In my continuing quest to put up some crappy videos I’ve taken with my point-and-shoot, here is the Flag Coal 0-4-0 steam engine entering to Lebanon yard. The flagmen in the foreground prepares to stop traffic on Broadway. You can read more about Flag Coal no. 75′s trip to Lebanon here.
Obscure YouTube Video #2
Tourist Brochures: Then and Now Part 2
The Indiana and Ohio no longer owns it, but tourist operations are alive and well in Lebanon. Today the Lebanon, Mason, Monroe railroad operates regular passenger trains from Lebanon Station out to “LM&M Junction”, located behind the Gold Ranch on US 42. As with any tourist attraction, brochure exchange is a lifeblood. After taking a look at the I&O in 1994 let’s take a look at the brochure of today.
Highlights of this brochure includes:
- Advertisements for the 2008 events
- A small car diagram (with an interesting type of locomotive), similar to one located in their ticket office
- Full calender of events.
- A railroad crossing sign most likely taken from Sycamore Street (3 tracks).
- A new fancy map in order to navigate to Lebanon.
- A website!
Tourist Brochures: Then and Now Part 1
Even before I started this website I had an interest in all things railroad related. Naturally, this included the tourist train in my hometown. I remember more than once taking a train ride with my family or as a school trip. I even kept a notebook to collect different newspaper articles and other pieces of paper. Looking bad, I’m glad I did because I manage to save a number of things, including one of the brochures. I went ahead and scanned this brochure from my file. In this admittedly nontraditional version of Then and Now, we’ll take a quick look at the I&O’s passenger operations in 1994 and compare it to a brochure I picked from the LM&M the other day.
The cover (pictured above) has GP7 #55 in classic I&O colors. The first thing you’ll notice is the 90-degree crossing in the front. This was taken in Hageman junction, a place the LM&M doesn’t normally go to these days.
The inside offers a chance to see what kind of events the I&O Scenic Railway offered in 1994. One thing you’ll notice is not one, but two stations. Back at this point they ran trains out of both Mason and Lebanon. They also included layovers at the end of the line. A passenger could board at Mason, ride to Lebanon, visit the shops, and then ride back to their car in Mason. The ride was a little bit more of a day trip. The Mason station was located near a recently demolished grain elevator. For more information check out Mason Then and Now.
The second inside page lists some more of the special events. Also, notice how for information they listed a telephone number. There weren’t a lot of websites in 1994! Some of the special events listed are still offered today in some form. Others may be good ideas for future events for the LM&M.
The final page offers a few more photos of the line in ’94. Other than the different paint job on the locomotive, some of things you might notice include:
- A bright yellow brake wheel on the gondola.
- No cab on the gondola for reversing back to Lebanon. At this point they used passing siding to run the engine around the train and ensure it was always on the head-end.
- The “historic shops of Lebanon” circa 1994.
Tomorrow this feature will wrap-up and we look at the “Now”, or the LM&M’s brochure used today.
Bike Ride to Middletown Junction
A week or so ago I took a ride on the Lebanon Countryside Trail. It was a nice ride on a cloudy day. We just barely avoided getting rained on. The relevant part of the trip for this blog, however, is that the very southern-most part of the trail follows the old Middletown and Cincinnati roadbed to Middletown Junction.
Here’s my sister getting ready to tackle the trail. We rode from the Countryside YMCA down to the junction. This skips a small part of the trail on the old DL&C roadbed, but also skips a long ride on a shared use road up Deerfield hill.
There was a lot of utilities along the trail. Everything from power lines, to water, to natural gas. The M&C bridge over the Little Miami also carries some pipes over in addition to the trail. From the photos I’ve seen Lebanon used the bridge for this before they built the trail.
This is where the trail turns off the road and joins the M&C roadbed. We’re looking south towards the junction from the Lebanon industrial park. It’s almost a straight line under 71 to the Little Miami.
This is the same spot, on the other side of the roadway, looking north. The roadbed here is pretty overgrown, and only runs for a short distance until being broken by the industrial park. After the industrial park it picks up again near Hageman junction. The M&C was surveyed and built well. The grade is generally downhill towards the river but is very easy to bike. It’s less than 1% of grade.
The bridge over the Little Miami was a highlight of the trip. However, it’s very hard to get a good photographic angle from the trail. Here is the bridge looking straight down. The steel work is very ornate and detailed, it’s sad they built such an ugly looking cage on the thing.
We eventually made it down to the junction. This is a shot of where the M&C wye tracks joined the Little Miami Railroad. By the time the M&C was built the Little Miami was owned by the PRR.
Here’s some concrete left in the ground. I’m not sure exactly what this was used for. My guess would be a signal at some point? There were also a ton of ties scattered about and we even managed to find a spike or two.
