Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad

Charter and early construction (1852–1858) The Kentucky legislature chartered the L&BS in 1852 to build from Lexington to the Big Sandy. Construction progressed on the eastern end: by 1857–1858 about a dozen miles from Ashland to Princess/Coalton were in service, including the Princess Tunnel, before the financial panic checked expansion. Reorganization and completion (1869–1881) Following the war, the enterprise was reorganized in 1869 as the Elizabethtown, Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad. The eastern works (Ashland–Princess–Coalton) continued as the L&BS’s Eastern Division and were later renamed the Ashland Coal & Iron Railway (March 31, 1881). The Lexington–Ashland route was finished in stages and was open through Rowan County by 1881. Absorption into the C&O Between 1880 and 1892 the C&O leased and then purchased the EL&BS (including the former L&BS works) and operated the corridor as its Lexington Subdivision. == Route ==

The original L&BS charter envisioned a line from Lexington across the Bluegrass and the Eastern Kentucky uplands to the Big Sandy. The portion actually built by the L&BS company proper lay in Boyd County from Ashland through Princess to Coalton; successors extended the line west through Carter and Rowan (Morehead) and across Bath, Montgomery (Mt. Sterling), and Clark (Winchester) to Lexington. == Legacy ==

Although the L&BS corporate life ended with the 1869 reorganization, its works—especially the Ashland–Princess–Coalton segment and the Princess Tunnel—became the eastern anchor of the Lexington–Ashland corridor finished in 1881, later the C&O’s Lexington Subdivision. == See also ==