond freight
bypass. More photos have been added to the Pennsylvania/Little
Miami Railroad showing the grade separation
project from 1913-1917 near Kemper Lane, Delta
Avenue, and at McCullough showing the CG&P spur
and Donham Avenue Viaduct. The CG&P
and adjacent IR&T Eastern and Suburban
division galleries also add the photos at Donham
along with the IR&T carbarn at Coney Island and
a new aerial of the CG&P trestle at Lunken
Airport. The photos of the CG&P track along
Kellogg near Carrel, Donham, and Congress have
updated captions as well, indicating some question
about the original street alignment and where tracks
ran before the IR&T was abandoned. The C&LE
gallery adds an additional photo in Mt. Healthy
showing a car en route. The CM&B
gallery has a few minor tweaks, including the
removal of two photos that mis-identified the
right-of-way crossing OH-727 in Wayne Township. A
few streetcar galleries got minor grammatical
corrections, and two new historic photos were added
showing Madison Road in East Walnut Hills.
Updates to come include some photos of the derelict
CL&A
carbarn in North Bend as well as construction of the
widened cut in the hill for US-50 next to the former
Big Four
CIND. Minor map updates will include the
aforementioned carbarn, a correction to the
alignment of the CL&N
spur track to Montgomery, and an additional CL&N
spur track to the Highland Grove amusement park in
Blue Ash, also known as Winslow Park, north of
Pfeiffer near Hickory Trail Lane. Also, historic
aerials indicate that the C&LE track between Mt.
Healthy and Forest Park may have switched sides of
the road a couple of times. That needs a bit more
research. Now that the Dayton & Western photos
are finished these and other smaller photo updates
should be able to come more expeditiously.
Longer-term I want to get at least some basic
historical write-ups done of the two interurbans
between Dayton and Xenia, the Springfield &
Xenia, and the Miamisburg & Germantown.
06/21/20
New photos have been added to the Kenton County Kentucky gallery
showing end of the line loops for the Homan, Eastern
Avenue, Latonia, and Rosedale lines, as well as
photos of the old main office and interchange area
at Court Street and Park Place. The map has
been updated as well with some minor labeling
corrections, as well as tweaks to the Cincinnati &
Fayetteville grading location between
Newtonsville and Lake Lorelei, and a correction to
the Newport
& Alexandria interurban route in Highland
Heights. It also notes the dissolution of both
Amelia and Newtonsville, though their old borders
will remain.
03/14/20
A major update to the photo galleries has finally
been completed.
Since Apple discontinued development and
maintenance of Aperture, which I used both
for photo editing and web gallery generation for
nearly 10 years, I needed to come up with a new
workflow. Aperture no longer runs on recent versions
of macOS, and it hasn't worked particularly well for
the past few years even anyway. The built-in web
gallery templates also can't accommodate
high-resolution screens or mobile-friendly
responsive site design. I switched over my sports photo processing and
management to Capture One Pro a couple years
ago, but I hadn't found a reliable way to convert my
Aperture catalog to the new software and come up
with a web gallery solution, since Capture One
doesn't have those features. I have since managed to
move the photo catalog to Capture One and made new
galleries with the software jAlbum.
It's a two-step process which isn't as clean as
before, but the available templates and features
look like they should work well going forward. So
all of the photo galleries have been regenerated
with the new system, including numerous additions
and improvements.
With the new system I was able to clean up some of
the image processing, and I updated captions to
cover things that have been since removed or
changed, at least that I'm aware of. As mentioned
before, the galleries now support high-resolution
screens and mobile devices, providing much better
image quality than before. There is also a download
button for even higher resolution photos that are
very handy for maps and some of the highly detailed
historical photos. Thanks to Jeff Smith, there's now
photographs of the outer reaches of the N&W
Peavine from Sardinia out through McDermott. I
made tweaks to the Peavine history page to cover some
recent operational changes and the renaming of the
Cincinnati East Terminal Railway to the Cincinnati
Eastern Railroad. Mike Pillman also contributed some
photos of the Little Miami Railroad. The C&LE
gallery now has photos of Lindenwald with some
freight siding tracks still in place. Overall
there's numerous other additions to historic photos,
and a handful of recent ones as well, which are too
numerous and scattered around to mention
individually. Because of the software transition,
it's very likely that some captions or other
information is missing or out of sequence. Please let me know if you find
anything amiss. Converting the index page and
historical write-ups to a more mobile-friendly
responsive design will take a little more work, but
that's a project for later.
