The L. & N. Railroad, Latonia, Kentucky

L and n

The late, great Decoursey Yards
This view looks north; Car Shops on the left.

This is the Pan American, (Wikipedia), a named, elite passenger train on the L & N. Passenger trains with names, as opposed to just numbers, were the elite trains. There was a time when a railroad employee would quickly lose their job if they did anything to cause a named passenger train to fall behind schedule. Image from a Facebook post by Frank Michaels.


Heading south	Depot, east of 35th and Lincoln right, From a Facebook post by James Heupel

There's video of steam at Decoursey.
You can get the full video at RailfanDepot.com
Thanks to those folks for permission to use this one.


Freight going South out of Decoursey Yards. Trivia on this image: I love this kind of story.	Freight going South out of Decoursey Yards	Retarders at DeCoursey, March, 1950

New Office Building, 1949

In 1928, the also dedicted a new office building.

Decoursey, in a more prosperous time.


Yard Construction at Decoursey, 1940	Yard Construction at Decoursey, 1940	Latonia Depot, looking north


Looking east from the Latonia Depot	Latonia Depot	Looking west from the Latonia Depot

The University of Louisville Library is the home of the L&N company records. They're all on-line, here. They include a complete set of the digitized employee magazine.

Plane lands at DeCoursey, December, 1939
Story of two brothers who waited 68 years for this picture, here.


DeCoursey NX interlocking control	Train approaching Decoursey NX interlocking

You'll hear the L&N from Covington to Louisville referred to as the “Short Line.” That's because it initially came up short of actually getting into Louisville, because of gauge issues, i. e., incompatible track widths. Is this the “Short Line” used in the board game Monopoly? No.


DeCoursey water pumping station on the Licking, 1941	DeCoursey ash pit turns into garden, fall, 1935

Administration Scenes


Thanks for these two montages of Decoursey scenes to Bill Schmiade

Timetable for the L&N at Latonia (South Covington), 1879, here.	If you're a fan of the L & N Short Line (Covington to Louisville), the book you want to read is here.
A list of all the tunnels on the L&N between Louisville and Cincinnati is here.	Here's a progress report, from 1868, on the construction of the Short Line
The Interstate Commerce Commission issued this report on a February 23, 1925 train wreck just south of Decoursey at Grant.	Lots of L & N diesel and locomotive pictures are at Herron Rail's site, here.
The L & N Historical Society's site is here.	Latonia's Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati's site is here.

“Old Rip Track and site of transfer shed (long since removed) in old Latonia, Ky, yards of the L&NRR, looking north, 12:20 pm, August 16, 1952.” from the back of the picture


South Bound Hump Crew, 1927	South bound snapper crew, 1927


Decoursey, c. 1965. The “Standard Project Flood” referred to would be a flood on the order of the 1937 flood.	Decoursey in the snow, c. 1977	DeCoursey Roundhouse, 1917. A short history of this roundhouse is here.

Pile Driver 41216, at DeCoursey, June 1965

The L&N Railroad used to publish a lot of pictures of it's
employees homes. Here's one on Grant Court in Latonia, from 1926.

Follow the Dixie Jet as it comes north through DeCoursey Yards, here. (pdf)