Holiday Junction Featuring the Duke Energy Holiday Trains is a rail-themed holiday event held annually since 1996 at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio. [1] Its main attraction is a much older model railroad display, which is owned by CSX Transportation and sponsored by Duke Energy.
The Duke Energy Holiday Trains are the event's most well-known model railroad display. It is maintained by a team of employees and retirees of the Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company (CG&E) and its successors, Cinergy and Duke Energy. The O scale display measures 36+1⁄2 by 47+1⁄2 feet (11.1 m × 14.5 m) and includes about 300 train cars and 50 locomotives running on more than 1,000 feet (300 m) of track, representing 9 miles (14 km) at scale. [2] It is powered by a 12-volt system. It depicts the Cumberland Subdivision between the late 1930s and early 1950s. A rural station within the display is modeled on Point of Rocks station in Maryland. [3]
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) originally built it in 1936 at a cost of $50,000. It went on tour throughout the B&O's service area until 1946, when the railroad decided to end the tour. It planned to place the model on permanent display at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. However, the B&O partnered with CG&E to keep the display in Cincinnati in the lobby of the utility's headquarters, where the event became a popular annual Christmas tradition. The event ran 41 days each year. Admission was free, and organizers handed out popcorn and later cookies to children in attendance. Over the years, the display has been expanded and embellished with many decorative scenes. The first building, a slaughterhouse, was added in 1939. [3] In 2010, the display attracted 300,000 visitors, bringing the total attendance over 65 seasons to more than 9 million. [4] In 2011, Duke moved the display to the museum center, which incorporated it into the existing Holiday Junction event. [5] Original portions of the display continue to be owned by the B&O's successor, CSX Transportation. [3]
Holiday Junction also features a 20-by-30-foot (6.1 m × 9.1 m) G scale model and an HO scale model built by local model railroad clubs. [1] [6]
The museum center also houses the Cincinnati History Museum's Cincinnati In Motion exhibit, a scale model of the city that includes model streetcars. [4]
Loveland is a city in Hamilton, Clermont, and Warren counties in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. Considered part of the Greater Cincinnati area, Loveland is located near exit 52 off Interstate 275, about 15 miles (24 km) northeast of the Cincinnati city limits. It borders Symmes, Miami and Hamilton Townships and straddles the Little Miami River. The population was 12,081 at the 2010 census and was estimated at 13,145 in 2019. Once a busy railroad town, Loveland is now a major stop along the Little Miami Scenic Trail.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of the National Road early in the century, wanted to do business with settlers crossing the Appalachian Mountains. The railroad faced competition from several existing and proposed enterprises, including the Albany-Schenectady Turnpike, built in 1797, the Erie Canal, which opened in 1825, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. At first, the B&O was located entirely in the state of Maryland; its original line extending from the port of Baltimore west to Sandy Hook, Maryland, opened in 1834. There it connected with Harper's Ferry, first by boat, then by the Wager Bridge, across the Potomac River into Virginia, and also with the navigable Shenandoah River.
CSX Transportation, known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles (34,000 km) of track. The company operates as the leading subsidiary of CSX Corporation, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.
Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated under the Chessie name from 1973 to 1987.
The Cincinnati Museum Center is a museum complex operating out of the Cincinnati Union Terminal in the Queensgate neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. It houses museums, theater, a library, and a symphonic pipe organ, as well as special traveling exhibitions.
The Marietta and Cincinnati (M&C) was one of five important east-west railroads of southern Ohio; it was later absorbed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). Its original route ran from Marietta through Vincent, Athens, Hamden, Chillicothe, Greenfield, Blanchester, and Loveland. It had two main branches: Blanchester to Hillsboro, which was originally part of the Hillsboro and Cincinnati Railroad; and Hamden to Portsmouth, Ohio, originally part of the Scioto and Hocking Valley Railroad.
The EMD GP30 is a 2,250 hp (1,680 kW) four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division of La Grange, Illinois between July 1961 and November 1963. A total of 948 units were built for railroads in the United States and Canada, including 40 cabless B units for the Union Pacific Railroad.
The B&O Railroad Museum is a museum exhibiting historic railroad equipment in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) company originally opened the museum on July 4, 1953 with the name of the Baltimore & Ohio Transportation Museum. It has been called one of the most significant collections of railroad treasures in the world and has the largest collection of 19th-century locomotives in the U.S. The museum is located in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's old Mount Clare Station and adjacent roundhouse, and retains 40 acres of the B&O's sprawling Mount Clare Shops site, which is where, in 1829, the B&O began America's first railroad and is the oldest railroad manufacturing complex in the United States.
Cinergy Corp. was an energy company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, from 1994 to 2006. Its name is a play on the words "synergy", "energy", and "Cincinnati".
Cincinnati Union Terminal is an intercity train station and museum center in the Queensgate neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Commonly abbreviated as CUT, or by its Amtrak station code, CIN, the terminal is served by Amtrak's Cardinal line, passing through Cincinnati three times weekly. The building's largest tenant is the Cincinnati Museum Center, comprising the Cincinnati History Museum, the Museum of Natural History & Science, Duke Energy Children's Museum, the Cincinnati History Library and Archives, and an Omnimax theater.
