Bourbon Whiskey Distillery

[FCIN]

Ken;

The coal trestle was almost up against the distillery building. It was probably 100 feet long. The coal trestle started at about the mid-point of the distillery building.

The main line trestle that the train is on crossed a very small spring and was perhaps 300 feet in length. It started almost at the end of the distillery building and ended a short distance before the railroad crossed the KY 1688 Woodlake Rd crossing going toward the Stamping Ground siding. That trestle was about 20 feet high at its highest point.

Here is an aerial view of Stamping Ground taken before demolition of the distillery had been completed and which I "doctored" some. Good thing that Kentucky doesn't update their aerial photos very often or we wouldn't have this for reference!



Note that the warehouse in question is still there, along with the main distillery building and grain elevator. Shame that all the other buildings are no longer standing in this photo. There were a couple of more warehouses on the hillside behind the remaining one. I probably should have tried to "line in" the railroad and the sidings on this view, but I think you can tell enough from this view and my diagram of the distillery to determine that.

Hard to tell from this view, but the distillery is built on a steep hillside. In fact the whole distillery is on a hill and the railroad right of way was about the only flat terrain in the place.

In the photo - that piece of Spring Street to the right of where I show the trestle location, is actually on the former F&C right of way and you can more or less see the roadbed along Railroad Street after it crossed KY 1688 Woodlake Rd. That small building that lays in the path of the right of way was of course not there when the railroad was. In the lower right hand corner of the aerial view is a large storage building now and it stands just about exactly where the F&C station had been years ago. Don't know when the station was torn down, but it was gone when I worked for the railroad.

Hope I answered your questions.

Charlie;

Good photo of a typical "Barrel Run". Those barrel runs were found at all the distilleries and ran everywhere on the property between the warehouses and ultimately terminated at the Gauge and Cistern Room where the whiskey was dumped from the barrels for bottling. Most of the ones I've seen at the distilleries around here, were constructed from very light railroad rail although not unusual to see them made from wood rails. Often they were laid right in the ground too. Just made it a lot easier to roll those barrels.

Ed