IS IT FEASIBLE?

When CSX removed the Lebanon Branch in 1991 many thought there would be no going back once the tracks were gone, so is it feasible to rebuild the Lebanon Branch? While our mission may seem like an impossible task, it is being done by others. Some notable examples of reconstruction of abandoned rail lines are:​

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In Pennsylvania, two organizations, The EBT Foundation and Friends of the East Broad Top, are working to rebuild approx. 9 miles of the former East Broad Top Railroad between Orbisonia and Saltillo, PA that haven’t see a train since 1956. The tracks being re-laid by the EBT Foundation employees and Friends of the East Broad Top volunteers will be used by the East Broad Top tourist passenger trains once completed.​

 

The non-profit Nevada Commission for the Reconstruction of the V&T Railway is working to rebuild the historic and world-famous Virginia & Truckee Railroad in Nevada. As of 2021 they had completed reconstruction of approximately 12 miles of track, with an additional 5 miles proposed for reconstruction. When completed just over 19 miles of the V&T will have been rebuilt for their historic steam powered tourist train to operate on.

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In 2010, Duke Energy began reconstruction of approximately 8 miles of the former Pennsylvania Railroad between the towns of Edwardsport and Sanborn in Indiana to provide rail service to their new Coal Gasification plant in Edwardsport. Just two years later, in 2012, the first train operated over the newly rebuilt railroad.

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Closer to home, Kentucky Railway Museum, between 2021 and 2024, reconstructed 1.1 miles and rehabilitated another 1,000 feet of historic siding tracks that had been previously removed in Boston and Gethsemane to allow for expanded rail operations.