Abandoned Railroads #21: Kentucky Union Traditional Cache
Abandoned Railroads #21: Kentucky Union
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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Since I have always been interested in railroads, I’ve decided to start a series of caches highlighting some of the physical features that still remain of railroads that no longer exist in the central KY area.
The Kentucky Union Railway was born in 1872, but construction did not begin until 1886. It ran between the junction with the E,L, and BS near this cache site to Clay City where a huge sawmill was located. The Kentucky Union operated the sawmill and was a huge landowner in eastern KY. It was built to Lexington in 1890 and the roadbed is very obvious in places if you came out Ecton Road from Winchester. (No good pull-offs, though, so I haven't placed any caches, but still good to see.) The following year, it connected to Jackson, which made it 92 miles long. It was reorganized as the Lexington and Eastern in 1894.
The L&N was looking for a good route to the eastern KY coal fields and purchased the railroad in 1910, a year after they had acquired the Riney-B. Neither railroad really fit the bill for heavy coal hauling, so they built their own line from Winchester to Irvine in 1916, relegating both the former Riney B and L&E lines to branch line status. The line was finally abandoned at this point in 1942.
The line had 3 tunnels and one of them is still visible under the Natural Bridge State Park lodge. The L&E heavily promoted Natural Bridge as a tourist attraction and many special trains from larger cities were run on weekends before any roads were built to the area. The Red River Museum in Clay City has a restored depot from Slade and a large collection of photo's of the line. The depot is also still standing in Stanton.
This site is near L&E junction, where the tracks crossed the C&O line and interchange of cars was performed. You will cross the site of the C&O line on the way to this cache, but it is now a private driveway. Also note the 1890 church across from the cache and parking is available at the church.
Cache is a camo'd pill bottle.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Unatvat sebz srapr cbfg ba gbc bs nohgzrag
Treasures
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