The Hocking Valley Scenic Railway is a non-profit, 501c3, volunteer-operated tourist railroad attraction that operates out of Nelsonville, Athens County, Ohio.

33 built for the Lake Superior & Ishpeming in 1916, and operated over the former Monday Creek Branch to Carbon Hill.

Today, the tourist trains operate along the former C&O Armitage Subdivision between Nelsonville and a point just east of Logan, Ohio.

This new system spanned from the Lake Erie port of Toledo through Columbus to Athens and a branch to the Ohio River cities of Gallipolis and Pomeroy.

Over time, freight business was down to a single branch line local train, the "Nelsonville Turn", which finally was discontinued around 1980.

[2] By this time, the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway had been operating over seven miles of the old Monday Creek Branch to Carbon Hill from Nelsonville since 1972.

During the early 1970s, once the season was completed for the year, the 33 would be moved to the C&O's Parson Yard roundhouse during the winter for storage and maintenance.

The early years were rough financially, and in order to make a bank payment, the "Lost Run spur" was scrapped to keep up.

The present depot, based on a Hocking Valley prototype once located in Rising Sun, Ohio, was constructed in 1982.

Architect Ted Goodman designed the structure, with funding and land provided by the Baird Trust Foundation.

(The lumber mill is now gone, and the site is now occupied by the Hocking College Public Safety Services building.)

[6] As the C&O and its parent company CSX began moving out of the market south of Columbus, it was becoming apparent that in order to maintain a connection to the outside world by rail, the railroad would have to look north.

The HVSR began operating trains to East Clayton and eventually Diamond (both once homes to large brick plants) by 1985.

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, the trains were running over the present route between East Logan and Nelsonville, with a shorter trip to the last remaining Ohio company town Haydenville.

[6][7] The railroad owns and uses historic rolling stock to offer scenic rides up the Hocking River valley.

Other diesel locomotives are rare World War II era Whitcomb 65-tonner, and former US Army Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton RS-4-TC No.

3 is currently working for the summer seasons, including pulling the line's “The Friendliest Train Robbery” service on select dates.