Railroad History Hike Set in Cincinnati for Nov. 21

A railroad history hike will be held Nov. 21 in Cincinnati.

The free event will take place between 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. in the California Woods Nature Preserve and involve walking a trail that once hosted a narrow gauge short line railroad.

The Cincinnati, Georgetown & Portsmouth was built as a narrow gauge line in the 1880s and later converted to standard gauge and was electrified.

Known for its steep grades and numerous curves, it was abandoned in 1936.

Registration is required to participate in the hike, which includes commentary by docents, and can be done at https://explorenature.regfox.com/railroadhistoryhike

Trains Don’t Run Here Anymore

As far as I can remember this is the only train I ever caught on the Norfolk Southern line (former Wheeling & Lake Erie) between Massillon and Dalton. NS GP38AC No. 2849 is heading west to Dalton in 1988. The line was abandoned soon after this. Today parts of this long-gone line are a hiking and biking trail.

Article and Photographs by Robert Farkas

Digging Up Berea’s Sandstone Railroad Heritage

A group of us were spending a Saturday afternoon underneath the shade tree near the Dave McKay memorial in Berea back in June.

A property owner across the street behind us was using a front end loader to move dirt and remove trees and brush on his property.

During a chance conversation with him he mentioned that he had dug up some old rails.

That turned out not to be the case, but he had dug up some cross ties and a couple of spikes.

Those artifacts, which had been buried for decades were probably remnants of a sandstone quarry railroad that once interchanged with the New York Central in the area that is now Depot Street where railfans like to hang out to watch CSX and Norfolk Southern trains.

Sandstone quarrying was once a major industry in Berea.

Berea Sandstone was particularly ideal for creating grindstones, which is why the grindstone is part of the city’s identity.

Marty Surdyk’s grandfather worked for the quarry railroad and if you know where to look you can see the former right of way and a few bridge abutments that carried the quarry railroad tracks over the East Branch of Rocky River.

Today some of the sandstone quarry lands are part of the Mill Stream Run Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks.

I’m told that there was a small yard located where the ties and spikes dug up by that property owner is located.

For something that has been buried for several years, one of the ties looked remarkably well preserved.

The sandstone quarries in Berea closed in the 1930s, a victim of the Great Depression and a declining market for sandstone. The sandstone quarry railroad likely would have shut down at the same time.

Railroad Archeology in Monroeville

The most visible reminder of the railroads past in Monroeville, Ohio, is this passenger station, which served the New York Central and its predecessor railroads. It has since been restored, but the tracks are long gone.

In the past few years I’ve found myself in Monroeville, Ohio, while chasing trains on the Wheeling & Lake Erie.

At one time, Monroeville was served by three railroads plus an interurban railway.

The railroads of Monroville included the Toledo-Brewster line of the original Wheeling & Lake Erie. This line still exists with the modern W&LE owning it between Brewster and Bellevue.

Monroeville was also served by a Willard-Sandusky branch of the Baltimore & Ohio, the Norwalk Branch of the New York Central and the Cleveland-Toledo Lake Shore Electric.

The Norwalk Branch began life as the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad, which built between its namesake cities in the 1860s. It was later absorbed by the Lake Shore & Michigan  Southern, which in turn became part of the NYC.

The Norwalk branch was the main route of the LS&MS until it built a cutoff via Sandusky along Lake Erie, which today is the Chicago Line of NS. The Norwalk branch diverged at Elyria and rejoined at Milbury.

Penn Central continued to offer freight service on the Norwalk branch through 1976. The line was not conveyed to Conrail and was subsequently abandoned. Passenger service on the line ended in 1949.

I don’t know when the B&O branch was abandoned, but it likely continued in operation through the 1970s and possibly into the 1980s.  A portion of it still exists in Monroeville for the W&LE to serve a grain elevator.

The Lake Shore Electric last operated on May 15, 1938. Not long before then, the Eastern Ohio Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society — a forerunner of the Akron Railroad Club — ran a trip over the line.

During the 1960s, the ARRC chartered a B&O Rail Diesel Car and ran excursions between Akron and Sandusky to visit the Cedar Point amusement park.

I’ve long been fascinated by what railroads leave behind after they leave town. If you know where to look and what to look for,  you can find reminders of what used to be.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

The North Coast Inland Tail uses the former NYC Norwalk Branch. The view is from the bridge over the West Branch Huron River looking westward toward the NYC passenger station, which was built in 1863.

A train order board at the Monroeville station.

I don’t know if this train bulletin at the former NYC station is accurate.

The former freight NYC freight station still stands a short distance west of the passenger depot.

Looking westward on the Lake Shore Electric right of way with the passenger station on the left.

Looking northward toward the Lake Shore Electric (foreground) and NYC stations. The B&O tracks would have been to the right of both stations.

Looking southward on the former B&O right of way.

A relic from the days when these tracks operated as the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern.

A restored property boundary marker.

A bridge pier that once held the Lake Shore Electric bridge over the West Branch Huron River.

The concrete base of what was once the northbound home signal for the B&O crossing of the NYC.

This signal cover is along the W&LE and may be still used.

These railroad ties are on the former Lake Shore Electric right of way. The LSE was abandoned in the 1930s, they probably were used as a connecting track between the B&O and the NYC.

The B&O and W&LE used to cross here. At one time there was a passenger station here that was used by both railroads. Next to the depot was a hotel and freight station. On the other side of that pile of ballast is the only remnant of track once used by the B&O.

A short stretch of the former B&O remains in place for the W&LE to serve a grain elevator. But this segment of the B&O is used only as a tail track that ends at a pile of ballast north of where the B&O and W&LE used to cross on a diamond.

