Cincinnati, Burnside & Cumberland River Railway

butch · February 16, 2007, 07:59:23 PM

Took the afternoon off to explore old Burnside (now exposed due to the low lake level of 680 ft.) Found some ties in the mud where the Cincinnati, Burnside & Cumberland River Railway split on the way back down to Burnside after the switch back. I'll try to put some pix up after the weekend.

butch · February 19, 2007, 04:09:17 PM

OK, here are a few pix of the recently exposed Cincinnati, Burnside & Cumberland River Railway wye at Burnside.

I have been trying to reconcile the locations of the ties I found with a 1926 Sanborn map, but I haven't been able to decide if the wye that I found was the switchback, or if it was where the CB&CRR split as it went in to town.

I have marked the location of the old depot in red-the current access to the Burnside Marina boat ramp is just below the old depot. I ballparked where Hayes Branch Creek crossed the line in blue. But the scale does not work if you try to line up the known current landmarks with the location of the CB&CRR as depicted on the map. Anyone have any suggestions?

An old bridge over Hayes Branch that lines up with one of the sets of ties that I found.

Next is a view of the two sets of ties as they move together to join at the base of the wye.

As side view of the two sets of ties.

A view of the wye from the road to General Burnside Island State Park.

And to show how far down the Lake Cumberland water level is at 680 ft., here is the south portal to Tunnel 4.

E.M. Bell · February 19, 2007, 08:40:04 PM

Excellent snooping Butch. I wish we could have found that last year when we where down there with you in the mud. Thats one scary looking bridge..never seen one with footers parellel to the rail before.

butch · February 23, 2007, 05:45:56 PM

The bridge pic is misleading. The rails were not parallel to the creek, it was just a wide bridge. Here is a different view.

That is one of the things to try and figure out, were there two sets of tracks over the bridge, or was there also a road? I am going to try to make another run after things dry up some more and see if I can figure out the rest of the the old ROW.

Dieselfan · February 26, 2007, 05:33:26 PM

It's like finding the lost city oy Atlantis

Dieselfan · February 26, 2007, 05:35:53 PM

It is just amazing how much is still intact after being under water for so long.Those ties look to be in good enough shape for CSX to use ;D

E.M. Bell · February 26, 2007, 07:31:56 PM

Quote from: Dieselfan on February 26, 2007, 05:35:53 PM
It is just amazing how much is still intact after being under water for so long.Those ties look to be in good enough shape for CSX to use ;D

now thats funny right there..jocularity at it's finest!

E.M. Bell · June 02, 2007, 05:15:35 PM

Back in the early part of May, Sean, JR and myself spent an afternoon walking around old Burnside. Found some of the same stuff Butch found, and maybe some other new stuff. The lake is as low now as I have ever seen it. Check out this thread for more history http://jreb.org/ns/index.php?topic=91.0

I am guessing this was a scale for rail cars. The old road bed lines up on both sides of the foundation.

What looked like the tail track for a wye on the South end of town.

A still mostly intact wooden bridge over a small stream. Its funny how the old streams are still flowing in the same place after the lake waters went down.

A spike that JR found laying in the muck.

The bottom of a old wine bottle that was down in the mud...wonder how old this is..

A couple of other shots from what used to be old Burnside.

butch · June 04, 2007, 09:11:11 AM

I've been back to Burnside a couple of times, but still haven't figured out the old track layout vs whats left. Not sure about the date on this map, but it is an interesting read. BTW, any idea what happened to the pix I posted to start this thread?

ba

E.M. Bell · June 04, 2007, 07:46:24 PM

Butch, you sure come up with some neat stuff...would love to see the rest of those maps, if there is a rest...

how did you attach the pics to the post you asked about?? if they where inbedded/linked, it looks like the links are bad now, so they wont show up...

butch · June 05, 2007, 08:33:01 AM

I may have used the links. Insight bb screwed up my stuff a while back and I haven't had time to get it sorted out yet-I'm moving for the last time...again...again. Anyway, the map is from "Cincinnati's Pathway to the South" which has maps of the CNO&TP from Cincinnati to Chattanooga. I can't place a date on it except that it is post 1917, my guess is the 20s. Also, you had asked about me scanning the old Louisville-Danville profile that I picked up. It is scanned, but is going to take some work and some time to get presentable; but it's on my list.