Bowling Green Southern Railroad

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Bowling Green Southern Railroad

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Originally constructed in the early 1860's to connect Bowling Green, Kentucky, with the cities of Evansville, Indiana, and Nashville, Tennessee, the BGS system continued to grow over the next 80+ years, eventually reaching places like Louisville, Lexington, Somerset, Knoxville, Paducah, and Memphis. This thread will focus on the BGS system as it was throughout the 80's and 90's.

Coming into the 1980's, the railroad was compromised of two divisions; the Bowling Green Division and the Nashville Division. Railroad headquarters were originally located in Bowling Green, but were moved south to Nashville in 1982. The only major hump yard on the system was Seville Yard, located outside of Bowling Green. Nearly every over the road freight originated or terminated there. The Bowling Green Division consisted of seven subdivisions, and the Nashville Division consisted of six as listed below. In total, the railroad operated nearly 1,300 miles of mainline track and nearly 300 miles of branchline track as of 1985. The BGS also exercised trackage rights over other railroads such as CSX, NS, and the WI&I.

Bowling Green Division
BG Terminal Subdivision - 10 miles from North BG to South BG
Cortland Subdivision - 22 miles from North BG to Cortland Junction
Somerset Subdivision - 74 miles from Cortland Junction to North Somerset
Lexington Subdivision - 134 miles from Cortland Junction to Lexington
Evansville Subdivision - 111 miles from North BG to Evansville
Oakland Subdivision - 81 miles from Oakland to Warren/WI&I Connection
Paducah Subdivision - 137 miles from North BG to Paducah

Nashville Division
Jonestown Subdivision - 73 miles from South BG to Nashville/NA Junction
Knoxville Subdivision - 192 miles from East Nashville to Knoxville
Central Subdivision - 77 miles from Cortland Junction to Jameson Junction
Jackson Subdivision - 139 miles from West Nashville to Jackson
Memphis Subdivision - 78 miles from Jackson to East Memphis
Corinth Subdivision - 52 miles from Zemo Junction to Corinth

Throughout the 1980's and early 90's, the BGS roster consisted of a variety of EMD, GE, and ALCO power. As the railroad continued to buy new power from GE and EMD throughout the 80's, the ALCO fleet slowly became smaller, and most of the fleet could be found working out of Paducah or Somerset from 1984 to 1995 as the ALCO's performed well in mine run and coal drag service. By the end of 1995, the entire fleet of ALCO's had been retired and replaced with more modern power.
Last edited by Y@ on Mon Aug 29, 2016 5:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Y@
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Re: Bowling Green Southern Railroad

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Here is a list of the regular road trains on both divisions of the Bowling Green Southern. Trains that originated on one division and terminated on the other (except for trains originating/terminating in Bowling Green) will be listed under the division they originated on. Extra trains operated using engine number and timetable direction, I.E. "Extra 3024 east."

Bowling Green Division Road Freights
BGEV - Daily Bowling Green to Evansville manifest.
EVBG - Daily Evansville to Bowling Green manifest.
BGPA - Daily Bowling Green to Paducah manifest.
PABG - Daily Paducah to Bowling Green manifest.
BGLO - Daily Bowling Green to Louisville manifest.
LOBG - Daily Louisville to Bowling Green manifest.
BGLE - Daily Bowling Green to Lexington manifest.
LEBG - Daily Lexington to Bowling Green manifest.
BGSR - Daily Bowling Green to Somerset manifest.
SRBG - Daily Somerset to Bowling Green manifest.
BGKV - Daily Bowling Green to Knoxville manifest.
KVBG - Daily Knoxville to Bowling Green manifest.
WILN - Every other day high priority manifest/TOFC handed from WI&I to BGS at Evansville, and from BGS to L&N at Nashville.
ICLN - Every third day high priority manifest/TOFC handed from IC to BGS at Paducah, and from BGS to L&N at Nashville.
LOME - Every other day Louisville to Memphis manifest.
EVKO - Daily Evansville to Knoxville manifest.

Nashville Division Road Freights
BGNA - Daily Bowling Green to Nashville manifest.
NABG - Daily Nashville to Bowling Green manifest.
BGME - Daily Bowling Green to Memphis manifest.
MEBG - Daily Memphis to Bowling Green manifest.
NAKV - Daily Nashville to Knoxville manifest.
KVNA - Daily Knoxville to Nashville manifest.
NAME - Every other day Nashville to Memphis manifest.
MENA - Every other day Memphis to Nashville manifest.
JACO - Every other day Jackson to Corinth manifest.
COJA - Every other day Corinth to Jackson manifest.
LNWI - Every other day high priority manifest/TOFC handed from L&N to BGS at Nashville, and from BGS to WI&I at Evansville.
LNIC - Every third day high priority manifest/TOFC handed from L&N to BGS at Nashville, and from BGS to IC at Paducah.
MELO - Every other day Memphis to Louisville manifest.
KOEV - Daily Knoxville to Evansville manifest.

The busiest location on the BGS system was BG Tower on the southeast side of Bowling Green. Here, the lines from Evansville and Nashville met the Bowling Green Terminal Sub, which ran around town to North BG where the line to Cortland crossed the L&N to Louisville. At BG Tower, the mainline from Nashville curved west to the massive hump yard known as "Seville Yard," while the joint Evansville/Paducah mainline continued northwest, the BG terminal ran northeast, and the Dupont Industrial crossed the mains and went a half mile east to a large Dupont plant. The line to Paducah split from the Evansville main at Paducah Junction a half mile northwest of BG Tower. The hump yard itself was named for Gerald Seville who served as CEO of the BGS from 1940 to his death in 1983. Because the yard was stub-ended at the west end, every train that originated, terminated, or simply rode through Bowling Green passed BG Tower, meaning that on any given day, at least 18 trains would pass this "hot spot," though the count was usually between 30-40 thanks to local jobs and extra coal, grain, and freight trains. Second sections of the regular freights often ran out of Bowling Green, and some of the busiest days recorded at BG Tower saw upwards of 50-60 moves through the plant in 24 hours. Throw in the L&N mainline to the east, and Bowling Green could be a very busy railroad town.
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