Rare Tombstone Junction Video

Got this email over the weekend:

Dear Mr. Holland,

I love your website and purchased your Weird Kentucky book the week it came out. Since Tombstone Junction seems to have such a cult following I'd thought you'd like to know that actual video of the park in operation is slowly becoming available on my youtube channel.

The only known video of the park was taped a couple of months prior to the first fire that damaged the park. Copies of this tape have been gifted over the years to a very few railfans in the area. Since I have one of these few copies I've been adding some selections from the tape to my youtube account.

You can view a video of the train ride and robbery here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf7aSTn1aFo There are also a few other videos on my channel and I will be adding more shortly.

Thank you,
Matthew Cole
Berea, KY

More Tombstone Junction Images

Many thanks to Linda Tarter for emailing us some fantastic scans of old Tombstone Junction photographs!







For more information about Tombstone Junction, consult your copy of Weird Kentucky, page 160.

Remains of Tombstone Junction

Just for a moment, let's turn our minds back to Corbin's late and lamented tourist attraction Tombstone Junction.

Tombstone Junction simulated a down-and-dirty western town, right down to the actual functioning in-house railroad and grimy train-robber actors who never broke character. It's always been one of our most popular entries on the old site, and now two readers have forwarded us brand new photographs of it - or rather, the spot where it used to be. All that remains of Tombstone Junction is apparently an empty parking lot, one crumbling shack, and some decaying bits of what once was their billboard.


Photos above by Jonathan Meadows, and photo below by Adam Sulfridge. Thanks to both gentlemen for their contribution and their enthusiasm.

For more information about Tombstone Junction, consult your copy of Weird Kentucky, page 160.

Tombstone Junction

Tombstone Junction was a Wild West themed amusement park featuring an actual internal railroad system of its own (not one of those miniature choo-choo rail cars like you see in some zoos). Tombstone Junction was located outside of Corbin, KY and entertained countless happy tourists until it burned down in not one, but two fires: one in 1989, the last in 1991.

Today little is left of Tombstone Junction, but it lives on the memories of those who saw it in its glory days. Tombstone Junction still commands an enthusiastic following to this day, judging by the volume of e-mails I've received about it over the years.

According to Karl Lusk, retired Executive Director of the Kentucky Railway Museum, the trains actually survived the fire, were auctioned off, and are still out in circulation, albeit in piecemeal fashion:

"I was at that sale, working for Ford Bros. auctioneers, Somerset, as rail equipment consultant and auctioneer. The two small steam locos were purchased by John Caperton, a rail enthusiast from Louisville. The larger loco was purchased on behalf of the Big South Fork Scenic Railway at Stearns, where it is currently undergoing restoration to operating condition. The cars, in bad repair, were, I believe scrapped, and the shop equipment, parts, etc. sold to a number of buyers, including the KY Railway Museum, Tennessee Valley Railway Museum, Diversified Rail Services, etc."

We've received many photos of Tombstone Junction that had lain dormant in the old vacation photo albums of several families, and will show some of them here soon. We always want to see more, though, so if you have Tombstone Junction photos, feel free to scan them and send them!


For more information, turn to page 160 in your copy of Weird Kentucky.