The wayback machine has landed us in Akron in the late 1960s or early 1970s. We can’t quite tell which it is. But we can clearly see Baltimore & Ohio GP38 No. 3830 leading an eastbound at Voris Street in a classic Akron Railroading scene. The 3030 was later painted in Chessie System colors.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
There are four motors in this motive power consist on the Erie Lackawanna heading west over Voris Street in Akron. We have here the 2506 (GE U25B), 2462 (Alco C425), 2458 (Alco C425), and 3622 (EMD SD45). The mage was made on Sept. 4, 1972.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Railfans have been watching trains at Voris Street in the southwest corner of downtown Akron for generations.
They’ve seen it evolve from a place to watch trains of the Erie, Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio railroads to one in which the trains of just two carriers, CSX and the Akron Barberton Cluster Railway, pass by.
Voris Street was situated just beyond the west entrance to the Erie’s McCoy Street Yard and along the joint line of the B&O and PRR.
The top photo was made at Voris Street in April 1979. GP40 3705 is leading an eastbound manifest freight with duo of unit also painted in the Chessie System colors.
Just a few years earlier Bob had captured the 3705 at this same location in its B&O all-blue livery.
The bottom image was made on July 15, 2019, near Voris Street.
Bob writes that he moved a couple hundred feet north from where he stood 40 years earlier in order to avoid the tree shadows.
CSX ES44AC-H 3086 is the sole power on the head end of an eastbound manifest freight passing a scene that has changed dramatically in recent years.
The red brick buildings of historic Akron have been replaced by a new Interstate 76/77 highway ramp to Main Street.
Conrail 5985, a former Erie Lackawanna GP-7, prepares to head west on the ex-EL in Akron in March 1978 with local PE-1. The Erie searchlight signal was still in use at this time as were the ex-EL mains. Nothing of the EL remains at this location today and all the buildings behind the train have been torn down.
At times this year we’ve reported here on the changing face of Voris Street in Akron. For decades it has been a favorite hang out for railroad photographers.
At one time you could see trains of three railroads, the Erie (later Erie Lackawanna), Pennsylvania (later Penn Central and then Conrail) and Baltimore & Ohio (later Chessie and now CSX).
Voris Street is still a nice place to watch trains, but it doesn’t look the same as it once did.
A construction project has wiped out the buildings that stood on the north-northwest side of the tracks. Workers are building a new ramp that will connect Interstates 76 and 77 with Broadway and Main streets.
Both of these images were made from the original exit ramp from the interstate. The top image was made in early November this year whereas the bottom image was made in July 2011.
That is only a difference of five years, but much can change quickly.
A Wheeling & Lake Erie stone train takes head room on the trestle spanning the valley of the Ohio & Erie Canal.
Good things happen when you go out on an autumn railfan outing with Roger Durfee.
I met up with my fellow Akron Railroad Club member in early November on a Sunday morning for some autumn railfanning around Akron.
We’ve done this in the past and I’ve come back with some very good autumn foliage images of trains images, some of the best I’ve made.
We had a plan of sorts that we didn’t quite wind up fully implementing because events kept interfering.
We didn’t know when we set out that morning that we’d have the opportunity to photograph three Wheeling & Lake Erie trains.
I’ve long said that I usually wind up getting the W&LE when I’m out looking for something else and that is what happened on this day.
Aside from capturing the W&LE, we also inspected the current state of affairs at Voris Street, found that the Amtrak station in Amtrak hasn’t changed much since the rail passenger carrier left Akron more than a decade ago, and took the time to visit the former AC&Y Building in downtown Akron.
We also stopped by Northside Station on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad to photograph a departing National Park Scenic train and visited Wingfoot Lake State Park to catch the arrival of Wingfoot Two on a flight from Columbus where it had helped TV cover the Ohio State-Nebraska football game on a Saturday night.
As mentioned in another post, we also visited Akron Junction to check out how things have changed there with CSX removing most of the tracks on the Valley Line level.
En route to Akron Junction we stopped so I could photograph the former Erie bridge over North Forge Street. The names of the cities that the Erie served have faded away, but the Erie herald is still prominent.
Did I mention that we caught CSX intermodal train Q137 at Market Street?
All in all, it was, as Roger remarked as it was winding down, a well-rounded day.
Here is a selection of photographs showing what we landed.
The first stop on our Sunday outing was the Gorge Metropark to photograph the remains of the bridge that once carried the Northern Ohio Traction & Light Company interurban cars across the Cuyahoga River.
The CVSR National Park Scenic departs Akron station, which has been decorated for the Polar Express trains.
Here comes the Q137 past the site of the second Akron Union Depot. That is Perkins Street in the background.
Shadows from a billboard creep over the lead unit of westbound Q137 as it approaches Market Street.
The last railroad to use this bridge was Conrail, but the Erie heritage is still quite visible.
There are fewer tracks at Akron Junction now, but the coaling tower still stands.
Moving out onto the trestle built decades ago by the Akron, Canton & Youngstown.
Contrary to appearances, this W&LE stone train is making a backup move on the CSX New Castle Sub.
Catching this ABC transfer job approaching Voris Street was an unexpected bonus.
Crossing Voris Street, which is, tehnically, closed to vehicle traffic.
It took longer than we expected, but the ABC transfer job finally showed up in southeast Akron near Goodyear Boulevard.
Another view of the ABC job as it returns to Brittain Yard.
We waited until early afternoon to photograph at Rock Cut Siding the stone train we had seen earlier in the day.
Here comes the third W&LE train of the day, but contrary to a post on Facebook it did not have a pair of “tiger stripes” for motive power.
Cruising along the hedges along North Street near East High School.
Wingfoot Two touches down at its base near Suffield across Wingfoot Lake as seen from Wingfoot Lake State Park.
For decades, photographers who hung out at Voris Street in Akron, made photographs featuring the former Akron Brewing Company building in some of their images.
Trains of the Erie, Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio railroads passed here for decades.
Construction of the Akron Brewing facility began in 1903, but the building’s function as a brewery was short-lived with Prohibition putting it out of business.
The building took on a variety of functions over the years, including housing such companies as Beatrice Foods, Sumner Butter and Tasty Pure Food Company.
Planners working on a new interchange determined that the building was in the path of a planned new interchange with Interstates 76/77 and South Main and South Broadway streets.
Demolition of the building began in April and work on building the new interchange is well underway.
The Voris Street crossing of the CSX New Castle Subdivision is officially closed although the gates and flashing lights are still in operation.
The top photograph was made in July 2011 from the ramp leading from the interstate to South Broadway and shows a westbound CSX tanker train.
The bottom photograph was made from the same ramp on Nov. 6 and shows that the site where the Akron Brewing Building once stood is now being reworked to become a highway ramp.
It didn’t take long for solid sets of Penn Central power to start showing up on former Erie Lackawanna lines. The new Conrail is only a few weeks old in this April 1976 photo in Akron. A westbound on the former EL has a neat PC GP38-2, SD-45, C636 trio as it waits for railroad at Voris Street. EL pup No. 408 is sorting a few cars out on the McCoy Street yard lead. The tracks the trains are on are long gone.
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