The Eastern Kentucky Railway was a
railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
in northeastern
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
, United States. It served mainly mine traffic, running north from
Webbville through
Grayson to
Riverton (now part of
Greenup) on the
Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
and
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...
.
History
The Kentucky Improvement Company was chartered in December 1866 and renamed January 1, 1870 to the Eastern Kentucky Railway. The first section, from Riverton south to
Argillite
:''"Argillite" may also refer to Argillite, Kentucky.''
Argillite () is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of indurated clay particles. Argillaceous rocks are basically lithified muds and oozes. They contain variable amounts ...
, opened in 1867. Further extensions took it to
Hunnewell by 1870, Grayson in 1871,
Willard by 1874 and Webbville in 1889. At
Hitchins, between Grayson and Willard, the line junctioned with the
Elizabethtown, Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad, an east–west branch of the
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...
.
The
Consolidated Southern Railway was a plan in the 1880s to extend the EK south as part of a through line to
Hickory
Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...
and
Statesville, North Carolina
Statesville is a city in and the county seat of Iredell County, North Carolina, United States, and it is part of the Charlotte metropolitan area. Statesville was established in 1789 by an act of the North Carolina Legislature. The population was r ...
, also using the never-built
Norfolk and Cincinnati Railroad and part of the
Chester and Lenoir Railroad.
The EK went bankrupt in 1919, and the part south of Grayson was reorganized in 1928 as the Eastern Kentucky Southern Railway. That company stopped operations in January 1933, and the tracks were removed soon after.
[Eastern Kentucky Railway (2007, Baldridge, Terry L.)]
The EK is featured in the children's book ''A Ride with Huey, the Engineer'' (1966) by
Jesse Stuart
Jesse may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Jesse (biblical figure), father of David in the Bible.
* Jesse (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Jesse (surname), a list of people
Music
* ''Jesse'' ( ...
. The book "Eastern Kentucky Railway" by Terry L. Baldridge was published in September 2007.
Tracing the route
The old alignment parallels
KY 1 north of Argillite. From Argillite south to Hunnewell, the alignment except the tunnels has been used for
KY 207.
KY 3306 mostly follows the path west to
Hopewell, and from there south to Grayson it runs along KY 1. From Grayson to Hitchins, the alignment was used for
KY 773, including two old
truss bridge
A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...
s now used as
one-lane road bridges. (Part of the old grade of the
Elizabethtown, Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad west of the EK is erroneously named EK Railroad Drive.) Finally, from Hitchins to Webbville, the railroad once again followed KY 1; an old alignment includes another remaining truss bridge, that one with no floor.
The railroad had eight tunnels; all but the Argillite Tunnel, south of
Argillite
:''"Argillite" may also refer to Argillite, Kentucky.''
Argillite () is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of indurated clay particles. Argillaceous rocks are basically lithified muds and oozes. They contain variable amounts ...
, have been flooded. The north end of Argillite Tunnel formerly could be seen from KY 207 where it curves to avoid the hill that the tunnel passes through. But the entrance was buried for safety reasons in 2017.
Station listing
References
External links
Eastern Kentucky Railwayat Abandoned
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eastern Kentucky Railway
Defunct Kentucky railroads