About
this Site
Background
The growth and development of cities throughout the
world is profoundly influenced by the modes of
transportation available to them. Until the 19th
century, walking was the only way to get around
town. Horses and carriages were generally only used
for traveling between cities or by the wealthy. For
the vast majority of folks, walking was their main
mode of travel on a daily basis. Regardless of the
time and the method of transit, on average people
don't want to spend more than about 30 minutes to
get anywhere on a regular basis. This limited the
size of the walking city to about two miles across.
The historical center of most European cities, as
well as many east coast cities in the United States,
were first developed in this walking age. The
centers of London, Paris, New York, Boston, and
Charleston all grew in this time. It wasn't until
the introduction of the railroads that things
started to change.
At first, railroads didn't affect the size of
cities much. They linked the city with the
countryside, spurring the growth of country towns
where farmers brought their produce to be shipped to
the city by train. Here in Ohio, any town with a
population over 5,000 had a railroad connection of
some sort. Towns such as Loveland, Montgomery,
Springdale, Sharonville, and Newtown started in this
way. In the big cities though, the change was
increasing industrialization of certain areas of the
city where the railroads had their yards and other
support facilities. With the exception of some
wealthy railroad commuter suburbs like Glendale,
Wyoming, and 19th century Norwood, most people still
had to live within walking distance of work and
their everyday needs, as the railroad was too
expensive to use on a daily basis.
Although the railroads didn't start to change the
growth pattern of cities significantly in
themselves, with the exception of large cities with
massive commuter rail networks like New York,
Chicago, London, Paris, and others, some of the
railroad's spin off technologies did change cities
of all shapes and sizes. The development of steel
rails and steam engines allowed for the construction
of horsecar and cable car lines, as well as
Cincinnati's famous inclines. These allowed more
than just the very wealthy, who could afford to take
a horse and carriage from neighborhoods like Clifton
or East Walnut Hills to downtown, to start moving
farther away from the increasingly crowded and
polluted central city. It wasn't until the
development of reliable electric traction motors
that the spreading out of cities began in earnest.
In the late 1800's, slow and unreliable horsecar
lines began converting to electric streetcars. While
horsecar lines in some cities reached several miles
from downtown, such as in Chicago, the topography of
Cincinnati meant that they couldn't operate
effectively to the hilltop communities. Cable cars
work great in hilly terrain like Cincinnati and San
Francisco, and even Chicago had an extensive system,
but they were still slow, required extensive
maintenance, and were prone to mechanical
breakdowns. Electric streetcars were much faster and
more reliable, so except in a few rare cases they
replaced all the horsecar and cable car lines that
preceded them. The streetcar systems which developed
allowed cities to grow from two miles across to
nearly 10 miles. Just about every neighborhood
within the boundaries of the City of Cincinnati,
outside of the core downtown and adjacent basin
neighborhoods, grew during the streetcar's
ascendancy.
At the same time, the interurbans took streetcar
technology and applied it to longer-distance travel.
They linked the city with the country much as the
railroads had, but they provided more frequent and
less expensive service. Unfortunately, just as
quickly as the interurbans sprang up, they quickly
disappeared due to competition from private
automobiles and paved public highways. By the time
of the Great Depression, most were gone. The
streetcars hung on for another couple decades, but
most of them disappeared by the 1950's.
Today, basically all cities in the United States,
and more and more around the world, are completely
dependent on the automobile, and to a lesser extent
the diesel bus. The many neighborhoods and towns
that grew up around the streetcars, interurbans, and
railroads in most cases no longer have the
transportation that they were built around. They
have to function in a car-oriented society, and
while some have been able to survive, many of these
older neighborhoods are dysfunctional in some
respect if not completely failing. Few people today
remember the streetcars, let alone the interurbans.
Today's mainline railroads are seen more as an
annoyance when a large freight train holds up
traffic, and their role as the lifeblood of small
towns and big cities is mostly forgotten. I hope by
documenting as much of the history of these rail
systems as I can, that more people will understand
and appreciate the significant impact they had on
the growth of not only Cincinnati, but nearly every
city in the United States.
Other
Resources
Many large cities around the country have web sites
with information about former transit systems. It's
not difficult to find maps, photos, detailed
history, and commentary on the Chicago 'L', the New
York Subway, or the Pacific Electric in Los Angeles.
For smaller cities like Cincinnati, information can
be pretty hard to come by. There are many very small
systems in cities you wouldn't expect which are
almost completely forgotten. The surface lines of
Charleston, South Carolina aren't documented at all
on the web, and the trolley line which connected
Southern Pines with Pinehurst, North Carolina is a
complete mystery. Even locally, the small streetcar
systems of Hamilton or Springfield have little to no
available published history. Aside from a few short
descriptions, photos or maps are virtually
nonexistent. This is something I am trying to
supply, at least for the greater Cincinnati area.
