CSX Mainline Sub. (L&N Mainstem, first & second subs)

[landnrailroader]

I have been working on this route for the past 2 months except for a week in Chama, NM doing my docent gig, and then a week on a Kelly Tour starting Oct. 23 and getting back home on Nov. 1. At my current pace, it will be ready for release as operational but incomplete by late December, early January. There will be in it, a document folder and I plan to include all of the .KML files digitized from Google Earth as well as marker files so if anyone chooses to improve or add anything, they will the basic data to start with and then add their own. Once someone releases it as complete version, this document folder can be removed.

The route is situationed in time, from about 1980 to the present. However, I am using the new style crossing signage done by Travis and one sign I cobbled up from parts of his. That being said, the signals, when added should be the long hood, darth vader type and one should use CSX rules which Travis also has worked up. If you choose to backdate the route then the CSX rules are still valid as far back as 1955 or so, but when the TCS was put in then, searchlight signals were used. I plan to place cantilever signal bridge where they should be placed, especially with the support on the correct side of the track. I am also providing CTC/RX signal bungalows where ever they are used and with the correct name on the sign boards. Those which came on the library around 2003 are not exactly correct but they will provide an accurate marker and nit pickers can then replace with with more correct cases and bungalows if they wish.

There were three branches off the mainline sub. The first, going south from Louisville was the Bardstown Branch which is now owned by R.J.Corman and operated as a shortline. There is also a dinner train operating on this line. The 2nd is the Lebanon Branch which is now used by the Kentucky Railroad Museum and I guess the museum provides some freight service as there are a few industries on the line, or perhaps CSX sends a local over the line as needed. This line is the west end of the former full Lebanon Branch which was the original route for L&N trains between Louisville & Atlanta. It connects to the Kentucky Div. a few miles north of Corbin but there is only a few miles of track at the east end now. My uncle fired for some years on this branch, early in his career which started in July 1907. And Lastly, there is the Glasgow Railroad which is not a part of CSX but is owned by businessmen in Glasgow over 130 years now. When the L&N did not construct through Glasgow, several business men formed their own railroad. It is a odd situation though because it is operated and maintained by CSX, formerly L&N.

It is roughly 187 miles from Louisville to Nashville. I have several bridges to build, the most impressive being the viaduct over Green River at Munfordville, KY. The original was built in 1850 or so, destroyed during the Civil War, rebuilt, and then rebuilt again to carry heavier loads. The stone pillars are, however, original.

Jerry Sullivan, P.E. (retired from CSX & SR, retired docent, C&TSRR)

[landnrailroader]

Got back from the Kelly Tour as expected and it was a great tour. We rode the Strasburg, Lehigh Gorge Scenic, and the Virginia Scenic tourist lines. Had lunch on the Virginia Scenic but Kelly advertises it as a ride through the Shenandoah Valley, which it isn't and I have pointed this out to them. I didn't mention this to anyone on the tour except the director and she was shocked to hear it. The ride ends 5 miles or so east of Charlottesville on the Buckingham Branch line (owned by CSX, leased to BB, and CSX and Amtrak use parts of it). The Shenandoah Valley is at least 15 miles further west and past the Blue Ridge.

So, back to work on the L&N Main Stem. Just finished the Green River Bridge. I did not have good photographs of it, only bridge sketches which may or may not be to scale but in any case, I came out close using the dimensions on the sketch sheets - evidently last updated around 1930. So here is the Green River bridge just south of Munfordville. There were a few other structures like this on Muldraughs Hill that were eliminated in the revisions of 1917 or so. The original stone piers (4) were strengthened and evidently encased in concrete because Google Earth shows enough of the pier to indicate smooth concrete. Deck girders replaced truss structures on most of the bridge but new deck trusses were used to replace 2 spans. The north (left as shown) abutment is much longer than the south and appears to actually be a short concrete bridge & another abutment but I could not be sure of that. Both abutments are very high to fit the terrain. I used bridge rails which have guard rails too, but the current real configuration does not use guard rails.

