Mike Ondecker and I were in Akron on a morning in 1967 or 1968. Pennsylvania Railroad switch engine No. 9115 is eastbound on the eastbound Baltimore & Ohio main that is shared with the Pennsy between Arlington Street in Akron and Warwick Tower in Clinton.
Perhaps the crew is going to interchange cars with the B&O at Akron Junction.
On the next track is the westbound B&O Diplomat making a station stop.
Beyond the Diplomat is the Erie Lackawanna passenger station. Notice the man at the open window. What a railfan’s dream location this was.
A portion of the former Baltimore & Ohio passenger station in Hamilton was moved to its new home on Tuesday.
The station, which was built in the 19th century is two structures and each must be moved individually.
Tuesday move involved a two-story structure. The remaining one-story structure is expected to be moved next month.
The station is being moved more than 1,000 feet northward on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to a city-owned site.
For decades it sat at the junction of B&O lines to Indianapolis and Toledo.
The station was donated to the city by CSX. City officials are still determining what use will be made of the depot once it is in place at its new home.
The moving process has begun of the former Baltimore & Ohio passenger station in Hamilton.
News reports indicated that one of the two structures that comprise the historic 19th century depot has been jacked up in preparation for being moved to a nearby city-owned site 1,100 feet to the north along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The structure will be moved on powered dolly wheels at a walking pace. That move could come as early as next Tuesday and could take at least six hours, city officials said.
The second structure of the depot is expected to be moved in January.
The depot is owned by CSX, which donated the depot to the city with the proviso that it be moved off railroad property.
A southbound CSX local passes the Hamilton station in late April 2022. (Photograph by Craig Sanders)
A former Baltimore & Ohio passenger station in Hamilton may be moved this November.
The depot is slated to move northward to a location near the CSX Cincinnati Terminal Subdivision but away from the tracks.
It is currently situated where the Indianapolis Subdivision diverges from the Cincinnati Terminal Sub.
Built in the 1850s, the station was saved from demolition when local interests raised money to move it. The City of Hamilton has budgeted $2 million to pay for the move.
The station is two buildings, one of which is a single story while the other is two stories.
A contractor preparing the building for movement recently discovered that the two-story building sits on wood flooring with a concrete cap over a four-foot basement.
That basement space will need to be filled in before the building can be moved, something expected to add to the cost of the project.
CSX earlier this month razed the former Baltimore & Ohio passenger station in Deshler, thus making scenes such as this a thing of the past. That said, there probably are thousands of images in railfan photo collections similar to this of a westbound passing the Deshler depot, which was in rough condition then.
This image was made on June 22, 2014, during an Akron Railroad Club longest day outing.
The former Baltimore & Ohio passenger station in Deshler has been in rough shape for years. It is shown on June 22 2014 during an Akron Railroad Club longest day outing there.
The former Baltimore & Ohio passenger station in Deshler is being razed.
The structure, which is owned by CSX, has been in a state of disrepair for several years. It suffered significant damage during an April 2002 derailment of a coal train.
Deshler last hosted passenger trains on May 1, 1971, and CSX ceased using the depot in the 1990s.
A local historical society told CSX it was interested in buying the station, but the railroad demanded it be moved to another location. The $100,000 estimated cost of moving the L-shaped structure was more than the group could afford.
Deshler is a junction point of two former B&O routes, both of which continue to be major traffic arteries for CSX. The B&O routes were the Chicago-Pittsburgh and Toledo-Cincinnati mainlines.
The station was situated in the northwest quadrant of that crossing. DR Tower, which controlled the junction is located in the northeast quadrant.
The tower closed in 1988 but remains in use by the CSX maintenance of way department.
A railfan park is located in the southwest quadrant of the junction.
I was going through some slides recently when I ran across three image of former Baltimore & Ohio structures in Ohio that are no longer standing.
The top two images are of the former passenger station in Dover. I stopped by there in August 2006. Although it had an R.J. Corman sign on it, the building was no longer being used. It was razed on April 9, 2013, after being in derelict condition for several years. It was located on West Third Street.
The bottom image shows the B&O freight station in Kent. Because I visited Kent quite frequently I often saw this structure but seldom photographed it.
This image was made on July 5, 2003, when I was in town to photograph the excursion trains that used to run during the Kent Heritage Festival. CSX razed this structure on Dec. 10, 2010. It was located a short distance south (railroad west) of the passenger station.
Today I look at these images and am glad I took the time to make them when I did. I now value them more than when I made these photographs.
CSX manifest freight Q561 rumbles southbound on the Toledo Subdivision in Hamilton, Ohio. It is passing the former Baltimore & Ohio passenger station that now sits abandoned. City officials have proposed saving the depot by moving it to another location and renovating it. The track veering off to the left is the Indianapolis Subdivision, which is used by Amtrak’s Cardinal. The image was made on April 23,.
A campaign to save a former Baltimore & Ohio passenger station in Hamilton, Ohio, may have hit a brick wall.
City officials say they are unlikely to meet a deadline set by the building’s owner, CSX, to move the depot by a May 31 deadline.
Another stumbling block is the cost of moving and renovating the station, which was built in the 1850s, is likely to exceed the $2 million budgeted for that purpose by the city.
That includes the cost of moving the structure and setting it onto a concrete foundation.
It does not cover, though, the expenses of installing a new roof, hooking up utilities and pouring a concrete floor.
Hamilton City Manager Joshua Smith recently said at a city council meeting that the city was “going to have to make some policy decisions. What’s more important, a roof or a parking lot? Windows or something else? We have to itemize everything that’s outstanding and prioritize from there.”
CSX has offered to donate the station to the city if it agreed to arrange and pay for moving it.
Over the past 40 plus years I’ve visited the Arcade & Attica Railroad either by myself, with family members, or with friends. I’m guessing I’ve visited the A&A at least 15 times.
On all of those trips I’ve passed through Springville, New York, on New York Route 39.
I always watched for the crossing of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh (Baltimore & Ohio) railroad line.
In the route’s last years it was owned by Genesee & Wyoming’s Buffalo & Pittsburgh.
During the years of my travels to the A&A, the Springville station was a highlight and is still intact and in use, although not as a railroad station.
It has been restored and remains in very good condition.
I’ve read conflicting stories of when the last train ran and when the track was ripped up.
A few stories I found say the last train was in 1996 and was possibly pulled by Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 No. 261. These reports say the rail was removed around 2010.
The PCC coffee shop called A Streetcar Named Dessert was added in the late 1990s and remained in business until 2011.
The car is former Toronto Transit Commission No. 4434. Based on what I’ve read, the PCC was possibly scrapped after it was removed.
All of the photographs that accompany this post were made on June 1, 2008.
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