The junction lies in a natural low-land. The roadbed is really built up. You can tell because of the dip between the wye tracks. Lebanon’s Countryside trail uses the left leg of the wye. It junctions with the Little Miami Trail, also built on the old railway ROW. Here’s a shot looking up the unused wye track. The ties here are in the ground and can still be seen.
We also found a telegraph pole still standing, and one spike that was weirdly wrapped around a tree.
I eventually want to get down there and get some more pictures of the junction. I found some maps and most of the interchange tracks ran parallel with the Little Miami, a part of the wye I failed to explore. The park I checked out took long enough, it was dark by the time we actually made it back up the hills to Lebanon.
For any bikers or people looking for some nice recreation, I recommend Lebanon’s trail. Be forewarned however, the same hills that kept the Little Miami from building up from the valley to Lebanon in the 1800′s also make life difficult for the cyclist. The trail is very hilly. If you’re just exploring the junction I recommend starting at the YMCA. If you’ve worked up some nice endurance, then you can probably make the trip all the way down the branch into Downtown Lebanon.
A Few Rails
While we were in town for Thomas I noticed the city was doing some work near the Broadway grade crossing. They had cut away some of the pavement, I assume so they could extend the sidewalk across the tracks.
Looking down you could see where the rails of the sidetrack were pried apart when the Broadway crossing was made 1 track only. I had figured the rails were moved instead of being paved over because there were no cracks in the pavement to reveal rails.
It also was an easy angle to see the rails on the mainline. Looking at the side, the rails were stamped 1999. They must have used new rails for the crossing when Broadway was repaved and the crossing replaced. Today the Broadway crossing uses modern steel plates to cover the roadbed, instead of the ties and asphalt of years past. In this photograph you can see what the crossing looked like before the renovation. [For more of William McFadden's photos check out his site.]
Ebay Woes
A couple of days ago I did my usual CL&N ebay search. Every now and then I’ll look for memorabilia on ebay with so far unsuccessful results. I did manage to purchase a canceled CL&N stock certificate, but that’s been about it. This last time, however, I hit the jackpot.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230290554040
Up for auction was a CL&N timetable from 1889. It was in pretty good condition too. I watched the auction all week and waited till the last twenty minutes to bid on it.
Sadly, the timetable ended up being out of this student’s budget. The final price was $78.99. I apologize for not posting the auction sooner, but I didn’t want any of my readers bidding against me. In retrospect, I kind of wish I had.
Cab Ride Video
I don’t have a lot of time to update today, so I went ahead and uploaded some video footage from back when I had the cab ride on the LM&M. It’s only a thirty second video I took on my camera, but you get to see the inside of the cab and hear the engine throttle up as we leave Lebanon.
Thomas the Tank in Lebanon
The last two weekends featured this year’s installment of the annual ‘Day Out With Thomas’ event. This is the LM&M Railroad’s biggest event from the year, drawing out families with young children from as far away as West Virginia. The weather wasn’t that great this weekend, overcast with scattered showers throughout the day, but I managed to sneak down and see how the event was coming.
Friday afternoon the crowds seemed much lighter than years past. I was even able to find a parking spot at the corner of Mechanic Street and Mulberry (I didn’t try looking for a spot in the city lot). This might be partly because it was a Friday and not the weekend, but I have no doubt the rain also drove away most of the people who didn’t buy their tickets in advance.
Yet the train was busy enough to run 1 ride every 45 minutes over the course of the day. This was also the first time I believe they used the four new commuter cars. These coaches were purchased by the Cincinnati Railway Company for use at such large scale events over the course of the year. Combined with the four “classic” coaches the train running out of Lebanon was a startling eight cars in length. Combined with the Thomas replica on the end, the train was barely able to fit on the remaining track in front of Lebanon Station. In order to avoid splitting the train and the complicated switching moves this would entail, Lebanon police actually blocked off Mechanic Street in order to facilitate the extra-length train.
The Thomas ‘festival’ itself also seemed lively given the weather. I’m sure it consisted of all the usual activities with videos, balloons, face paint and such. Not feeling up to dealing with children, I decided not to explore that part of the event this year.
While I was downtown I made sure to cross over to the Lebanon Yard and take photos of the train as it returned to town. It was actually an interesting process. The Lebanon police stopped the traffic on Broadway instead of the usual flagman. The train itself did not stop in the yard to get permission to cross Broadway. It kept right on moving into the station, although at a reduced speed. Here’s a shot of the police preparing to block traffic for the oncoming train.
