The Louisville & Nashville‘s main line in 1886 was from Cincinnati to New Orleans (via Louisville and Nashville), with branches to Memphis, Knoxville, and Lexington plus another line or branch from St. Louis to Nashville. The railroad offered two trains a day between Cincinnati and New Orleans plus several more than went only part of the distance.

Click image to download a 17.7-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

Train no. 1, identified as “Mail,” took 47-1/4 hours to go 921 miles from Cincinnati to New Orleans, for an average speed of 19.5 mph. Train no. 3, identified as “Fast,” made far fewer stops and took only 40 hours for an average speed of 23 mph. Train no. 5, listed as “Express,” only went as far as Louisville, taking 4 hours and 35 minutes to go 110 miles, averaging 24 mph.

Two more trains went the 185 miles between the railroad’s namesake cities (bringing the total to four including the Cincinnati-New Orleans trains). The Express took 11 hours and 5 minutes or 16.7 mph. An accommodation or local train went about the same speed but laid overnight for about seven hours in Bowling Green.

The Fast and Mail trains were broken up in Bowling Green with parts going to Memphis. Other branches had their own trains. Three trains a day connected Louisville and Lexington, with one more stopping at the intervening Frankfort. The St. Louis-Nashville line also had two trains a day with several other trains covering part of the route.

The L&N actually didn’t quite make it to Knoxville. Instead, it operated two trains a day to Jellico, 60 miles short of Knoxville. One connected with a train between Jellico and Knoxville over the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway, which eventually became part of the Southern Railroad system.