Louisville, KY: East Liverpool (MN) Tower: L&N vs. C&O

(Satellite)

Tim Shanahan posted

Jack Fravert photograph:

On a hazy September 3; 1976, trains (left to right) #148, #140 and #173 vie for track space through East Louisville's MN Tower. C&O trains joined (or left the L&N at this point, following the tracks on the right toward the Ohio riverfront (except for the C&O's George Washington, which used Union Station from 1963 until 1971). Jack Fravert

When I could not find the C&O on a detailed map, I found a C&O map to determine how the C&O got to Louisville.

appalachian-railroads and multimodalways

So, the C&O went to Louisville from Lexington. When I looked east of Lexington, I found the C&O. In fact, the C&O joined the L&N in Lexington.

1956 Louisville Quad @ 250,000

Since the C&O left the L&N to go to the 7th Street Station while the L&N curved South to go to the Union Station, it was easy then easy to find the "MN" junction on a detailed map.

1950 New Albany, 1951 Louisville East and 1951 Jeffersonville Quads @ 24,000

This confirms that the C&O used the L&N to access Louisville from Lexington.

Ronald Boles posted
The Chesapeake & Ohio's George Washington train did not run on the Louisville & Nashville (L&N) for the majority of its route, but it did use a portion of L&N track to access Louisville on the Old Road.

David Morse: Between Lex and Lou it ran on the L&N’s Old Road. [That makes me wonder where the L&N New Road was located.] It originally ran Lex-Midway-Frankfort—Chrishtiansburg-Eminence-La Grange-Lou. C&O wanted to cut down their transit time between Lex & Lou and looked into moving to the Southern’s Louisville Southern track. Lex-Versailles-Tyrone-Lawrenceburg-Shelbyville-Louisville. Actually ran test trains on this route. The L&N had a very favorable trackage rights agreement with the C&O. Basically C&O paid half the MOW costs and salaries. L&N built the Christiansburg-Shelbyville track to keep the C&O on the Old Road. L&N did not see this track. Their trains took the long way to Lou. C&O’s contract did not allow them to stop at Christiansburg. This meant people in C-burg going to Lou had to take the L&N trains on the long route. C-burg citizens went to the Kentucky Railroad Commission to get them to order the C&O to stop at C-burg. KRC ruled they could not order the C&O to break their contract with the L&N.

Mike Gillespie: Best looking train into Louisville. And its 94 miles of trackage rights on the L&N from Lexington to Louisville was not insignificant.

Jamie Millard: The first three cars paid for the last four. [The first three cars would be baggage cars carrying express freight and US Mail. The last four cars would be passenger cars.]