 

Still Flying the Flag 56 Years Later

There is something comforting about seeing a relic of the long ago past even if it is just a rusty hulk of its former self. I have had a lifelong interest in history so finding such relics is a way to see and almost touch something that I never was able to experience in its prime.

Such is the case with old railroad bridges that still wear the markings of a past owner. As this is posted in December 2016, it has been 56 years since the Erie Railroad operated its last train.

In October 1960 it merged with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western to form the Erie Lackawanna. Even that road has been gone now for 40 years.

Much of the former Erie in Northeast Ohio has been abandoned. Some rails are still in place, but have been out of service for many years.

Motorists traveling on North Forge Street in Akron, Ohio, can see a daily reminder of the Erie.

This bridge carried the Chicago route of the Erie over North Forge near Akron Junction. All of the mainline railroads serving Akron crossed over Forge in a two-block area with the Erie being the westernmost of them.

Today the former Erie bridge is silent. As best I can tell from looking at an overhead view on Bing Maps, there may be one set of tracks on the bridge, but otherwise the rails have been removed.

Railroad Heritage Still Visible in Wakeman

 

Trains no longer rattle and roll on the sandstone bridge over the Vermilion River in Wakeman, Ohio, but it remains an impressive looking structure. A recent brush cutting job has opened the view a bit.

Wakeman is a town with just north of 1,000 souls that I’ve passed through numerous times during trips to railfan in Bellevue.

Whenever I’m going through this sleepy little Huron County burg I think of Marty Surdyk because he claims the town is a speed trap run by a cop named Roscoe.

Marty tells anyone who will listen – and a few who won’t – that you better be doing the speed limit when you cross the town line because Roscoe will be watching you.

I don’t know if Marty made that story up or if Wakeman is any more of a speed trap than any other podunk town in America with a police department seeking to raise revenue for the city.

Still, I keep one eye on the speedometer and the other out for Roscoe although I’ve yet to observe him running radar.

Wakeman has caught my eye for another reason. If you are traveling west on U.S. 20 you’ve probably noticed the massive sandstone double-arch bridge over the Vermilion River on the east side of town. It used to carry a railroad.

Near downtown Wakeman sits a railroad freight station and a pair of old-style grain elevators. The linear empty area next to these structures suggests “railroad space.”

Wakeman used to be a railroad town. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern mainline between Cleveland and Toledo was built through here in 1852-53.

Construction of a more direct route via Sandusky relegated the original LS&MS to branch line status during its New York Central years and on through the end of Penn Central in 1976.

With the formation of Conrail that year, the branch that came off the mainline at Elyria and ran via Oberlin, Wakeman, Norwalk, Bellevue and Fremont before meeting up again with the mainline at Millbury was abandoned and the tracks removed.

Today, parts of that railroad right of way are a hiking and biking trail, although not in Wakeman.

On a recent trip to Bellevue I stopped in Wakeman to document what is left of the town’s railroad infrastructure.

I began with that sandstone arch bridge over the Vermilion River. Winter is a good time to see the bridge because of the lack of foliage.

From outward appearances, the bridge still appears sturdy enough to support contemporary railroad operations.

I’ve seen conflicting reports on when this bridge was built. A website devoted to old bridges says 1853 but a site devoted to abandoned railroads says 1872. Whenever it was built, it is more than a century old and looks good.

There are fences and no trespassing signs at each end of the bridge, but the fences are not that high and would not deter someone determined to walk across the bridge.

I then made my way down Railroad Street, which runs north of the former railroad ROW.

Much of the former ROW remains open and is covered with grass. Whoever pulled up the tracks more than 30 years ago probably scooped up the ballast along with the ties and rails. Whatever was left has sunk into the earth or been covered.

As typically happens over time, nature and man have obliterated the physical appearance of a railroad ROW by moving earth and erecting structures where tracks had been.

In Wakeman, a small park and a building now occupy part of the ROW. But the ROW near the former freight station and the grain elevators remains an open area with the appearance that says “railroad space.”

Nonetheless, it was difficult to determine how many tracks used to be here. There was probably a mainline and one or two sidings to serve the freight station and grain elevators.

Online sources say the passenger station, which resembled the existing depot in Olmsted Falls, was razed in the early 1950s not long after passenger service ended in late 1949.

The sources also say the freight station was built in 1873. It appears to be in decent condition considering its age but doesn’t shown signs of having an apparent use these days. Perhaps it was used for something in the past and was well maintained then.

One of the grain elevators has been repurposed into some sort of meeting center with a grain elevator motif. The other grain facility is still used although I didn’t observe it all that closely to determine for what purpose.

Information that I found online said that in its final years Penn Central had a daily local that passed through Wakeman westbound in early morning and eastbound in late afternoon or early evening.

That train had a lone geep, a transfer caboose and a small number of cars.

Whatever business Penn Central had in Wakeman probably was related to agriculture. The freight house had probably stopped receiving less-than-carload shipments by the early 1960s if not earlier.

I didn’t spend much time in Wakeman. It was already midday and I had business to take care of in Bellevue. Perhaps I’ll make it a point to stop in Wakeman again and study the remaining infrastructure a bit more closely.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

The top of the sandstone bridge that once carried tracks of the New York Central, Penn Central and various other predecessor railroads over the Vermilion River in Wakeman.

The passenger station was demolished more than 50 years ago but the freight station still stands. The path the tracks took through town is apparent in this image although changes to the former ROW make it difficult to tell how many tracks were here.

The wood of the freight station is well weathered. How many people over the past century or so have walked through this door?

It is evident that there used to tracks past the grain elevator complex, but note how the earth had been graded. This is removed the part of the ROW substructure.

One of the town’s grain facilities has been converted into a storage facility and meeting center. It also has received quite a facelift.