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.
Abandoned railroads, buildings, cars, and locomotives scattered across landscapes tell a story of industrial evolution and decline.
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 Lehigh & New England Railroad (L&NE) was a defunct railroad that operated in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. It was the second notable railroad in the United States to be completely abandoned.
The Lackawanna Cut-Off was a 28.45-mile rail line built by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) between Port Morris, New Jersey, and Slateford, Pennsylvania. It was part of the 396-mile mainline connecting Hoboken, New Jersey, and Buffalo, New York.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Schuylkill Branch was a former rail line that extended from Philadelphia to the anthracite coal regions of central Pennsylvania.
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 Hocking Valley Railway is a partly abandoned coal hauling railroad in Ohio, with a mainline that stretched from Toledo to Pomeroy via Columbus and Athens.
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 Brimstone & New River Railroad is an out-of-service railroad between the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway (CNO&TP) at New River southeast to Lone Mountain in Tennessee.
The West Virginia Central & Pittsburg Railway (WVC&P) is a former railroad between Elkins, West Virginia and Cumberland, Maryland that served coal and timber interests.
The Chesapeake Western Railway is an abandoned railroad between Stokesville, Harrisonburg, and Elkton, Virginia. Despite its early potential as a through route between Cincinnati and Washington D.C., and later as a feeder to the coal mines in West Virginia, the railroad never lived up to its potential.
The Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans Railroad Paducah-East Cairo is a former railroad between Paducah and East Cairo, Kentucky. The company operated from 1878, a product of a merger between the New Orleans, Jackson & Northern Railroad and the Central Mississippi Railroad, until 1951 when it was merged into the Illinois Central Railroad and operated as a subsidiary.
The Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley Railroad connected the cities of Morrow, Wilmington, Washington Court House, Circleville, Zanesville and Trinway in Ohio.
The Flemingsburg & Northern Railroad was a standard-gauge railroad from the Louisville & Nashville line at Flemingsburg Junction to Hillsboro, Kentucky. It was financially plagued and reorganized on seven different occasions before being abandoned in 1955.
The Cincinnati, Georgetown & Portsmouth Railroad (CG&P) is an abandoned railroad between Cincinnati and Russellville, Ohio. It was intended to extend as far east as Portsmouth.
The Cincinnati Street Connecting Railway (CSC) is a former 2½-mile railroad that connected the Indianapolis & Cincinnati and Little Miami in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Big Four Railroad Depot is a former railroad depot for the Big Four Railroad in Springfield, Ohio. It was demolished in 1969.
The Oneida & Western Railroad is an abandoned rail line between Jamestown and Oneida, Tennessee. The line served vast pockets of virgin timber and coal mines before it was abandoned in 1954 after many years of financial troubles.
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.