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

railway company A rail transport company is a company active within the rail industry. It can be: * a manufacturing company, * a rail transport operations, railway undertaking providing services through operating rolling stock, * a railway infrastructure manager ...

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 so ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. 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 A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

line between Fulton Street and

Harrods Creek Harrods Creek is a neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky centered near Harrods Creek at the intersection of River Road and Wolf Pen Branch Road. It is roughly bordered by the Ohio River to the west and US 42 to the east. Its ZIP code is 40027. ...

until the company's 1881 purchase by the

Louisville and Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of ...

. 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 Bourbon may refer to: Food and drink * Bourbon whiskey, an American whiskey made using a corn-based mash * Bourbon, a beer produced by Brasseries de Bourbon * Bourbon biscuit, a chocolate sandwich biscuit * Bourbon coffee, a type of coffee ma ...

distillery, two quarries, and nearby farms. In 1904, the L&N sold the between Zorn Avenue and

Prospect Prospect may refer to: General * Prospect (marketing), a marketing term describing a potential customer * Prospect (sports), any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team * Prospect (minin ...

to the

Louisville Railway Company The Louisville Railway Company (LRC) was a streetcar and interurban rail operator in Louisville, Kentucky. It began under the name Louisville City Railway in 1859 as a horsecar operator and slowly acquired other rival companies. It was renamed in ...

, which electrified the rail and ran hourly commuter shuttles. All service on both stretches were abandoned during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

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

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

See also

References