It’s a collage of Penn Central locomotives and rolling stock in Motor Yard in Macedonia in suburban Cleveland in early 1973. In the center of the image is PC GP40 No. 3154, which had been built for the railroad in September 1968. Also on hand are a caboose and some boxcars.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
During the time that it was owned by the late Jerry Jacobson, the Ohio Central System has a locomotive fleet that could fairly be described as eclectic.
Most OC units were painted in the railroad’s maroon and gold livery but not all of them. It was not unusual to see a unit in an oddball scheme pulling trains until it found its way to the paint shop or was sold to another company.
The top image was made in Dennison on May 21, 1994. No. 3216 is a GP40 wearing the OC livery that at the time was still somewhat new. It was built in November 1968 for Penn Central and wound up on the Conrail motive power roster.
No. 3216 would later go to work for the Buckingham Branch Railroad in Virginia.
The bottom image was made at Morgan Run on June 8, 2002, and shows a GP10 still in the colors it came with. This unit began life in January 1956 as an Illinois Central GP9.
It had a series of owners before it showed up on the OC including Qwest Communications Corporation, which painted it silver and black, and MidSouth and Gulf & Mississippi. It would later wind up on the Everett Railroad in Pennsylvania.
Photographs by Craig Sanders
On Tuesday I caught the Akron Barberton Cluster Railway local to Ravenna. Wheeling & Lake Erie No. 302, a former Denver & Rio Grande Western GP40 still lettered for that railroad powered the train.
In the photos above the train is shown switching at Kent, heading to Ravenna and on the turn trip at Ravenna
Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon
Baltimore & Ohio GP40 No. 6541 is eastbound in Barberton in July 1988 in the early CSX era. Barely visible on the right are cars on the Akron & Barberton Belt.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Here are a pair of images of Baltimore & Ohio lGP40 locomotives in action. In the top image No. 4015 is in leading a trailer train at Ravenna on April 1, 1983. The unit was built in September 1971 and later was part of the CSX motive power roster.
In the bottom image B&O No. 3686 is shown in Shelby on July 26, 1980, leading a local. This locomotive was built in November 1966. It would later wind up working for the St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt).
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Today we feature Western Maryland GP40 3797 in Brewster on the Norfolk & Western. In the top image, the 3797 is at the engine facility by the turntable in October 1972. The bottom image was made on May 5, 1974, of the 3797 leading an eastbound train. on the N&W in Brewster.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
It is very early in the CSX era in Clinton on Aug. 24, 1986. C&O GP40 No. 3784 is leading a westbound passing what once was a hotel. It might seem strange to think Clinton had a hotel, but it was common for even small towns to have one during the heyday of railroad passenger travel.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
How about an Ohio Central two for Tuesday. Yup, we thought you might like that. In the top image OHCR GP8 5407 and GP40 No. 3217 are southbound at Beach City in October 1997. No. 5407 was built for the Pennsylvania Railroad in August 1953 as a GP7. It was later rebuilt into a GP8 The 3217 was built in November 1968 for Penn Central and later spent time on the Conrail motive power roster.
In the bottom image GP9 No. 91 and GP38-3 No. 2175 lead a northbound train over Chippewa Creek in Clinton on May 15, 1998, on the R.J. Corman Cleveland Subdivision.
The photographer writes that this image is now much more dangerous to attempt because the bridge on which he was standing no longer has side-of-road white lines. When this image was made there were lines to help keep the drivers in their lanes while at the same time leaving a small walking area.
The 91 was built in April 1957 for the Great Northern while No. 2175 was built for the Louisville & Nashville in June 1971 as a GP38AC.
Not that the 2175 has an early Ohio Central motive power livery.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Penn Central GP40 No. 3186 is westbound about to cross under the ex-Pennsylvania Railroad signal bridge just west of Broadway Avenue in Canton in September 1972.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
It was an odd site seeing two Wheeling & Lake Erie locomotives teaming up to move a lone gondola filled with scrap metal on the Hartland Subdivision northwest of Spencer.
I didn’t record any information about this train, which I found on Aug. 7, 2009, but it probably is the Cleveland steel train that runs to and from Campbell Road Yard in Cleveland via CSX and Norfolk Southern trackage rights.
W&LE No. 301 was at this time painted in a livery that combined elements of the Wheeling and Denver & Rio Grande Western.
In fact this GP40 was once a D&RGW locomotive although it had been built for Penn Central. The unit was rebuilt by the W&LE into a GP40-3 and has been given a W&LE livery.
akronrrclub.wordpress.com 