CSX Short Line, Former L&N LCL Sub

CSX’s LCL Subdivision between Cincinnati and Louisville, better known as the Short Line, is a busy mountain railroad smack dab in the middle of the Midwest. This spectacular, former Louisville and Nashville line parallels but does not follow the meandering south bank of the Ohio River in northern Kentucky accounting for the many hills or hogbacks that trains must traverse as they cross streams that flow northward into the Ohio River. Southbounds and northbounds each face a half a dozen climbs over one percent. When constructed in the late 1860s this was considered to be a superbly engineered line that included six tunnels and two high trestles although little straight track. Today the Short Line is a key link between North and South for CSX with upwards of twenty trains a day using this congested, single track, CTC equipped line. This program shows thirty hours of action on the railfan friendly Short Line, CSX’s LCL Subdivision between Cincinnati and Louisville, in May of 2013, including a train traversing the street running in La Grange.