Model Railroad Podcast

Cincy owns a Railroad
Mon, May 4, 2009
Posted by: Ryan Andersen

Cincinnati Southern Railway ???

I had no idea that the city of Cincinnati owed a Railroad.  In fact, Cincinnati is the only city in the nation that owns a Railroad.  I just found out about this by stumbling apon this local news channel clip on youtube.

The Cincinnati Southern Railway

Interesting.  I know I have complained about Cincinnati's seamingly lack of Railroad hertiage... but I need to stop, because it does exist here and may forms.  I must say, walked out to lunch after watching this news clip with a huge smile on my face. :o)

-=Ryan
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Posted by: ChrisNH MRCS Pioneer on Wed, May 6 2009     model-railroad-hobbyist.com/blog/671
Quite a lot of the old ROW in New England is owned by local states who bought them to preserve against future need. Over time, many of these lines of been leased to private short line operators or made into rail trails. I would guess its a similar situation for Cincinnati.

Chris
Posted by: pinelakerr on Wed, May 6 2009    
Nice bit of history there Ryan, you should be proud to live in that city that thinks ahead.
On another note, do you have a link to the youtube video you talked about starring Dave Ramos?

Thank in advance,
Sean
Posted by: Darcy33 MRCS Pioneer on Wed, May 6 2009    
Cool story about the railroad Ryan. I am rather surprised that more cities didn't do the same back in the day. I know that many towns and small cities feel off the face of the earth when the railroads didn't come through town or the short line that ran through went out of business. The city owning the railroad does keep the the train coming to town so good on the city elders for thinking ahead.
Posted by: eric719 on Wed, May 6 2009    
Cincinnati is not the only city in the nation to own a railroad. The city of Prineville, Oregon owns a railroad called the City of Prineville Railway. The line runs 19 miles from Prineville to a connection with BNSF on the Oregon Trunk and is still active today.
Posted by: Ryman MRCS Pioneer on Thu, May 7 2009     www.modelrailcast.com/
Looks like news 5 did not research their story very well. :o)
Posted by: HOTRAINS4LIFE MRCS Pioneer on Thu, May 7 2009    
Now that's a cool story!!!,Here's another major city for ya ryan The NOPB witch is also know as the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad is owned and maintained by the city of New Orleans it connects all the major Railroads here in Louisiana witch includes the U.P., BNSF, CSX. ,KCS , NS.and CN.

Here is the website!!!

http://www.nopb.com/nopb/
Posted by: darkterritory MRCS Pioneer on Thu, May 7 2009     www.Housatonicrr.com
Darcy33 is right, back in the day it was a very big deal whether or not your town had the RR running through it. In the mid-19th century as the Housatonic RR was building north from Bridgeport CT they asked the town of Danbury to float a bond that would provide capital to keep building. The town refused, thinking the RR had to build through their town anyway since they were an important manufacturing center. They were wrong, and the Housatonic went around them instead of through. Years later they were forced to foot the bill to build their own railroad south to S. Norwalk, CT. Eventually the Housatonic bought them out after they had done all the hard work. An expensive lesson.

Craig
 
 
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