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.
It is 1967 or 1968 in Akron where Baltimore & Ohio E9A No. 1455 is adding or removing these head end cars to The Diplomat. I don’t remember which it was. In the top image is a short Diplomat with the two cars. In the bottom image is the switching operation. No. 1455 was built in May 1955 and would later join the Amtrak roster as No. 401.
This is a very early scan from an old computer. Baltimore & Ohio E9A No. 1456 leads the westbound Diplomat as it is about to stop at Akron Union Depot in the late 1960s. The train to its left is an eastbound Erie Lackawanna freight.
It is the late 1960s in Akron. After the arrival of Baltimore & Ohio’s Diplomat, B&O Alco S2 switcher No. 9074 is removing a mail car taken from it. The train has stopped east out of sight beyond the bridge, and the E units have cut off and pulled west of the train.
The 9074 has coupled onto the mail car and getting in the clear. Then the B&O E-units will back up, recouple, and the train will head west to Chicago.
B&O 9074 will cross a couple of tracks and put the mail car on a siding next to Akron Union Depot where the mail car will be unloaded.
Under the East Exchange Street bridge on the left is Erie Lackawanna No. 501, another Alco S2 switcher.
It is a summer morning in the late 1960s in Akron. Baltimore & Ohio’s Diplomat has stopped at the Akron Union Depot, which is out of sight to the right.
The train stretches under the station’s concourse, which also connected to the Greyhound Bus depot.
The Erie Lackawanna passenger station is to the left of the B&O E9A locomotive.
The EL’s westbound Lake Cities is barely visible at the station. Soon the Diplomat will be headed west to Chicago.
Erie Lackawanna Nos. 819 and 818 are on the point of the approaching Lake Cities while Baltimore & Ohio No. 1440 is on the point of the Diplomat, which is already at the Akron Union Depot. It is the late 1960s, and it was not uncommon to have both westbound trains at their respective stations at the same time.
The wayback machine is set for Aug. 18, 1968, in Akron at Union Depot.
In the top image, Baltimore & Ohio E9A No. 1455 has cut off from the westbound Diplomat in order to, most likely, add or remove a mail car.
Across the tracks the Erie Lackawanna’s westbound Lake Cities is sitting at its station.
In the middle image the Lake Cities can be seen pulling away from its station platform. It was not unusual for both passenger trains to be in Akron at the same time.
In the bottom image notice the family standing and watching trains on the EL platform.
Can you imagine joining this family and watching trains? I said “watching” because that is the dark side for morning photography.
Yet if you look carefully, the man appears to have a camera around his neck.
If you decide to use your own wayback machine and join me for taking pictures on this day, tell me seeing my photos 53 ahead in the future inspired you to join me to photograph Akron. I’ll believe you.
If you know your Baltimore & Ohio passenger train history then you recognize the Diplomat was for several decades the name of a Washington/Baltimore-St. Louis train.
But as part of a restructuring of B&O passenger service in 1964, the Chicago-Washington Shenandoah was renamed the Diplomat.
Four years after that renaming occurred, the westbound Diplomat is shown in the top image at Akron Union Depot.
Some switching of head end cars also occurred here. Note that the train has a railway post office car behind its two locomotives.
The bottom image shows the Diplomat stopped at the station in Kent. If you look carefully along the right edge of the frame you’ll see a caboose from an eastbound freight
By the time these images were made, the B&O passenger department was in retreat. In November 1967, the eastbound Diplomat had been discontinued within Ohio.
The consist of the westbound Diplomat by 1969 had shrunk to a coach, a food bar coach and two or three head end cars.
It was discontinued west of Akron in early January 1970, leaving the Capitol Limited as the B&O’s lone Chicago-Washington train.
The Shenandoah name was revived for use on the surviving Akron-Washington train, which continued to operate until the coming of Amtrak on May 1, 1971.
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