Stations in the Ashland, Kentucky Area

 Go south on 23 to Cattlesburg and see the depot there,and north on 23 to Russell's depot.

Thanks! I grew up in Russell, but the depot and the RU cabin looks awful.The 1925 station is a bank now and is in great shape. The other had some work done since my last visit. I haven't been up river in awhile. I plan on going to Huntington soon to check the shape of the station there.

Is the N&W station across the river in Ironton still there?

EdKing

The Ironton station is still there and it had become a restaurant. I'm not sure if it is still a restaurant. It was in pretty good shape when I ate there about two years ago. I will add that station to my photo list.

Does anyone with this forum have any photos of these stations? 

  I call Flatwoods home myself . Are you a Russell alumni ?

  The depot has actually been worked over some,it's used for functions that have dinners served.There's a restored C&O caboose in front of the depot.But not much of anything has been done to RU Cabin.

 Russell will have railroad days the first weekend of June.Nothing like it used to be with the rides ,games and all that it used to have.

 The Huntington,WV depot is still used by the relocated dispatch office and management positions.

 The depot in Ironton,Ohio is vacant again.The restaurant Austins formerly occupied it until 2011.

 And unfortunately  the depot in Portsmouth,Ohio was razed by Scioto county for a new county prison.Was said they bought the entire property for $2.00 ! I saw artifacts from ,for sale on e=bay for months after it was demolished.

Yes, I am a 1981 Russell alumni! My mother still lives in downtown Russell. I agree that the Russell depot looks pretty good, but I hate what the CSX did to the platform. I also noticed that they keep the C&O caboose in good shape too. The RU cabin is really rough and believe the city owns it. It's a shame to see what has happen to the roundhouse, the YMCA, and yards in general. I have a lot of good memories of that area!

To see a web-cam of down town Ashland, KY which includes the old C&O Freight Depot and now serves as the Amtrak Station for Ashland.    Link below;

http://www.wsaz.com/weather/misc/190006591.html 

Thanks! I will save that link to my favorites!

 My half brother (Bennie) graduated in 81' also,pretty cool

 Yeah the old RRYMCA building is nearly beyond repair in any feasible means.That's really a shame.I always thought it would be a great place for a train related museum because of it's history,location and size.

About 15 years ago we took the train from Indianapolis to Washington and from there to Fla.   Needless to say, I ran the video camera for a lot of trip.  Family thought I was nuts to just record riding thru Northern  Kentucky.  I remember a station on the left (north) side of the track on the way to Cinncinnati.  Amtrak stopped here for a few minutes and I video'ed the back side of the station.  There was a steam engine under a shed and there were quite a few old time passenger cars setting on sidings, also.   Was I around the area you guys are talking about? 
That was a great rip with great wcenery.

In Ashland, the 1925 passenger station had Amtrak service till 1974. After that, Amtrak built a small station near Cattlesburg (up the Ohio river). The other station or depot became an Amtrak stop in 1998 after the city of Ashland bought it. It also serves as a Greyhound bus stop and a city bus stop. Neither of the stations in Ashland have any steam locomotives. The 1925 passenger station does have a Pullman car under what was the platform.

The Russell, Kentucky depot has a C&O caboose.

I can't comment as to Huntington, West Virginia or Portsmouth, Ohio.

I will get that video out and see if I can determine where it was.   I can probably take a pic of the screen and post it here.

http://i33.photobucket.com/alb...WV/IMG_7363copyb.jpg

The Portsmouth,Ohio station is completely gone,and there are not any steam locos. in the Portsmouth area.

 The only two locos in Huntington that I know of are in the Collis P.Huntington transportation park,"Safety Town", on the west end,and the Mikado  downtown beside the old B&O station at  "Heritage Station" down by Pullman Plaza.

 Maybe there was something sitting around the Huntington,WV locomotive shops when you went thru ?

Matt b, I hope you can post the picture.

I will, I have work the next couple days and have some stuff going on this weekend, but I'll do it by the first of the week!  promise!!

OK, I pulled out the video from the 93/94 vacation and took some pix off the tv screen, they are pretty bad, but I got my memory refreshed and some of this stuff might be known to you guys.   First off this was an Amtrak Great American Vacation package.   Great deal, we paid for food, but everything, I mean everything else was included.  Cost was under $3000.  We took a coach from Indianapolis to Wash, DC, Spent a full day in DC had a 2 nite res. at the Holiday Inn next to the Smithsonian.  Departed DC with two sleeper cars for Orlando, had a rental car waiting at the SCL station there.  Got to Disney and had 4 day hopper passes for 4 people and a room at port Orleans, return trip home was the same.  Great deal and all costs were included except food!

In viewing the video, I now see the station with the old time passenger cars was White Sulphur Springs.  There was no loco there, unless I missed getting it in the video. Steamers were south of the tracks farther along the route.

Arrived DC and saw the Southern 1401 and other great trains at the Smith.  In Orlando there was a big Amtrak service area east of the tracks and a restored loco at Church Street Station in Orlando.   The trip from DC back to Indy, we saw a really big CSX yard south of the tracks, probably in West Virginia, but I'm not sure.  It had lots of engines and cars and the tracks ran at leat a mile or two in this yard.   There were several old time cars and two steam engines which were covered with yellow tarps.  They were uncovered on the way up.  A bit farther there was a coal train laying south of the tracks on the hillside/woods sloping sown toward the new River.  We were told the train had derailed and the engine was all they were going to salvage. In looking at the video now, I am sure the cars were eventually pulled up, also.  There were 6-8cars that fell over the hillside.

Sorry the pix aren't better.  Might take two posts for these pix.  Watching the video again sure made me realize how enjoyable this trip was.   I really wish we still had passenger service fromLlouisville to the south. Such a shame that we lag behind the rest of the world in this area.

a few more of the Smith and the yard south of the tracks on trip from DC to Cinn.

matt b: Thanks for taking the time to post your trip photos!

Wish the pix were better.  The video is 8mm and it is pretty nice.  I have copied it all to dvd and it looks good on tv.  I'm sure there are ways to get better pix than I got, but I don't know them.   That was a great trip and it was nice to watch the video again after a few years.