The Library
The reading room of the collection: employee timetables, track chart books, forty years of C&O Historical Society articles, newspaper clippings, and recordings. Everything opens right here in the viewer — no downloads needed.
Employee Timetables & Public Schedules
1939 Public Passenger Timetable
The public schedule in the line's eight-trains-a-day era. Click to view.
PDFEmployee Timetable No. 133 — May 6, 1945
Ashland Division at its wartime operational peak: three passenger and three freight schedules each way.
PDFEmployee Timetable No. 134 — September 28, 1947
Agents at a dozen stations, helper instructions for Mountain Top, and the K-4 restrictions at Lexington.
PDFEmployee Timetable — 1958
Still a recognizable railroad, but with shortened agency hours and thinning schedules.
PDFEmployee Timetable No. 153 — April 24, 1966
One passenger train each way and a single line of operating rules — the contraction made official.
IMG1952 Sleeping-Car Schedule
Pullman lines and connections in the last full year of steam. Click to view.
Track Charts & Engineering Books
Lexington Subdivision Track Chart — 1960
Grades, curves, sidings, and structures, milepost by milepost.
PDFLexington Subdivision — 1984
The line as it stood in its final full year of through operation.
PDFLexington Subdivision Track Chart — 1984
Companion chart set to the 1984 condition report.
PDFSide Track Charts
Sidings, spurs, and industry tracks along the subdivision.
Feature Articles
On the Road to Louisville — Wendell H. McChord
The foundational history of the Lexington Subdivision. COHS Newsletter, November 1976.
PDFPullmans to the Bluegrass — Thomas W. Dixon, Jr.
C&O passenger operations between Ashland and Louisville. COHS Newsletter, November 1976.
PDFCollis P. Huntington in Perspective — Eugene L. Huddleston
The transcontinental dreamer who built the line by mail. C&O Historical Magazine, May 1994.
PDFLexington Subdivision Steam Passenger Power — Eugene L. Huddleston
J-2 Mountains, F-20 Pacifics, and K-4 Kanawhas on the George Washington. C&O Historical Magazine, June 1998.
PDFBlue Grass and Green Hills — Jesse Stuart
The Kentucky author rides Train 21 through his "Cliff Country." TRACKS, August 1955.
PDFFlash Flood at Aden
An extra-board brakeman's memorable June 1961 call to a derailment at the foot of Corey Hill.
PDFGeorge Washington Consists
How the C&O's flagship was made up, including its Kentucky sections.
PDFPushers
Helper operations on C&O grades — Corey Hill included. COHS Magazine, Summer 2010.
PDFLexington's Final Chapter — Brown
The end of C&O passenger facilities in downtown Lexington. COHS Newsletter, November 1988.
PDFMax M. Harnett, C&O Conductor
Forty-eight years on the railroad, from the Netherland Yard transfer gang up. COHS Newsletter, April 2005.
PDFA Conductor at Hedges
Recollections of a career on the Lexington Subdivision.
PDFThe Farmer Depot
The C&O's odd Kentucky Blue Stone depot in Rowan County.
PDFThe Mount Sterling Depot
History of the milepost-90 depot. COHS Newsletter, May 2002.
PDFMount Sterling Depot Restoration
The student-led project that saved the depot. 2008.
PDFOlive Hill
The fire-brick capital of the line. COHS Magazine, Winter 2008.
PDFKentucky Coal on the Lexington Subdivision
Coal extras west out of Russell Yard, cut in half for Corey Hill.
PDFNetherland Yard Closed
The end of Lexington's C&O freight yard. June 1981.
PDFThe Chessie Steam Special at Lexington
Steam returns to the Bluegrass for the C&O's 1970s anniversary excursions.
PDFAshland — Part One
The eastern gateway of the line. COHS Magazine, May 2009.
PDFAshland — Part Two
Continuation of the Ashland story. COHS Magazine, Summer 2009.
PDFThe Big Run Landfill Trains (2007)
Trash by rail on the surviving Ashland–Coalton stub.
PDFThe Big Run Landfill Trains (2008)
A second look at the landfill operation.
PDFTrip Report — May 2016
Riding and exploring what remains of the line.
PDFThe Wellsburg Connection
Related C&O history from the Society's files. December 1998.
PDFA Railroad Trip Through Carter County — 1881
An Ashland Independent reporter rides an AC&I coal train into the half-finished railroad, and hires a schoolboy's horse to finish the trip.
PDFRailroad Stories from Leon, Kentucky
"I Remember the Night the Bridge Came In" and other oral recollections from the flood country.
Newspaper & Newsletter Clippings
C&O Historical Magazine Issues
Sound & Film
President Truman at Olive Hill — 1948
The whistle-stop campaign comes to Carter County: Harry Truman's rear-platform remarks at the Olive Hill depot, recorded during the come-from-behind 1948 campaign.
Olive Hill, KY — Lexington Subdivision Local Broadcast
Television feature on the C&O local at Olive Hill, plays right here in the viewer (hosted on YouTube).
PPTMountainRail Lexington Sub Presentation — 2023
Slide presentation on the line's history (PowerPoint download).
PDFThe Lexington Subdivision — Complete Book Draft
The full sixteen-chapter manuscript this site presents, in printable PDF form.