The O&O Railroad: Kentucky’s Shortest-Lived Railroad

Owingsville and Olympia train over the newly constructed Slate Creek Bridge. —J.L. Cassidy

There is a certain amount of romantic nostalgia when people remember the iron rails and howls of the train whistles echoing through the valleys. When one thinks of the railroads that once ran through Bath County, the town of Salt Lick immediately comes to mind. Salt Lick was the primary railroad hub for Bath County’s stretch of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, which was first built in 1880. A very prosperous narrow gauge rail system also ran in Southeastern Bath County, from the town of Yale to Blackwater in Morgan County. The Licking Valley Railroad hauled freight and passengers back and forth daily from 1897-1913 before it was abandoned.

In 1914, the rails from the Licking Valley Railroad were removed and put down in Owingsville to establish the Owingsville and Olympia Railroad, or O&O. Five cars and a small Climax locomotive made up the O&O line, which was also known as the Little Dinky. The depot was located off what is now Paul Lewis Drive behind the old city hall building on Slate Avenue. The track ran down the hill, then turned south six miles to Olympia. The old rail bed can still be seen along the hillside behind the city sign near the intersection of Kentucky 36 and Kendall Springs Road. Owingsville had finally secured its place in the railroad age after many years of attempts to secure a route through the city.

The first train left Owingsville in the early part of 1915 and was managed by W.W. Hubbard, with John K. Richards being the local agent at the depot. The steam engine soon became impractical, probably due to the steep grade just outside Owingsville, and was replaced by a gasoline-fueled engine that could haul the heavy freight and eventually passengers.

A bridge was erected across Slate Creek near the Bourbon Furnace, and is still partially standing behind the Church of the Latter Day Saints on Kentucky 36. A couple of smaller trestles were erected over the smaller streams between Owingsville and Slate Creek, one of which was at the bottom of the grade just below the depot. The O&O was very profitable hauling goods and a passenger service was envisioned, but in October 1915, ideas for passenger service came to a dashing halt.

The Little Dinky train was parked at the depot in Owingsville taking on freight one afternoon. Suddenly, the locomotive’s brakes failed and the train barreled down the grade. It continued to the bottom of the hill and raced toward the curve going into the first trestle, gathering momentum. The train jumped the track at the first trestle and plummeted to the ground onto its side. The public became apprehensive about traveling on the O&O after the wreck and passenger service eventually came to a stop. The O&O continued to run freight, but without the funding from passenger service, the railroad became financially unstable. By 1916, hardly any trains were moving along the route and the Owingsville and Olympia Railroad ceased operations. The tracks were dismantled in 1918 and sold to coal companies. No trains have ever rolled into Owingsville since, and the O&O holds the distinction of being the shortest-lived railroad in Kentucky.

The trains last rolled through Bath County in 1985 and the Chesapeake & Ohio rails were dismantled for good shortly afterward. Modern ways of travel rendered rail service obsolete, leaving cherished memories of those iron horses for those who remember.