The Kentucky Railway Museum, now located in New Haven, Kentucky, United States, is a non-profit railroad museum dedicated to educating the public regarding the history and heritage of Kentucky's railroads and the people who built them. Originally created in 1954 in Louisville, Kentucky, the museum is at its third location, in extreme southern Nelson County. It is one of the oldest railroad stations in the United States.
Chesapeake & Ohio 614 is a class "J-3-A" 4-8-4 "Greenbrier" (Northern) type steam locomotive built in June 1948 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) as a member of the J-3-A class. As one of the last commercially built steam locomotives in the United States, the locomotive was built with the primary purpose of hauling long, heavy, high speed express passenger trains for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway such as the George Washington and the Fast Flying Virginian. Retired from active service in the late 1950s, the 614 was preserved and placed on display at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Between 1979 and 1980, restoration work on the locomotive to operating condition took place and it was used for extensive mainline excursion service from the early 1980s until the late 1990s. Today, the locomotive is on display at the C&O Railway Heritage Center in Clifton Forge, Virginia awaiting a potential return to steam.
The William H. Zimmer Power Station, located near Moscow, Ohio, was a 1.35-gigawatt coal power plant. Planned by Cincinnati Gas and Electric (CG&E), with Columbus & Southern Ohio Electric and Dayton Power & Light (DP&L) as its partners, it was originally intended to be a nuclear power plant. Although once estimated to be 97% complete, poor construction and quality assurance (QA) led to the plant being converted to coal-fired generation. The plant began operations in 1991. Today, the plant is owned and operated by Vistra Corp.
Camden Station, now also referred to as Camden Street Station, Camden Yards, and formally as the Transportation Center at Camden Yards, is a train station at the intersection of South Howard and West Camden Streets in Baltimore, Maryland, and is adjacent to Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It is served by MARC commuter rail service and local Light Rail trains. Camden Street Station was originally built beginning in 1856, continuing until 1865, by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as its main passenger terminal and early offices/ headquarters in Baltimore and is one of the longest continuously-operated terminals in the United States. Its upstairs offices were the workplace of famous Civil War era B&O President John Work Garrett (1820–1884). The station and its environs were also the site of several infamous civil strife actions of the 19th century with the Baltimore riot of 1861, on April 18–19, also known as the Pratt Street Riots and later labor strife in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
Point of Rocks is a historic passenger rail station on the MARC Brunswick Line between Washington, D.C., and Martinsburg, WV, located at Point of Rocks, Frederick County, Maryland, United States. The station was built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1873, and designed by E. Francis Baldwin. It is situated at the junction of the B&O Old Main Line and the Metropolitan Branch. The Met Branch also opened in 1873 and became the principal route for passenger trains between Baltimore, Washington and points west.
The Indiana Eastern Railroad is a short-line railroad in the U.S. states of Indiana and Ohio, operating a former Chesapeake and Ohio Railway line between Richmond, Indiana and Fernald, Ohio under lease from CSX Transportation. It began operations in 2005 as a subsidiary of the Respondek Railroad, and interchanges freight with CSX at Cottage Grove. Its business headquarters is in Edwardsville, Illinois with its operations headquarters in Liberty, Indiana
The Baltimore Terminal Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of Maryland. The line runs from Baltimore to Halethorpe along the original Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) line, one of the oldest rail lines in the United States and the first passenger railroad line. At its east (north) end, it connects with the Philadelphia Subdivision; its west (south) end has a junction with the Capital Subdivision and the Old Main Line Subdivision.
The Duke Energy Building is a historic, 18-story, 269-foot-tall (82 m) structure in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was designed by Cincinnati architectural firm Garber & Woodward and John Russell Pope.
Hamilton (HMN) is a former railroad station on Amtrak's Cardinal route between Chicago and New York City. The station in Hamilton, Ohio, was served by the Cardinal from August 1980 until October 31, 2005, when it was discontinued as a stop. Constructed by the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, the building is still owned by CSX though currently unused. It sits at the junction of the Indianapolis Subdivision with the Toledo Subdivision both part of the CSX Louisville Division, and headed south of the station the line is known as the Cincinnati Terminal Subdivision, also due to a directional running agreement most CSX and Norfolk Southern freight trains will use the Cincinnati Terminal Subdivision headed north to New River Junction in New Miami, Ohio where Norfolk Southern trains diverge to the left on the New Castle District, and CSX trains diverge to the right on the Toledo Subdivision. Now headed south towards Cincinnati most CSX and Norfolk Southern trains will diverge at the Butler St. Interlocker just blocks before the station heading south on the New Castle District. The Pennsylvania Railroad, followed by the Penn Central used another station, one on Maple Avenue, until 1971.
EnterTRAINment Junction is an indoor model railroad display located in West Chester Township, Ohio. This 25,000 square foot display consists of over 90 G-scale trains encompassing the early era of American railroading, the middle era, and the modern era. The facility also includes the American Railroading Museum, an expo center, and a fun house.