Most of the information on Cincinnati's transit
history is in books and journals, which are
inaccessible on the internet an are becoming rarer
as time goes on. Wagner & Wright's Cincinnati
Streetcars is an invaluable 10 volume
collection that has numerous historical photographs,
maps, diagrams, and general history. While some
photos are distributed digitally, much of the
historic information is not. Also, most of these
volumes are out of print, and some can be rather
difficult to find. The Cincinnati Historical Society
Library in Union Terminal has all volumes, but they
can't be checked out. Other information is in
pamphlets and local history journals that never had
much circulation outside of their home territory.
Information on the interurbans is spotty. George
Hilton and John Due's The Electric Interurban
Railways in America is the go-to reference for
the interurban industry. It has been recently
republished and is readily available. However, aside
from what I have quoted in the information sections
for each company, there isn't much else in that book
about the specific interurbans in Cincinnati. Some
books have been written on individual interurbans,
however. David McNeil has published books on the
Cincinnati Georgetown & Portsmouth, Cincinnati
& Columbus, the Cincinnati & Lake Erie, and
the Cincinnati Milford & Blanchester. Copies can
be rather difficult to find since they were
self-published. These are excellent resources,
containing maps, pictures, history, news events, and
numerous business records (especially for the
CG&P). Nothing of much substance has been
written specifically about the Cincinnati
Lawrenceburg & Aurora, the Cincinnati &
Hamilton, or the three Interurban Railway &
Terminal lines. The Electric Railway Journal, a
trade publication from the time of streetcar and
interurban building, sometimes wrote articles about
new companies, especially if they used innovative
new technologies. More and more of those are being
digitized and shared, though the thousand-plus page
volumes can be quite cumbersome to read through, and
they mainly only cover the early construction and
operations.
There is an excellent book about local railroads. The
Railroad and the City by Carl Condit provides
very useful information about the history of all
Cincinnati's railroads, and how they've affected
growth throughout the region. There is also some
information on the interurbans. This book was
published in 1977, so it predates the post-Conrail
mergers by CSX and Norfolk Southern, but it is still
an excellent resource. Other railroads have been
dealt with in some capacity by separate authors,
such as the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern in
John Hauck's book Narrow Gauge in Ohio, as
well as the various Pennsylvania Railroad lines and
some of the smaller narrow gauge systems. See the
non-internet references at the bottom of this page
for the full list.
The Map
The map on this site is something I put together
from many drives around town, maps that I've seen in
books, and information from other knowledgeable
folks. Let me start by saying that this map does not
represent the system as it would have appeared at
any one point in time. It's more a map of where
there have ever been streetcar, interurban, and
railroad lines, as if you took all the maps ever
made and overlaid them. The purpose behind this is
for those of us who are curious about whether there
are/were tracks buried under the road they're
driving on, or if the trolley poles holding up the
traffic lights were actually for streetcars, or if a
berm in the woods might be an old right-of-way. I
have tried to differentiate between active and
abandoned railroads, but I cannot be certain that
lines aren't abandoned or just infrequently used. Of
course, all the interurbans and streetcars are gone.
Other transit infrastructure such as tunnels, major
viaducts, canals, and major passenger and freight
stations have also been added. Most of that
information has been gathered from early 1900s USGS
topographic maps. Therefore, some later changes may
have been missed. While I have tried to make
everything as correct as possible, I cannot make any
guarantees about accuracy.
Pictures
While exploring around town looking for information
I took pictures of my on-site reconnaissance. There
are hundreds of photos from all over the area, most
starting around the year 2001. A few pictures depict
scenes that have already changed, removing traces of
transit history that were once obvious. While most
railroad aficionados take pictures of locomotives
and other train movements, my focus is on
rights-of-way, bridges, tunnels, buildings, and
other examples of the physical plant. These are the
things that most people see, but tend to ignore.
What may be the obvious remains of a railroad line
one day can be reduced to a mere memory after road
construction or another building project. Someone
could be living right on top of a line that was once
an immensely important transit route for a community
and not even know it. Photographs help bring to life
some of the history that surrounds us. In more
recent years I have added numerous historical photos
from library archives and generous contributors.
I welcome any feedback, corrections, links,
pictures, or questions you have, don't hesitate to e-mail
me.
