between Avondale and Brecon still saw heavy freight traffic, and there would still be a reasonable amount of traffic to Mason and Hempstead. Thus Conrail bought about half of the ex-CL&N, including the main line from Cincinnati to Brecon (Blue Ash Secondary Track), Mason to Hageman (Mason Secondary Track), Hempstead to Pasadena (Kettering Running Track), and Patterson Road to Dayton (DP&L Industrial Track), as well as Middletown to Hageman (Middletown Secondary) and Hempstead to Clement (Clement Running Track). Ownership of the remaining segments—Brecon to Mason, Hageman to Lebanon, Lytle to Hempstead, Pasadena to Patterson Road, and Hageman to Middletown Junction—remained with the Penn Central trustees, although, with local funding, Conrail operated the two segments from Hageman to Lebanon and Centerville to Hempstead as "light density lines". Tracks between Lytle and Centerville were torn up in 1979. Since then, several more segments have been abandoned, including Avondale to McCullough and Centerville to Kettering. Short line Indiana and Ohio Railway (IORY) acquired most of the remainder in the 1980s, beginning operations from Monroe (near Middletown) to Mason and Lebanon in March 1985, and McCullough to Brecon in December 1986. The city of Lebanon has bought the Hageman-Lebanon segment, initially owned by the Penn Central trustees, and the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority acquired the property between McCullough and Brecon in 1997 for a proposed public transit line. (IORY continues to operate freight on both these segments.) The IORY began running tourist trains on the Lebanon segment in 1985. The passenger operations were split in 1996, going through several renamings to Turtle Creek Valley Railway, Turtle Creek and Lebanon Railway, and finally Lebanon Mason Monroe Railroad. Three short segments of line at Middletown and Dayton remained with Conrail until its 1999 breakup, when the Norfolk Southern Railway acquired Conrail's assets in southwestern Ohio. As of 2022, two segments on the southern part of the former line are in use by IORY as the Blue Ash Subdivision and Mason Subdivision, with a gap between them, while a short section of its northernmost extent is used as a siding by Norfolk Southern. The rest of the track has been removed, although the right-of-way is discernible in places. Route description Lying on the highlands between the Little and Great Miami Rivers, the CL&N was commonly known as the "Highland Route". While it normally received only local traffic, its location was a distinct advantage during floods. This