The Belt Line was a former

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

owned freight railroad branch industrial line on the west side of

Hamilton, Ohio Hamilton is a city in and the county seat of Butler County, Ohio, United States. Located north of Cincinnati, Hamilton is the second largest city in the Greater Cincinnati area and the 10th largest city in Ohio. The population was 63,399 at th ...

extending from Belt Junction JCT connection with

Cincinnati Terminal Subdivision The Cincinnati Terminal Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Kentucky and Ohio the line is part of the CSX Transportation Louisville Division and the Northern Region. There are seven sections to the Ci ...

and the

Indianapolis Subdivision The Indianapolis Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Ohio and Indiana. The line runs from Hamilton, Ohio, (north of Cincinnati) west to Indianapolis, Indiana, along a former Baltimore an ...

. After the rail line closed, it was converted to bicycling and hiking path.
/ref>

History

The 2.9-mile Hamilton Belt Railway operated entirely within Hamilton from 1898 until 2012, serving several industries on the city’s West Side. Its prime customer for 114 years was Champion Papers (later SMART Papers). By 1926, Champion was dispatching 18 to 20 cars of paper daily, and bringing in an average of 144 box cars and 55 coal cars each week. In 1926, HBR tracks were purchased by the B&O. By 1940, Champion’s Hamilton mill rail yards had more than 20 miles of track with several steam locomotives shuttling cars around the clock. HBR began losing business to trucks after World War II. It had no locomotives or cars and was worked in succession by the CH&D, the B&O, CSX and, after 1988, by privately-owned short line companies Great Miami & Western Railway then

US Rail US Rail is a Senegalese football club based in Thiès Thiès (; ar, ثيس, Ṯyass; Noon: ''Chess'') is the third largest city in Senegal with a population officially estimated at 320,000 in 2005. It lies east of Dakar on the N2 road and at ...

Milepost

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" !width="150", Mile Post (Northbound) !width="150", Station Name !width="300", Notes , - style="background:#ddd;"{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" ! colspan="4" , Begin of

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

/End of

- Hamilton Depot to Belt Junction JCT. , - ! colspan="4" , Begin of

- Belt Junction JCT. to Hamilton Depot/End of

- Hamilton Depot to Belt Junction , - , 0.0 , Belt Junction JCT. , Jct.

- Belt Junction JCT. to Hamilton Depot/End of

- Hamilton Depot to Belt Junction , - , 0.4 , Butler County Lumber Company , , - , 0.5 , American Frog & Switch , , - , 2.0 , Woods Yard , , - , 2.5 , Champion Paper Mill Hamilton , , - , 2.9 , Champion Paper Mill Hamilton , End of Track , -

References

{{reflist Hamilton, Ohio Rail trails in Ohio Defunct Ohio railroads