Map of Cincinnati's
Streetcars, Interurbans, and Railroads
Click on
the image below to open the map in a new window
Streetcars
- Information
-
- Historical
Information
- Cincinnati route
data from 1925
- Photographs
- Anderson
Ferry & Fernbank
- Brighton,
Camp Washington, Northside, & College Hill
- Downtown
& Over-the-Rhine
- East End
& Columbia Parkway
- East
Walnut Hills & O'Bryonville
- Evanston,
Norwood, Pleasant Ridge, & Kennedy Heights
- Fairmount
& Westwood
- Fairview,
Clifton Heights, & Clifton
- Hyde
Park, Madisonville, & Mariemont
- Mt.
Adams, Eden Park, & Walnut Hills
- Mt.
Auburn & Avondale
- Mt.
Lookout & Oakley
- Queensgate,
Lower Price Hill, & Price Hill
- St.
Bernard, Elmwood Place, Carthage, Hartwell,
Wyoming, & Springdale
- Winton
Place (Spring Grove Village)
- Kenton
County Kentucky
- Campbell
County Kentucky
- End of Line Loops
- Trolley Wire Support
Poles
- Substations,
Carbarns, and Shops
Interurban Railways
& Suburban Railroads
General Information
CL&A
- Cincinnati, Lawrenceburg & Aurora Electric
Street Railroad Anderson
Ferry - Aurora, IN, branch to Harrison
Standard gauge line
constructed by the Cincinnati, Lawrenceburg &
Aurora Electric Street Railroad in 1900
Abandoned and dismantled
west of Fernbank in 1930 Remainder to Anderson
Ferry purchased by the Cincinnati Street Railway,
for suburban service until 1940
More
Information
Main
Line Photographs from Anderson Ferry to Aurora
Harrison
Branch Photographs Valley Junction to Harrison
Cincinnati
& Westwood Railroad
South Fairmount - Westwood
Narrow gauge line constructed by the Cincinnati
& Westwood Railroad in1874
Converted to Standard Gauge, 1891
Abandoned in 1926
More Information
Photographs from South
Fairmout to Westwood
C&LE
- Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railroad (College
Hill Railroad, Ohio Electric Railway, Etc.)
Winton Place - Detroit, MI
Narrow gauge steam line
constructed by the College Hill Railroad to Mt.
Healthy in 1873
Converted to standard gauge
and electrified in 1901-1902 after purchase by the
Southern Ohio Traction Company
Merged into the Ohio
Electric Railway and eventually reorganized as the
Cincinnati & Lake Erie
Abandoned and dismantled in
1939
More
Information
Main
Line Photographs from Spring Grove to Middletown
Freight
Branch Photographs from College Hill to Mt.
Healthy
Cincinnati
& Hamilton Traction Company (Ohio Traction
Company, Mill Creek Valley Line)
Hartwell - Hamilton
Broad gauge line constructed
by the Cincinnati & Hamilton Traction Company
in 1901
Abandoned and dismantled
north of Springdale in 1926, remainder purchased
by Cincinnati Street Railway for suburban service
until 1932
More
Information
Photographs
from Hartwell to Springdale
IR&T
- Interurban Railway & Terminal: Rapid
Railway
Kennedy Heights - Lebanon
Broad gauge line constructed
by the IR&T's Rapid Railway subsidiary in 1903
Abandoned and dismantled in
1922
More
Information
Photographs
from Pleasant Ridge to Lebanon
IR&T
- Interurban Railway & Terminal: Suburban
Traction Company
Columbia - Bethel
Broad gauge line constructed
by the IR&T's Suburban Traction Company in
1903
Abandoned and dismantled
north of Coney Island in 1918
More
Information
Photographs
from California to Amelia
IR&T
- Interurban Railway & Terminal: Cincinnati
& Eastern Electric Railway
Columbia - New Richmond
Broad gauge line constructed
by the IR&T's Cincinnati & Eastern
Electric Railway in 1902
Abandoned and dismantled in
1922
More
Information
Photographs
from California to New Richmond
C&C
- Cincinnati & Columbus Traction Company
(Hillsboro Short Line, Swing Line)
Norwood - Hillsboro
Standard gauge line
constructed by the Cincinnati & Columbus
Traction Company in 1906
Abandoned and dismantled in
1920
More
Information
Photographs
from Norwood to Hillsboro
CM&B
- Cincinnati, Milford & Blanchester Traction
Company (Cincinnati, Milford & Loveland
Traction Company, Milford Line, Kroger Line)
Madisonville - Blanchester
Broad gauge line constructed
by the Cincinnati, Milford & Loveland Traction
Company in 1903
Reorganized as the
