Enoch: L&N in Clark County IV

By Harry Enoch

Contributing Writer

The L&N yards at Patio were laid out near a major watershed divide.  Going north from Patio puts one in the Licking River basin and going south leads to the Kentucky River.  There are two southern routes from Patio. The line from Ford ascends a 1 percent grade (one foot of rise for every 100 feet of track), while the line from Ravenna rises at a .4 percent grade.  CSX operates these lines today.

The 29-mile route to Ravenna, completed in 1916, features three major trestles in Clark County.  These span Dry Fork Creek, Upper Howards Creek and Red River.  The latter two were the longest in the L&N system.

Quite surprisingly, the line to Ravenna is downhill all the way.  This led to a movie-worthy incident back in 2007.  Shortly before noon on January 15, four tank cars carrying hazardous chemicals got loose at Patio and rolled 20 miles to Estill County.  CSX notified Ravenna, and operators there dispatched two locomotives to intercept the cars in an unpopulated area north of Irvine.  There the unmanned cars collided with the unmanned engines causing a spectacular explosion.  A huge fire, fueled by 30,000 gallons of butyl acetate, destroyed the rail cars and both diesel engines.  Fortunately, no one was injured.

I am grateful to rail photographer, Garland McKee, for permission to reproduce his work in this series of articles.  Garland lives in Lexington and, after fifty plus years, still goes on the road to photograph trains.

A northbound L&N coal train crosses the Red River trestle at sunset in November 1976.  Standing 233 feet tall, this was the highest bridge in the L&N system and spanning 2,200 feet, it was also the longest.  (Garland McKee photo)

Dry Fork trestle crosses a branch of Upper Howards Creek 6 miles south of Patio.  A little south of the trestle the line enters a tunnel, emerging near an abandoned station at Agawam.  (Garland McKee photo)

Three miles south of Dry Fork is the Howards Creek trestle (225 feet high and 2,100 feet long).  The northbound freight is ascending the .4 percent grade to Patio.  (Garland McKee photo)

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