The Railroads of Kentucky During the 1940s & 1950s

Book excerpt: Kentucky claims to be the birthplace of railroading west of the Appalachian Mountains. In 1832, the Lexington & Ohio Railroad (L&O) began to build track from Lexington to Louisville. Unfortunately the L&O got no further than Frankfort on the Kentucky River when it ran out of money. Railroad construction in Kentucky would stagnate until the 1850s when four companies started to build track, three were north-south and one east-west. An amalgamation of railroads using the name Kentucky Central would push south from Covington opposite Cincinnati OH, toward Chattanooga TN, but stalled at Nicholasville due to the Civil War. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N) would build southward from Louisville for Nashville TN, and Memphis TN, reaching both cities as the Civil War started. The Mobile & Ohio Railroad (M&O) during the same period completed a railroad from Mobile AL, to Columbus KY, on the Mississippi River. The east-west track reached from Louisville eastward to a junction at Frankfort KY.