The Zanesville & Western Railroad (Z&W) is a former railroad that extended throughout southeastern Ohio, connecting Columbus to many of the coal and clay mines and their respective power plants and factories.
The Big Woods, Red River & Lombard Railroad (BWRR&L) is a former narrow gauge railroad in Powell and Menifee counties in Kentucky. It was constructed circa 1910 to access the virgin forests of the Red River valley.
Vintage electric streetcars are located adjacent to a former coal mine in rural Pennsylvania.
Union Station is an abandoned train station and office building that was used by the Monongahela Railway in downtown Brownsville, Pennsylvania.
The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Hawks Nest Subdivision is an abandoned 3.4-mile branch from Hawks Nest Station to Ansted, West Virginia. It was originally conceived as a narrow-gauge line alongside Mill Creek.
The Nicholas, Fayette & Greenbrier Railway (NF&G) is a former railroad, controlled by the C&O and NYC, that was named after the three counties it served in the New River coal field in West Virginia.
The Eastern Kentucky Railway (EK) is a former 36-mile railroad between Riverton (Greenup) and Webbville, Kentucky. Although it served several mines and early pig-iron blast furnaces, the EK was abandoned in 1933 during the height of the Great Depression.
The Richmond, Nicholasville, Irvine & Beattyville Railroad (RNI&B, Riney-B) is a former railroad between Frankfort and Beattyville, Kentucky. In its original form, the RNI&B extended from Versailles and Irvine, Kentucky. It was acquired by another railroad in 1899 and extended to Beattyville and Airedale. Another acquisition extended the line west to Frankfort, giving the RNI&B a total of 110 miles.
The Little Miami Railroad (LM) is a defunct railroad that connected Cincinnati to Xenia, Ohio. Most of the alignment has been converted into a popular recreational trail.
Michigan Central Station, is a former railroad station Detroit, Michigan. It will become the centerpiece of a new campus for the Ford Motor Company. The depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and was abandoned in 1988.
The Western Maryland Railway Laurel Subdivision is a partly abandoned railroad in the Allegheny Highlands of West Virginia. It is comprised of the Greenbrief, Cheat & Elk Railroad and the West Virginia Midland Railway.
The Baltimore & Ohio Richwood Branch extended from Clarksburg to Richwood, West Virginia, a distance of 121 miles. Much of the route was later abandoned.
The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad (C&O) Greenbrier Division is a former railroad in the Greenbrier River valley in Greenbrier and Pocahontas County, West Virginia. The 101-mile line was one of the C&O’s primary branch lines for timber products and served more lumber companies than any other in the state.
The New York, Ontario & Western Railway (O&W, NYO&W) was a regional railroad that connected Oswego, New York to Weehawken Terminal in New Jersey. It is the first notable railroad in America to have its mainline entirely abandoned.
The Kentucky Union Railway (KU) is a former railroad that extended for 95 miles from Lexington to Jackson, Kentucky.
The Central Ohio Railway is a former railroad that connected Columbus to Bellaire, Ohio at the Ohio River. The line played an integral role in the development of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O), especially after a bridge was completed over the Ohio River that enabled eastern markets to connect with Chicago and the Midwest. A railroad was first conceived between Wheeling, West Virginia and the Midwest in the mid-19th century as an efficient manner in transporting freight and passengers from the east coast west into Ohio and ultimately Chicago.
The Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad (M&C) is a defunct railroad that connected Cincinnati, Ohio to Parkersburg, West Virginia. Through acquisitions during the 1800s, the M&C commanded over 270 miles of railroad, from Cincinnati to Marietta and south to Portsmouth and Hillsboro. The line was later absorbed into the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, becoming its mainline between Cumberland, Maryland, and St. Louis. Significant portions of the route have since been abandoned.
The Coal & Coke Railway (C&C) is a former railroad between Charleston and Elkins, West Virginia. It began as the Charleston, Clendenin & Sutton Railroad in 1891, reorganized as the Coal & Coke Railway in 1906, and leased by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1917 before being merged fully in 1934, with the Charleston to Elkins route being designated the Charleston Division. The erasure of large scale timbering, the slow decline of the coal industry in the central part of the state, and the closure of a refinery in Falling Rock led the B&O to discontinue service along the Charleston Division at different times since 1941. The railroad began sharing trackage rights with the Western Maryland closer to Elkins in the 1940s, and abandoned its mainline between Adrian and Midvale. It then closed down its former mainline between Midvale and Roaring Creek Junction in 1972 following the closure of several mines. The B&O then tried to abandon much of its line south of Gassaway although portions were reprieved by Conrail and the Elk River Railroad. Ultimately, the closure of a mine along the revived Buffalo Creek Railroad led much of the remaining track south of Burnsville to be used just for car storage and repairs at Gassaway until that ceased in 2022. Today, much of the former Coal & Coke Railway between Gassaway and Charleston is being redeveloped into a linear state park open for recreational use.
The Cincinnati, Columbus & Hocking Valley Railroad, later owned by the Ohio Southern, is a defunct railway between Sedalia and Kingman via Jeffersonville, Ohio. It was once proposed as a connection between Columbus and Cincinnati generally along what is now the Interstate 71 corridor.