Cincinnati, Milford & Blanchester Traction
Company in 1918
Abandoned and dismantled
east of Milford in 1926, remainder purchased by
Cincinnati Street Railway for suburban service
until cut back to Mariemont in 1936, and abandoned
and dismantled completely in 1942
More
Information
Photographs
from Madisonville to Blanchester
CG&P
- Cincinnati, Georgetown & Portsmouth
Railroad
Columbia - Georgetown,
branches to California, Batavia, Russellville, and
Felicity
Narrow gauge, steam line constructed
by the Cincinnati & Portsmouth Railroad,
1876-1886
Renamed the Cincinnati, Georgetown
& Portsmouth Railroad, 1880
Converted to Standard Gauge &
Electrified, 1902
Batavia, Russellville, and Felicity
& Bethel branches completed, 1903-1906
Reorganized as the
Cincinnati-Georgetown Railroad Co., 1927
Service cut back and eventually
abandoned, remaining route between Carrell Street
and the waterworks sold to the city, 1933-1936
City/waterworks use suspended, 1943
More
Information
Main
Line Photographs from Columbia-Tusculum to
Russellville
California
Branch Photographs from California Woods to
Coney Island
Batavia
Branch Photographs from Olive Branch to Batavia
L&F
- Lebanon & Franklin Traction Company
Lebanon-Franklin
Standard gauge line
constructed by the Lebanon & Franklin Traction
Company in 1904
Abandoned and dismantled in
1919
More Information
Photographs from Lebanon
to Franklin
D&W
- Dayton & Western Traction Company
Dayton-Richmond, Indiana,
branch to New Paris
Standard gauge line
constructed by the Dayton & Western Traction
Company, 1898-1903
Leased to the IC&E and
Ohio Electric Railway in 1906/1907
Returned to original owners in 1920
Line goes bankrupt and is operated
under receivership by the CL&E in 1931
Leased to Indiana Railroad in 1936
Abandoned and dismantled in 1937
except short Drexel extension taken over by street
railway
Drexel extension abandoned in 1947
More
Information
Main Line Photographs from
Dayton to Richmond, Indiana
New Paris Branch
Photos from New Westville to New Paris
Railroads
- Baltimore & Ohio/Cincinnati,
Hamilton & Dayton - CSX, Cincinnati
Terminal Subdivision
Former Cincinnati,
Hamilton & Dayton/Baltimore & Ohio to
Lima
Standard gauge line opened to Dayton in 1851
Downtown terminal: Baymiller Street Station (5th
& Baymiller Streets)
Mostly abandoned south of
Ivorydale (St. Bernard), in active use north of
Ivorydale
More Information
Photographs from
Queensgate to Glendale
Baltimore
& Ohio to Columbus - Indiana & Ohio,
Midland Subdivision
Former Marietta &
Cincinnati/Cincinnati Washington &
Baltimore/Baltimore & Ohio to Columbus
Standard gauge line opened in stages from 1855
to 1864
Downtown terminal: Central Union Depot (3rd
Street & Central Avenue)
In use
More Information
Photographs from
Downtown through Loveland
Baltimore & Ohio to Washington,
IN - CSX, Louisville Division, Indiana
Subdivision
Former Ohio &
Mississippi/Baltimore & Ohio to Washington,
IN
Broad gauge (6'-0") line opened in 1857,
converted to standard gauge in 1871
Downtown terminal: Front & Mill Streets (Now
Mehring Way & Gest Street), then Central
Union Depot (3rd Street & Central Avenue)
In use except downtown terminal areas
More Information
- Photographs
from Downtown to Riverside
Chesapeake
& Ohio to Russell, KY - CSX, Cincinnati
Terminal Subdivision
Former Chesapeake & Ohio
to Russell, KY
Standard gauge line opened to Cincinnati in 1889
Downtown terminal: 4th Street Station (4th
Street between Smith and John)
In active use
More Information
Photographs from
Downtown & Queensgate
Chesapeake
& Ohio of Indiana - Indiana Eastern
Railroad
Former Chesapeake
& Ohio of Indiana to Cottage Grove, IN
Standard gauge line opened in stages between
1902 and 1910
Downtown terminal: 8th & McLean, then
Baymiller Street Station (5th & Baymiller),
then 4th Street Station (4th Street between
Smith and John)
Dismantled south of Fernald in 1979, in limited
use north of Fernald
More Information
Photographs from South
Fairmount to Crosby Township
-
Dayton & Cincinnati (Short Line) Railroad
Dual