Jerry GREEN_RIVER.jpg

[landnrailroader]

The next task was to locate all of the significant bridges between Louisville and Munfordville, measure them, do as best as possible to determine details etc. The next major one is at Salt River, a mile or so south of Shepherdsville, KY and if the bridge looks a little odd, well, it is. In 1991 after CSX had moved me to Jacksonville, there was a serious incident involving a garbage truck. Just south of the bridge there is a underpass, and the garbage truck was too tall to clear. Usually when this happens, the truck is the item that gets damaged but in this case the deck girder bridge was knocked out of line nearly a foot, and of course there was a fast freight approaching northbound. In a matter of several seconds, there was a huge derailment, with many cars in the river, and a truss bridge that then existed north of the existing one was in the river with it. Fortunately no serious injuries but a very expensive mess and I am sure a very unhappy garbage truck owner. Like many roads, CSX keeps a stock of plate girder spans on hand at Barboursville, WV, so with some adjustments, 3 plate girder spans replaced the destroyed truss. The truss spans were double track and so management decided not to restore this location as double track, hence double track ends at what was a set of crossovers north a few miles, and south a few miles from this location. I suspect there is a walkway across the bridge, just as there is on the deck girders but I could not see it on aerials, so I have omitted it. This is why there is a track on the east half of the truss span. As luck would have it the engines made it across without derailing enough to damage the bridge but derailing cars did. SALT_RIVER_BRG.jpg

[landnrailroader]

Between Louisville and Nashville there are only a few truss bridges but the one most easily duplicated is at Bowling Green, KY. A major road is paralell to it and perhaps 50' to the side so earth view gives one a good view of it. It is comprised, south to north, of a 208 ft. truss, two 104 ft. deck girders, and one 37 ft. concrete span. Anyone that grabs this route in order to detail it will also need to do some terrain adjustment here. The bridge is where it should be but the south bank of the river is almost sheer with rocks. This route includes a copy of the Nashville Terminal so that freight can operate to Radnor Yard by way of the cutoff built around 1915, or to the passenger station, now a hotel. The last passenger train to serve Nashville was the old Amtrak Floridian which died in 1979. I have check and was able to create a path from Louisville through to Nashville and will soon check that with a run of the "Hummingbird" which was the night streamliner through Nashville from 1947 to 1971. Rode it several times and as a young boy, if I was awakened at 2am, and the wind was right, I could hear the hammering of the wheels at the Vine Hill diamond, nearly 5 miles from where I lived.
BARREN_RVR.jpg

[landnrailroader]

There are no timber trestles remaininig on the mainline between Louisville and Nashville but there is this one on the Bardstown Branch which is now operated by R. J. Corman. I don't know if CSX sold or leased the line to Corman but in general CSX sells off branches, while NS leases them out. This structure is about halfway up the branch and for the life of me I can only finid two bridge structures on the line. This is one and the other is a steel trestle about 75 feet in height that is in the city limits of Bardstown. This branch used to extend several miles further east and then there were at least two branches off of it. Now it ends a few miles east of Bardstown where there is some industrial development. BARDSTOWN01.jpg

[landnrailroader]

And then I continued and built the steel trestle that appears to be inside the limits of Bardstown. It was a very quick job thanks to Ron ? who provided several parts usable in TSM way back around 2002 or so. With these and TSM, which fortunately likes Win-11 okay, it is like assembling an Erector set. Don't know how many of your remember those but at age 6, I got a small set, then at age 8, I got the #8 set which was a lot bigger, and finally around age 10 I got the #12 set which was the biggest one Gilbert made. Haven't seen them for sale in years but all of mine are in original metal boxes, in the garage. The only serious adjustment I had to make was to shorten the girder at one end so the bridge rail end would be correct and then the heights of the first level of some of the towers had to be adjusted to fit the terrain.
BARDSTOWN02.jpg

[jbtower]

I think it's awesome that you still have your erector sets Jerry, back to the CSX that looks like you're making great progress, so keep the narratives coming!

[landnrailroader]

It was Ron Picardi who created those "erector sets" for TSM. They all have SRV in the titles which meant Saganaw River Valley. Ron lived in the area of Saginaw, MI and those of us that create bridges & viaducts with his material should be grateful as long as we do routes for MSTS/ORTS. There may be better tools now but as long as TSM will work, I will use it. Originally it was payware but then the creater of it released it free and I hope it is available in the TrainSim library now.

After close examination of Google Earth I found two more small bridges on the Bardstown line. One appears to be a through girder, 2-35ft girders with abutments and the other 3-32ft deck girdirs with abutments.

Jerry Sullivan