The Louisville, Harrods Creek and Westport Railroad was a 19th-century

railway company A railway company is a company within the rail industry. It can be a manufacturing firm or an rail transport operations, operator. Some railway companies operate both the trains and the track, while, particularly in the European Union, operation ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

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 ...

. It was formed from the failed Louisville, Harrods Creek and Westport Rail''way'' in 1879, gave up its predecessor's hope of reaching Westport or beyond, and simply continued service along the existing The Louisville & Nashville Railroad, 1850-1963
/ref> narrow gauge railway line between Fulton Street and Harrods Creek until the company's 1881 purchase by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. The L&N continued the LHC&W's separate existence, but converted it to . Under the L&N, it offered passenger service on four daily round trips and principally serviced commuters living along River Road (the old Louisville–Westport Turnpike). At night, the line was employed for freight service by a lime kiln, bourbon distillery, two quarries, and nearby farms. In 1904, the L&N sold the between Zorn Avenue and Prospect to the Louisville Railway Company, which electrified the rail and ran hourly commuter shuttles. All service on both stretches were abandoned during the Great Depression in 1935. The LHC&W's rights-of-way continued to be employed by the L&N for freight service, however, and presently make up part of the class-I CSX Transportation system.Castner, Charles. ''The Encyclopedia of Louisville''
p. 251
"Louisville, Harrods Creek, & Westport Railway". University Press of Kentucky (Lexington), 2001. Accessed 15 October 2013.

References

Defunct Kentucky railroads Defunct companies based in Louisville, Kentucky Transportation in Louisville, Kentucky Narrow gauge railroads in Kentucky 3 ft gauge railways in the United States Railway companies established in 1879 Railway companies disestablished in 1881 {{Louisville-stub

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References