standard/wide gauge railroad proposed between
Cincinnati and Dayton in the mid 1850s via
deep level Deer Creek Tunnel under Walnut
Hills
- Never completed
More Information
Photographs
and Diagrams
-
Cincinnati &
Fayetteville Railroad
Cincinnati &
Fayetteville/Cincinnati, Fayetteville, Hillsboro
& Huntington/Cincinnati, Hocking Valley &
Huntington/Cincinnati, Atlantic & Columbus
- Narrow gauge railroad partially constructed
between Milford and Newtonsville in the 1870s
- Never completed
- More Information
-
- Cincinnati Western Railroad
Standard
gauge railroad graded between Cincinnati and
Indiana in the mid 1850s
- Never completed
More Information
- Photographs
from South Cumminsville to Colerain Township
-
Louisville
& Nashville to Corbin, KY - CSX,
Huntington West Division, CC Subdivision
Former Kentucky
Central/Louisville & Nashville to Corbin, KY
Standard gauge line opened in the late 1850's
Downtown terminal: Central Union Depot (3rd
Street & Central Avenue) or 4th Street
Station (4th Street between Smith and John)
In active use
More Information
Louisville
& Nashville LCL Subdivision - CSX,
Louisville Division, LCL Subdivision
Former Louisville,
Cincinnati & Lexington/Louisville &
Nashville LCL Subdivision (Short Line)
Standard gauge line opened in 1869
Downtown terminal: Pan Handle Station (Pearl
& Butler Streets)
In use
More Information
Louisville
& Nashville, Wilder Main - CSX,
Louisville Division, LCL Subdivision
Formerly part of the
Louisville & Nashville LCL Subdivision
(Short Line)
Standard gauge line opened in 1869
Downtown terminal: Pan Handle Station (Pearl
& Butler Streets)
Dismantled north of former C&O line in
Newport, KY
More Information
Photographs from
Downtown & Newport, KY
New
York Central/Big Four, CIND Subdivision -
Indiana & Ohio, CIND Subdivision
Former Indianapolis
& Cincinnati/CCC & St. L (Big Four)/New
York Central to Indiana
Standard gauge line opened to Cincinnati in 1863
Downtown terminal: Central Union Depot (3rd
Street & Central Avenue)
In use except downtown terminal areas
More Information
Photographs from
Downtown to Lawrenceburg & Harrison
New York
Central/Big Four to Columbus - Norfolk
Southern, Dayton District, Central Division
Former CCC & St. L
(Big For)/New York Central to Columbus
Standard gauge line opened in 1872
Downtown terminal: Central Union Depot (3rd
Street & Central Avenue)
Line begins at Ivorydale (St. Bernard) and heads
north via Sharonville, Middletown, and Dayton
In active use
More Information
New
York Central/Big Four, Whitewater Division -
Indiana & Ohio, Brookville Subdivision
Former New York
Central, Whitewater Division to New Castle, IN
Standard gauge line opened in 1862
Downtown terminal: Baymiller Street Station (5th
& Baymiller Streets)
In limited local use, all track restricted to 10
mph or less
More Information
Norfolk
& Western to Portsmouth - Norfolk
Southern, Cincinnati District, Lake Division
(Peavine) - Cincinnati East Terminal Railway
Former Cincinnati
& Eastern/Cincinnati, Portsmouth &
Virginia/Norfolk & Western to Portsmouth,
Branch to New Richmond (abandoned in 1889)
Narrow gauge (3'-0") line opened in stages
between 1876 and 1882, converted to standard
gauge in 1894
Downtown terminal: Court Street Station (E.
Court & Reedy Streets)
In limited local use (no through traffic) east
of Clare Yard, closed to all traffic west of
Clare as of September 10, 2009
More Information
Main Line Photographs
from Norwood to McDermott
-
- New Richmond
Branch Photographs from Newtown to New
Richmond
Norfolk
& Western, Cincinnati Connecting Belt
Railroad
Former Cincinnati,
Portsmouth & Virginia/Norfolk & Western
from Idlewild (Norwood) to Ivorydale (St.
Bernard)
Standard gauge line opened in 1901
Mostly abandoned except a few connecting tracks
near Ivorydale
More Information
Photographs from
Evanston through Norwood
Pennsylvania
Railroad/Norfolk & Western to Ft. Wayne,
IN - Norfolk Southern, Newcastle District
Former Eaton &
Hamilton/Cincinnati, Richmond &
Chicago/Cincinnati, Hamilton &
Dayton/Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St.
