Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Dave's Depots -- Deatsville, Kentucky

While Randy and the other IRM volunteers were working away in Cleveland in November, Katy and I visited my parents in my hometown of Bardstown, Kentucky. Bardstown, as you may know, is the center of the bourbon-making industry.

On Sunday, as we headed out of town, we stopped at the town of Deatsville, Kentucky. The town sits on the former L&N Bardstown branch, now operated by RJ Corman as his Bardstown Line. The line was and is known as a supplier for the bourbon-making industry. Deatsville was home of the T.W. Samuels Distillery. The distillery closed in the 1950s, another distillery owns the trademarks. The facility is still used for storage and for a while hosted a spring water company. The Samuels family went on to bigger and better things, namely founding Makers Mark in nearby Loreto.

The Depot at Deatsville is one of 3 depots on the line still in existence. The other two are at Bardstown, and the depot/distillery office at the old Jim Beam distillery. The depot is in good shape, and was used for many years as a antique shop. It sits empty now. It is of standard L&N design.

I've rolled past this depot twice on a train, once on an L&N 152 excursion on the branch sponsored by the Kentucky Railway Museum, and another time on RJ Corman's dinner train.

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