Thursday, April 7, 2011

Railroad Depots - Ohio & West Virginia

Continuing my hobby of accumulating photos of old railroad depots, this is the former Baltimore & Ohio Depot in Ripley West Virginia. (Note: Laurie takes almost all of my photos) The trains stopped coming to Ripley in the 1960's. This town was served by the B&O Ripley & Mill Creek Valley Branch. It's always nice to see that an old depot being preserved and reused, in this case as a gift and antique shop. A little north of Ripley, along the Ohio River, you will find the town of Ravenswood. The former B&O Ravenswood freight depot is still in use by the railroad, (CSX), as a line office. While trains still pass by this depot, passenger trains stopped serving the Ravenswood, Spencer & Glenville Branch back in the 60's. This branch was first completed back in 1892. The first railroad serving Ravenswood was the Ohio River Railroad that came to town in 1886. As I researched this depot, I noted that the land upon which the town of Ravenswood is built was once owned by George Washington. In total he owned 2,448 acres. He acquired the land in 1770. His descendants laid out the plan for the town in 1834. Another stop along the way during this road trip was Berea Kentucky. This is the freight depot across the tracks from the old Louisville & Nashville Railroad passenger depot. Passenger service to Berea ended in 1959 and freight service was discontinued in 1969. This is the front of the old L&N passenger depot in Berea. This is a very nice brick structure with a classic tile roof, arched windows, etc. It was built in 1917. In it's day, it 'featured' a ladies waiting room as well as a negro waiting room. This depot is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Laurie took this track side photo of the depot to show the impressive protective roof built to shelter passengers disembarking and boarding the trains. It also shows some of the work being done to restore and preserve this nice depot. The depot is located at 908 North Broadway, right in the middle of a number of gift and art related shops in downtown Berea. It serves as the town's tourism bureau and as the offices for the Chamber of Commerce.

2 comments:

  1. Wow these houses are so cool..nice pics, i really like your hobby thats something different...best wishes.

    James,
    rvi

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  2. My best friends Dad was a B&O engineer, so I grew up thinking it was the biggest and premier RR in the country

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