As the train approached town, there was a brief scary moment. A U.S. mail truck either failed to see the oncoming train or ignored it at the Sycamore Street crossing. It narrowly avoid an up close and personal day with Thomas, and was sure to give the crew a scare. From talking with the crew this kind of incident is not a rare occurrence, and it is a shame the kind of stress distracted motorists put them through. Please, don’t misjudge the slow moving train. If you’re at a grade crossing always stop before the train approaches the crossing. I failed to get a good shot of the mail truck, instead I was more concerned about watching the scene unfold. Here’s a shot of the truck as it sped away, but this angle makes it seem a lot less close then it seemed in real life.
Ever so carefully #55 pushed the eight car train back into Lebanon Station. I have no idea how the extra four coaches changes the handling of the train, but the crew seemed to handle things with skill. As the last couple coaches crossed Broadway they slowed down and spotted the engine perfectly. One of many successful trips this weekend.
Over the course of these two weekends the LM&M made many short Thomas trips out to milepost 3.3. As an outside observer I can’t tell much, but the event appeared to be a success. It is my hope that the Cincinnati Railway Co. made a healthy profit so that they may continue to invest in the health of Lebanon’s Railroad.
Oh, and speaking of improvements, the Mason car got painted again in the bright red of the original set. A great improvement don’t you think?
Before:
After:
September Housekeeping
I’ve made a number of small improvements to the blog as I prepare to head to school for the fall.
The first you may notice below this post. That wall-of-text is my ‘brief’ history of the CL&N. I wanted to have a post people could read to bring themselves up to speed without having to dig through the entire blog archive. Well, my short history ended up taking over three hours to write and didn’t end up being short. However, I still consider it a thorough introduction and have linked to it as part of the new “Weclome” subcategory to the left. I hope this will give new visitors somewhere to start when they first find this blog. Eventually I will put some pictures up to lighten the unending text.
Farther down the page you’ll notice my second improvement. Under ‘subscribe to this blog’ there are a number of links for different feed readers. These programs serve to notify you whenever I make a post as opposed to having to search here on a regular basis. With school in the fall I can’t make any guarantee about sticking to some sort of regular schedule. Using a feed reader and subscribing to the blog is a surefire way to make sure you don’t miss a post when I do.
That about does it. This next week will be pretty busy for me but I hope to get some posts up. I have a lot of material for this week including highlights from Thomas, the Middletown and Cincinnati via bike trail, and that potent combination of model railroading and CL&N history that you know and love.
And lastly, I want to offer my condolences to the Ohio State Buckeyes, who played valiantly against USC. As they say in Chicago there’s always next year.
Introduction to the Cincinnati, Lebanon, and Northern
The Cincinnati, Lebanon, and Northern (CL&N for short) was a small railroad built in southwest Ohio in the late 19th century. I’ve dedicated this blog to documenting the history and legacy of that railroad, but for those who just found the site I thought I would take the opportunity to write an introduction and short history on Lebanon’s railroad.
For many years Lebanon had desired a railroad. The town, located on the Warren County highland (between the Great and Little Miami Rivers), had stagnated while railroads were built in the surrounding towns. It’s hard to underestimate how important railroads were to America’s developing industrial economy in the decades after the Civil War and Lebanon feared it was being left behind.
More than once Lebanon tried to get a spur built off of the Little Miami Railroad. Then the town tried to support the futile Cincinnati, Lebanon, and Xenia road. After years of courting and pleading for a connection to a major line, Lebanon merchants and citizens finally decided to take matters into their own hands. The decision was made to construct a three-foot narrow gauge railroad from Cincinnati, through Lebanon, to Xenia. The Miami Valley Narrow Gauge Railway Company was incorporated on November 7, 1874 and groundbreaking was made on September 1, 1876.
It wasn’t long before financial problems began for the new railroad, a pattern that would be often repeated for the line. Most of the right-of-way from Cincinnati through to Waynesville was purchased and the grading was underway, but raising capital to finish construction became a problem. The company went into receivership and in 1880 it was sold to the Toledo, Delphos, and Burlington Railroad (TD&B).
The TD&B had big plans to expand and develop a large midwest narrow gauge system. Already the TD&B had a mainline into Dayton, and they wished to finish the line into Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Northern was incorporated in 1880 as a subsidiary of the TD&B in order to build a narrow gauge line from Cincinnati to Dodds (a small village 5 miles north of Lebanon). The railroad finally came to Lebanon on February 17, 1881. The TD&B also constructed a connecting line between Dodds and the Dayton and Southeastern Railroad line going into Dayton (at a place which came to be called Lebanon Junction). The two lines combined to form the Cincinnati Division of the TD&B.
