Louisville and Nashville Railroad Lebanon Branch

The former Louisville and Nashville Railroad Lebanon Branch (AKA Knoxville Branch) was 77 miles long and ran from Lebanon Junction in Bullitt County to near Mt. Vernon in Rockcastle County. Construction of the branch began in 1857, reaching Lebanon in that year. The line was extended to Crab Orchard in 1866 and completed in 1868. Most of the line was abandoned in 1987. The portion from Stanford to Mt. Vernon was abandoned during the 1990s.

Most of the line is intact and in fairly clear condition. At the west, it connects with trackage of the Kentucky Railway Museum, headquartered in New Haven. KRM runs excursion trains from New Haven to Boston and owns the tracks to New Hope (a bridge in need of repair prevents using the tracks east of New Haven, though a fundraising campaign is underway to raise the money to repair the bridge—the tracks are otherwise maintained). The museum owns a large collection of historic passenger and freight cars and locomotives and these are stored along sidings from New Haven to Gethsemane. As of spring 2013, tracks remain intact to New Hope, where the rail head ends about 100 ft east of J.T. Riggs Rd(KY457), however, that road crossing is paved over, and warning signals were removed after the CSX abandonment in the mid 1990s.

Between New Hope and Lebanon the line passes through a number of small towns that provide basic services and also a variety of interesting historic sites. These include churches in New Hope and St. Francis, and the Maker's Mark Distillery near Loretto. The largest town in this section is Lebanon, which has a restored downtown area with many historic buildings housing shops and restaurants. The railroad right of way passes one block behind the main street and is intact, being used as a parking area.

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Wikipedia