CSX Repaints Diesel into L&N Livery for Museum

A former Louisville & Nashville C30-7 locomotive has been repainted into a Family Lines System livery.

CSX repainted the No. 7067 at its Huntington, West Virginia, shops and has donated it to the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation.

Kentucky Steam will display the unit at its museum near Ravenna, Kentucky, along a former L&N route.

The 7067 was built in 1980 and was one of 44 C30-7s owned by the L&N.

At one time the 7067 wore the colors of Marshall University, which is located in Huntington.

CSX personnel worked with the L&N Historical Society to get the correct colors and lettering.

The 7067 is inoperable and CSX will arrange to move it to the Kentucky Steam facility this spring.

On the L&N in Kentucky

We found Louisville & Nashville Alco FA-2 Nos. 316 and L&N 315 in DeCoursey Yard in DeCoursey, Kentucky, in August 1970. Both units were built in June 1956.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Ex-L&N C30-7 Donated to Kentucky Museum

The Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation has received a donation of a non-operable C30-7 diesel.

The locomotive was a gift from the Collis P. Huntington Railroad Historical Society and is painted in the colors of Marshall University.

One of 44 of this model road-switchers ordered by the Louisville & Nashville from General Electric in 1979-80, No 7067 was retired from the CSX motive power roster in 1999 and donated to the Huntington Society in 2017.

Kentucky Steam plans to paint the 7067 into its original L&N Family Lines paint livery and place it on static display in Ravenna, Kentucky.

The group will need to raise funds to pay to move the unit this summer.

At the Fueling Rack in Sharonville

Louisville & Nashville F9B No. 578 is at Penn Central’s Sharonville Yard’s fueling facility in Sharonville, Ohio, on Aug. 25, 1972. It appears to be surrounded by PC units.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

‘Invisible’ L&N Heritage Units

It may not be obvious but you are looking at two Louisville & Nashville heritage units.

No, CSX GP38-3 No. 2031 and SD40-3 No. 4065 are not wearing any L&N markings. But both units were purchased by the L&N decades ago.

Neither unit, though, came from the EMD factory looking like they do in this photograph of CSX southbound manifest freight Q561 in Hamilton, Ohio.

They were delivered as, respectively, a GP38-2 and an SD40-2. A few years ago CSX rebuilt each locomotive and in the process gave it a new squared-off cab that some wags have described as SpongeBob SquareCab after a children’s cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.

In case you were wondering, the 2031 was built in April 1972 as L&N No. 4061. The 4065 emerged as L&N 8074.

The train they are helping to pull will soon complete its journey from Selkirk Yard near Albany, New York, to Queeesgate Yard in Cincinnati.

The image was made last Friday on the joint line used by southbound CSX and Norfolk Southern trains in Hamilton.

Article and Photograph by Craig Sanders

Something You Haven’t Seen in a While

It is early in the CSX era in Akron. Former Seaboard System C30-7 in its Seaboard livery is leading a train on April 27, 1987. This isn’t, though, the unit’s original livery. When built by GE in September 1979, it was a Louisville & Nashville Unit where it had the same roster number. The Family Lines look pays tribute to that heritage.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Touch of the South in Cincinnati

Cincinnati Union Terminal served passenger trains of some southern railroads including the Southern and the Louisville & Nashville.

At one time the New York Central had through cars between Chicago and Detroit to Florida and southern points that interchanged in Cincinnati.

But by the time this image of L&N E9A No. 785 was made in Cincinnati in August 1970, those through car services had ended.

This unit would have been assigned to help pull the last L&N passenger train still operating in Cincinnati before Amtrak, the Pan American to New Orleans.

By 1970 L&N had but five passengers trains left in its system.

In the bottom image, we’ve traveled south of the Ohio River to nearby DeCoursey, Kentucky, where we view L&N Alco RS3 No. 179 on Dec. 28, 1972.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Fallen Flags Portrait

Everything you see here, the three Penn Central locomotives and the two box cars behind them are marked for fallen flag railroads.

Aside from PC, there is the Louisville & Nashville and Lehigh Valley.

The image was made in Cleveland on Oct. 26, 1974. By then Penn Central had been bankrupt for more than four years and the process that would led to the creation of Conrail was underway.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

An L&N Memory

We don’t usually think of the Louisville & Nashville as having served Ohio although some of its passengers trains originated and terminated at Cincinnati Union Terminal.

Some L&N transfer runs would have crossed the Ohio River to interchange with other railroads in the Queen City.

But the L&N proper ended in Newport, Kentucky, across the river from Cincinnati.

Shown is L&N Alco RS3 reposing at DeCoursey Yard on the Kentucky side of Greater Cincinnati on Dec. 28, 1972.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

L&N 152 Restoration Wins Federal Grant

The Kentucky Railway Museum has received a federal grant that will be used toward restoration of a Louisville & Nashville steam locomotive.

The $435,000 grant was awarded through the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

However, museum officials say that more money needs to be raised to complete the restoration of L&N 152, a 4-6-2 Pacific type that has not operated since 2011.

No. 152 is the official steam locomotive of Kentucky.

Rob Minton, chairman of the museum’s Crew 152, told Trains magazine the grant will move the restoration toward 85 percent completion.

Fundraising to support the restoration efforts began in 2015. The federal grant is a matching grant for which the recipient must provide a 20 percent match or about $87,000.

Minton said KRM has most of the matching funds needed but will continue to seek to raise the balance.

The museum has raised more than $100,000 thus far to use toward restoration.

No. 152 was built in 1905 by Rogers Locomotive Works and used largely primarily to pull L&N passenger trains between Louisville, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee.

It was donated to the KRM in 1954 after being cosmetically restored. It was restored to operating condition in 1985 after a 13-year effort.

Flue and boiler issues led to the locomotive being taken out of service in 2011. The locomotive’s boiler certification has since expired.

KRM officials hope to have the 152 back in steam and running in two or three years.