The TD&B (later merging to become the TC&StL), however, had their own problems. Over-expansion and cheap narrow gauge construction were becoming problems. Their mainline stretching from Toledo to St. Louis became a reality, but it was severally under capitalized. Maintenance on the line north of Dodds and elsewhere in the system became a nightmare, and the inherent difficulties with interchange would prove disastrous. The TC&StL eventually collapsed and went into receivership in 1883.
While the TC&StL would drag the Cincinnati Northern into bankruptcy, it was actually the most well-constructed part of the narrow gauge system and made enough profit to remain competitive. Through the efforts of Albert Netter and a number of Cincinnati investors they were able to purchase the Cincinnati Division. It would reorganize as the CL&N. The line running from Dodds to Dayton was purchased by seperate owners and would reform as the Dayton, Lebanon, and Cincinnati (DL&C).
The CL&N operated as a local narrow gauge suburban road for a few more years. Profits alternated between modest and non-existent. The railroad did prove itself in a the Ohio River flood of 1884, being the only Cincinnati railroad to remain in operation during the flood. The CL&N would come to be known as the ‘highland route’ for service during floodtime.
In 1896 the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) purchased the CL&N in order to secure another entrance into Cincinnati in the event of another flood, as well as preventing competing railroad from purchasing the line and using it to compete with the PRR’s Little Miami Division. Shortly before this purchase the CL&N was made standard gauge to appear better to potential buyers.
After purchase by the PRR, the CL&N remained independent as a separate division. The Middletown and Cincinnati (M&C), an independent railroad running from Middletown to the Little Miami Division was also purchased by PRR in 1905. The DL&C, which by this time had built it’s own route into Dayton, was purchased by the PRR in 1915. These two railroad were merged into the CL&N system, creating one standard gauge railroad connecting Dayton, Lebanon, Cincinnati, and Middletown in southwestern Ohio.
Thus the fate of the CL&N would be tied to that of the Pennsylvania, the great “standard of the world”. The CL&N’s independent operation ended in 1925 when the PRR consolidated it’s holdings by forming the Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Detroit Railroad. However, this railroad existed mainly on paper as part of the entire Pennsylvania system.
By this later date competition with the automobile severely hurt passenger traffic. The deathknell for passenger service on the CL&N was the requirement for all trains to use Cincinnati’s new Union Terminal. The last passenger train left Lebanon on February 1st, 1934 almost 53 years to the day since the line was constructed. In the coming decades many of the stations would be torn down to reduce taxes.
By the late 1960′s railroads everywhere were in decline. Competition from the new interstate highway system compounded by legacy tracks and regulation would nearly lead to the death of railroads in the United States. The PRR controlled over 10,000 miles of track, much of it in local light-density lines like the CL&N. 11 miles of track north of Lebanon to Lytle was abandoned in 1952.
In 1968 the PRR and the New York Central (NYC), merged to form the Penn Central (PC). 3 miles of track north of Brecon was abandoned, cutting the line into two sections through till this day. All service through the Deer Creek Valley into the Court Street Depot, as well as from Hageman Junction to the Little Miami Division. was permanently suspended. Today, a Greyhound Bus terminal stands on the former downtown yard.
Yet Penn Central could not stop the bleeding of cash from America’s railroads. When the PC went bankrupt the US government stepped in and formed the Consolidated Rail Corporation (or Conrail for short). Conrail acquired from the PC the CL&N mainline through Norwood into the new industrial parks of Blue Ash, as well as the former M&C mainline from Middletown through Hageman to Mason. It also gained control of short sections of the former CL&C near Dayton and Hampsted. It was up to Lebanon businesses to pay operating expenses for the Lebanon branch and save it from abandonment.
In early 1977, a number of Lebanon businesses banded together and saved the line from abandonment. It would be a historic decision for Lebanon’s future. In 1984, the up and coming regional railroad the Indiana and Ohio (I&O) purchased the Mason subdivision from Conrail, including the Lebanon branch. Later in 1986 the I&O would purchase the Blue Ash subdivision. An attempt was even made to reconnect the former CL&N trackage, which failed due to NIMBY opposition in the nearby suburban developments.
The I&O, today owned by Rail America, continues to operate the freight business through Norwood, as well as the online businesses near Mason. In 1985 the I&O began operating an excursion business from Lebanon to Mason. When the I&O was sold to Railtex, this was spun off as the I&O Passenger Corporation owned by Mr. Thomas McOwen. Today the passenger operation lives on as the Lebanon, Mason and Monroe Railroad (LM&M) under the ownership of the Cincinnati Railway Company.
Over 132 years since the groundbreaking of the CL&N, the railroad still provides a service to people in the Lebanon area. With this blog I attempt to pay homage to the history without forgetting to report on the present. For further reading, I recommend some of the articles below: