Ohi-Rail Two for Tuesday

Ohi-Rail switcher No. 135 is shown heading westbound in two unidentified locations, but both probably are near Minerva. The images were made in 1982, the year that Ohi-Rail began operations.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

An Ohi-Rail Triple Play

Ohi-Rail Nos 47 and 7547 are working at the east end of the OHIC yard in Minerva on Sept. 26, 2013. The industrial facility seen in photo two is no longer there. Ohi-Rail itself has since been acquired by Genesee & Wyoming. The former OHIC property is now operated as part of the Mahoning Valley Railway, which is part of the Ohio Central System.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

Tuesday Twofer: Restored Cabooses

Today’s Two for Tuesday features a pair of cabooses that have retired from revenue service but been preserved.

The Pennsylvania Railroad called its cabooses cabin cars. In the top image, a former PRR cabin car has gotten a new coat of paint and is looking spiffy as it sits in Minerva, Ohio on Aug. 8, 2004.

Yet the restoration raises the question of whether PRR cabin cars ever had gold roofs.

In the bottom image, a caboose lettered for Wheeling & Lake Erie sits on display in Brewster on Nov. 7, 2009.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

Two Different Eras for No. 101

Northeast Ohio short line railroad Fairport, Painesville & Eastern had a fleet of eight Alco switchers numbered 101 to 108.

In the top photograph, S4 No. 105 and S2 No. 101 are sitting 105 and 101 are near Fairport Harbor, Ohio in the late 1960s

FP&E 101 became Ohi-Rail No. 101 and it is seen in the bottom photograph along with another Alco S2 in in Minerva in October 1997.

Nos. 101 and 102 both worked for the FP&E before winding up on Ohi-Rail.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

Along Ohi-Rail in Minerva

Here are two from Ohi-Rail in Minerva on Aug. 19, 2010.

There is a road in Minerva that parallels Ohi-Rail’s yard. These stored locomotives and cabooses were visible at the west and of the yard.

In the top photo are Ohi-Rail No. 102 and Minerva Scenic Railway No. 18.

The MSR used Ohi-Rail trackage but only lasted a few years and was out of business at the time this photo was taken.

In the bottom photo are former a Canadian National vans (caboose), an ex-Conrail caboose, and an ex-Pennsylvania Railroad cabin car.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

Whistling Past the Graveyard?

We don’t know if Ohi-Rail Alco S2 No. 101 was blowing its whistle as it passed this cemetery in Minerva, Ohio, but we do know that it is sitting behind it in mid 1997. OK, so technically diesel locomotives have horns and not whistles.

The unit was built in October 1945 for the Fairport, Painesville & Eastern.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Ohi-Rail Caboose

To most people, this is a caboose. But to a railroader it could be either a caboose or a shoving platform. There is a difference, but only those who know the rules of the Federal Railroad Administration know what it is.

Ohi-Rail, a short-line railroad based in Minerva, Ohio, uses both a shoving platform and a caboose for its moves to Bayard.

Also shown are a couple of former Norfolk Southern locomotives that Ohi-
Rail bought during an NS garage sale.

Photograph by Pete Poremba

Well Weathered

Traces of Conrail can easily be found despite the fact that it has been 18 years since it was divided between CSX and Norfolk Southern.

The most likely vestige of Conrail that you can find are freight cars still carrying the carrier’s herald and name. It will be awhile before those vanish.

But if you pay attention, you can find Conrail in other ways, too.

Many railroad signs along the right of way of former Conrail routes continue to wear Conrail colors, even if the paint is peeling and the color has faded from years of exposure to sunlight.

That includes this station sign in Minvera, Ohio, that still stands along a former Pennsylvania Railroad branch line that at one time extended to Marietta, Ohio.

It is hard to believe that this line was once part of Conrail, but it was.

Conrail was created, after all, to get rid of branches such as the line to Marrietta and it did. Much of the route is abandoned west of Minerva.

The short-line railroad Ohi-Rail operates the remaining rails between Minerva and Bayard, where it interchanges with Norfolk Southern.

Fresh Look for Ohi-Rail GP9

Small short-line railroads must by financial necessity shop the used locomotive market. This often results in a rag-tag locomotive fleet of units wearing Spartan liveries.

Or it might mean a “heritage fleet” of locomotives still wearing in whole or in part the colors and markings of a former owner.

Within the past month, Minvera-based Ohi-Rail Corporation has placed into revenue service a former Chesapeake & Ohio GP9 that has a fresh new look.

When the unit went into the shop for repainting, the C&O initials and name were bleeding through the black paint.

When it came out, No. 53 had a new coat of paint, an inverted V-shaped stripe of  gold and white on its nose and something you won’t see on many, if any, other locomotives.

The herald of the Future Farmers of America on the side of the nose is in tribute to the work put in by members of the Minerva FFA chapter in helping to restore the locomotive.

Thanks for a tip from Akron Railroad Club member Pete Poremba, who works for Ohi-Rail, I was able to photograph No. 53 shoving a cut of empty tank cars from Minerva to Bayard to interchange to Norfolk Southern.

Ohi-Rail uses tracks that were once branch lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central. It also interchanges on occasion in Minerva with the Wheeling & Lake Erie.

A caboose converted to a shoving platform is used on the east end of trains headed for Bayard.

It comes with lights and a horn and from a distance you would swear that it was a locomotive horn, which it used to be.

Minerva RR Museum Equipment to be Auctioned

The Elderberry Line tourist railroad opreation served Minerva through 2003. (Photograph by Richard Jacobs)

Want to buy and operate your own tourist railroad? The Steam Railroad Museum in Minerva, Ohio, is for sale. It’s equipment will be auctioned by Kiko Auctions on October 15, 2009.

The rolling stock to be sold includes two Alco 1,000-hp diesel switchers, a Wheeling & Lake Erie caboose, a Fairmount M4 motorcar and trailer, a baggage car, a railroad crane and numerous shop machines and some railroad signs and signals. The museum operated the Minerva Scenic Railway for three seasons beginning in 2004. It shut down when insurance costs exceeded its budget. It operated over a portion of Ohi-Rail out of Minerva, but that option is no longer allowed by the new owners of Ohi-Rail.

Before that the Carrollton, Oneida & Minerva Railroad operated passenger trains from Carrollton to Minerva and return on a 22-mile trip. Known as the Elderberry Line, it used a portion of Ohi-Rail to enter Minerva and a W&LE branch line between Carrrollton and Minerva Junction.

Barbara and I rode this train in September 1998. We rode in the cab of Alco No. 102 (now for sale) on the return to Carrollton. The Elderberry Line ceased operations after the 2003 season.

In these days of higher liability insurance costs and railroad mega-mergers, preservation of our nation’s railroad heritage has become more difficult.

Richard Jacobs

This Alco switcher pulled trains for the Minerva Scenic Railroad for three seasons beginning in 2004. Now it will be sold as the Steam Railroad Museum in Minerva sells its equipment at auction. (Photograph by Craig Sanders)