Louis/Pennsylvania/Norfolk & Western Railroad
to Ft. Wayne, IN
Standard gauge line opened in 1853 between New
Miami and Richmond Indiana, and in 1888 between
Hamilton and Rendcomb Junction
Downtown terminal: Pan Handle Station (Pearl &
Butler Streets)
In active use
More Information
Pennsylvania
Railroad Richmond Division - Indiana &
Ohio, Oasis Subdivision
Former Cincinnati
& Richmond/Pennsylvania Railroad - Richmond
Division from Valley (Fairfax) to Mill
(Evendale)
Standard gauge line opened in 1888
Downtown terminal: Pan Handle Station (Pearl
& Butler Streets)
In limited use
More Information
Photographs
from Rendcomb Jct. to Pleasant Ridge
Pennsylvania
Railroad/Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern -
Indiana & Ohio, Blue Ash and Mason
Subdivisions
Former Cincinnati, Lebanon &
Xenia/Miami Valley Narrow Gauge Railway/Toledo, Delphos, and
Burlington/Cincinnati
Northern/Cincinnati, Lebanon &
Northern/Pennsylvania Railroad to Lebanon and
Dayton
Narrow gauge (3'-0") line opened in 1881,
converted to standard gauge in 1894
Downtown terminal: Court Street Station (E.
Court & Reedy Streets)
Mostly abandoned except limited local use from
Norwood to Fields Ertel, and Mason to Lebanon
More Information
Photographs from
Downtown to Lebanon
Pennsylvania
Railroad/Little Miami Railroad - Indiana &
Ohio, Oasis Subdivision
Former Little
Miami/Pan Handle/Pennsylvania Railroad to
Springfield
Standard gauge line opened in stages from 1841
to 1847.
Downtown terminal: Pan Handle Station (Pearl
& Butler Streets)
Mostly abandoned except limited local use from
Fairfax to downtown
More Information
Photographs from
downtown Cincinnati through Xenia
Pennsylvania
Railroad, Waterfront Belt Line
Former belt line built
to connect the Little Miami and Indianapolis
& Cincinnati along the Cincinnati waterfront
Standard gauge line opened in 1864
Abandoned in 1986 and dismantled west of
Broadway Street in 2000
More Information
Photographs from
Queensgate to Sawyer Point
Pennsylvania
Railroad, Zanesville Branch
Former Cincinnati
& Muskingum Valley Railroad from Morrow to
Zanesville
Standard gauge line opened between 1853 and 1856
Downtown terminal: Pan Handle Station (Pearl
& Butler Streets)
Dismantled between Morrow and Wilmington, in use
east of Wilmington
More Information
Photographs
from Morrow to Wilmington
Southern
Railway - Norfolk Southern, Central Division,
Cincinnati New Orleans & Texas Pacific 1st
District
Cincinnati Southern
Railway/CNO&TP
Broad gauge (5'-0") line opened to Chattanooga
in 1880, converted to standard gauge in 1886
Downtown terminal: Central Union Depot (3rd
Street & Central Avenue)
In active use
More Information
Photographs from
Queensgate to Ludlow, KY
Other Transit
Photos
- Union
Terminal
Cincinnati Machine Complex
-
Inclines
Cincinnati Subway-
Roads & Viaducts
-
Street Lights, Poles,
& Signals
-
Miscellaneous
-
Links
to Other Transportation Sites
Cincinnati/Ohio
Transportation Related Sites
- Abandoned "...a personal
project aimed to document and record the
abandoned and neglected buildings through text
and photographs."
American Memory: Railroad Maps
of Ohio High-quality scans of old railroad
maps from the 19th century at the Library of
Congress website.
Cincinnati Dinner Train
"The Cincinnati Dinner Train operates every
Saturday throughout the year. Some of its
features include dining for up to 108 people on
two vintage dining cars. Also featured is the
Queen City Tavern car with a full service cash
bar, music, and two open side doors for viewing
as we travel the city of Cincinnati."
Cincinnati Railroad Club
"The club is a not-for-profit educational
organization with an active membership of over
300. The members have a serious interest in
railroads and Cincinnati area history."
Cincinnati-Transit.net A
large and very thorough site "Dedicated to the
history of and future plans for the city's
transportation infrastructure."
Cincinnati
Transit Historical Association "The CTHA
is a non-profit organization dedicated to
preserving transit information, photographs,
ephemera and memorabilia relating primarily to
the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana region."Cincinnati Triple Steam a
volunteer effort to preserve, share, and show
off the Water Works' original 1,400 ton, 104
feet high triple expansion crank and flywheel
water pumping steam engines.
Dave's Electric Railroads
Numerous historical photos of streetcars and
trolley buses from throughout the country.
- Cincinnati Street Railway
Cincinnati & Lake Erie
Ohio Electric Includes
CG&P, CM&B, and the C&LE predecessor
Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton.
- Dayton Trolley Transit
History, maps, and pictures of Dayton's transit,
with emphasis on the current trolleybus system.
David Rumsey Map Collection
High quality scans of many old maps of the
Cincinnati area.
Duck Creek Road
"Pre-Interstate Urban Archaeology, Duck Creek
Road Cincinnati and Norwood, Ohio." This site
has a ton of information and pictures of this
road that has been mostly obliterated by I-71.
Historic Aerials "Provides
free online access to historic and current
aerial photography."
Kings Mills Trolley Station
A description of Daniel Bingamon's home, which
used to be the town's IR&T Rapid Railway
station.
MyTopo: Historical Topographic
Maps Scans of USGS maps from the early
part of the 20th century.
My Road Photos "This
webpage features photos (and videos since 2008)
of roads, transportation features, and city
skylines that I or my cohorts have taken over
the years."
NOAA Historical Map and Chart
Project This site has very detailed
topographic maps of Cincinnati from 1912.
- Search for "Cincinnati"
as the title at the bottom of the page, do not
fill out the geographic place name. The maps are listed by number. See
here
for a list of which maps show what
neighborhoods.
- The Railroads of Cincinnati
Information and maps of Cincinnati's current
railroads.
Rails and Trails A neat
site with old USGS maps of Cincinnati and
elsewhere "devoted to transportation history and
the conversion of abandoned roadbeds into
rail-trails"
Tom's North American Trolley
Bus Pictures "A non-profit entity
dedicated to educating all who have an interest
on the history of trolleybuses in North
America."
- University of Cincinnati
Digital Resource Commons "An initiative of
OhioLINK and its member libraries. The DRC is a
service that collects, preserves, and
distributes digital material." See the Street Construction and
Improvements Collection for photographs of
street rehabilitation.
- Other
Transportation Sites
Chicago "L".org "The
internet's largest resource for information on
Chicago's rapid transit system."
- Forgotten-NY Enormous site
about everything from NYC subways and trains to
lamp posts and alleys.
- North Shore Line Very
extensive site on the Chicago North Shore &
Milwaukee Railroad.
- The Transit Stations of Arthur
Gerber Information and pictures of this
architect's designs for North Shore Line
stations. Site is no
longer online, link goes to the Internet Archive
Wayback Machine.
- This site includes a drawing by yours truly.
- My
Other Site
Architecture Resume and
Portfolio
- Includes some transit related
projects:
- Mt. Adams Incline from a new
Broadway Commons Park
- Cincinnati Area Transit System
(CATS)
- North Shore Line Ravinia
Station rendering
- North Shore Line Beech Street
Station rendering
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to: Jim Barrie,
Bruce Bernhard, Daniel Bingamon, Jack Bonert,
Brandon Brooks, Sherman Cahal, Earl Clark, Jr.,
Steve Cutter, Robert Deffinger, Mike Edwards, Jeff
Evans, Don Faris, David Frey, David H. Fritze,
Melvin (M.L.) Garrison, Andy Harman, Jim Hetzer, Tim
Hoeflich, Rick Johnson, Robert Jonas, Erik (J.E.)
Landrum, Dennis Larrick, Phil Lind, Lou Lockwood,
Patrick McDermott, Jake Mecklenborg, Kyle
Montgomery, Allen Morrison, Tom Morrow, Bill Myers,
Rick Myers, Lee Nordloh, Mike Oestreich, Tom
Phillips, Mike Pillman, David Pommert, Vicki
Rafferty, Corwin Sapp, Cliff Scholes, Dick Segerer,
Allen Singer, Jeff Smith, Michael G. Smith, Stephen
Titchenal, Casey Tompkins, Bill Van Doren, David
Wallace, Casey Walter, Anthony Wood, Jeff Wood, and
anyone else I forgot to mention, for providing
helpful information and other contributions to this
site.
References
This web site was made on a Mac
with SeaMonkey.
The map was made from GIS data with QGIS, PowerCADD,
and Affinity
Photo. The map viewing software is OpenSeadragon. Photo
galleries were made with Capture One Pro and jAlbum.
© 2001-2022 Jeffrey B. Jakucyk unless otherwise noted
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