In a classic Alliance shot, Norfolk Southern 9206 leads an eastbound stack train making the transition from the Cleveland Line to the Fort Wayne Line en route to Conway Yard near Pittsburgh and beyond. Note the former Conrail unit trailing. The image was made on Nov. 12, 2010.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Norfolk Southern C409W No. 9670 is leading an eastbound train on the Cleveland Line in Alliance on Aug. 24, 2013. The train is entering the connection to the Fort Wayne Line continue its journey toward Conway Yard near Pittsburgh.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
On Wednesday morning the Pennsylvania Railroad heritage unit was leading train 14N and I thought that would be a perfect train to chase down the Cleveland Line single main and possibly catch a few other trains as well.
I arrived at Alliance at 11a.m. just in time to watch a double-stack train go east on the mainline.
This was not a good sign. Had NS reopened the mainline through the wreck area at East Palestine? It turned out they had not done so yet but would have a track open in a few hours.
The 14N was holding west of town and would spend the rest of the afternoon there before the crew outlawed.
I knew of a couple westbound trains that were coming so I went to Wellsville to try and catch them. I missed a 25P but I did find a 35N and chased that train back to Alliance.
It was almost dark when 35N left Alliance heading for Cleveland.
There were two more westbounds, a 171 and a 15N, but these both came after dark so no photos of them.
Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon
Norfolk Southern reopened its Cleveland Line in Portage County on Wednesday just over a day after it was closed by a Tuesday night derailment.
Amtrak’s Capitol Limited resumed operating on Thursday morning between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
Officials said there were no injuries in the derailment and no hazardous materials were involved.
Most of the derailed cars were auto racks, some of them carrying new Jeeps. Some cars carrying rock salt spilled their contents.
An NS spokesman said the train had four locomotives and 237 cars. It had originated at Conway Yard near Pittsburgh and was en route to Bellevue when the derailment occurred around 7 p.m. near Lake Street in Ravenna.
The NS spokesman said 22 cars derailed. No cause of the derailment has been given by railroad officials.
The derailment closed South Prospect Street (Ohio Route 44) for several hours and disrupted school bus service in the Ravenna school district.
Laura Hebert, superintendent of Ravenna City Schools, said a school bus serving the neighborhood was unable to pick up children for school.
Route 44 was reported to have been closed between Sandy Lake Road and Summit Road.
Amtrak’s westbound Capitol Limited that had departed Washington for Chicago on Tuesday afternoon turned back at Pittsburgh to become Train 30. The eastbound Capitol Limited departure of Tuesday evening was cancelled.
Nos. 29 and 30 were operating the length of their routes on Thursday. No. 30 was reported to have departed Alliance at 3:44 a.m., 39 minutes late.
The derailment was reported to the Ravenna Township Fire Department at 7:12 p.m. on Tuesday.
News reports quoted a resident of the Timber Run housing development as saying,”It sounded like a plane was about to crash into our houses.”
One resident who joined the crowd watching the cleanup said his boat had been destroyed in the derailment, but he was excited about the prospect of receiving a check from NS for it.
No injuries were reported after a Norfolk Southern train derailed Tuesday night near Ravenna.
A report by the Akron Beacon Journal said the derailment occurred around 7:45 p.m. and blocked Ohio Route 44 in Ravenna Township just south of Summit Road.
An online report indicated the derailment occurred at milepost 82.4 and involved train M0Q.
A statement released by the Potage County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said 16 cars derailed.
No hazardous materials were involved. The cars were reported to be carrying rock salt and other materials.
Photographs posted online showed loaded auto rack cars having derailed.
“It sounded like a plane was about to crash into our houses,” a nearby Ravenna resident told the Beacon Journal.
A Portage County Sheriff’s Deputy at the derailment site who was questioning individuals said he had not found any eyewitnesses.
An online report said the train had 187 loads and 49 empties. The derailment blocked both tracks of the Cleveland Line.
Amtrak’s eastbound Capitol Limited did not operate Tuesday night. Reportedly, the westbound Capitol turned back at Pittsburgh to become No. 30.
The superintendent of the Ravenna school district tweeted that the derailment near Lake Street would affect the district’s ability to pick up some students on Wednesday.
“We will not be able to pick up students living along Prospect St. South of Summit Rd and in the Timber Run neighborhood. Other routes may be late! Stay tuned!” he said in a Twitter post.
Last Saturday (Feb. 5) I spent the day in Alliance.
Upon arriving I found an eastbound intermodal sitting on Track No. 1 and another eastbound moving slowly on Track No. 2.
The reason for this soon became apparent as train 14N was sitting on Track 1 blocking every railroad crossing in town. It had broken several air hoses and had gone into emergency.
Also sitting on Track 2 east of town was the 170 waiting to go west. The slowly moving EB train was taking the runner track, a long siding for parking trains, to get around the 170.
After about an hour, the 14N was able to get moving and continue east; However it would need a new crew before reaching Conway.
Once the 14N cleared, the 170 was able to continue west. The 170 takes the Fort Wayne line to Canton and 14N was blocking his move.
The 170 crew was also on short time and ended up tying down at Freshley Road west of town.
Other trains had backed up behind the 14N including 64N an oil or ethanol train.
This train then took the Alliance runner previously used by the intermodal and tied down to wait for a new crew.
A little later train 6K4, another oil or ethanol, took the Cleveland single and tied down on the Mahoning siding south of town.
An empty coal train came an hour or so later, which picked up this crew. The 6K4 had a GP38-3 leading some Canadian National engines, which was interesting.
Another train that I had hoped to get was the 171 which had the Virginian heritage unit. Alas it sat in Canton all afternoon before getting a new crew and going through Alliance about 5 p.m. I had left by then.
Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon
It was a typical Northeast Ohio early January day in 2012, the kind that features clouds and sun that at times is more sun than clouds and then a few minutes later more clouds than sun.
Such days can make photography tricky and yet rewarding at the same time due to low sun angles that creates warm light all day when you can get sun breaking through around the clouds.
I ventured down to Towner’s Woods Park in Brady Lake, one of my favorite hang out spots because you can park next to the Cleveland Line of Norfolk Southern.
It’s not the greatest location to photograph NS operations due to the tracks lying in a cut and the trees on both side providing obstructions.
But in the winter when the leaves are off you can get some decent if not good images.
The former Erie Railroad mainline that once extended between Chicago and New York also borders the park, but being a Sunday I knew there would be no rail traffic on that line.
The ex-Erie tracks here are now owned by Portage County and used by the Akron Barberton Cluster Railway, which only operates on this segment of the ex-Erie on weekdays and even then it doesn’t always go to Ravenna and thus past Brady Lake.
A snow storm had swept through a few days earlier but by now most of the snow had melted. There remained some accumulation in areas that spend most of the day in shade or had seen heavier accumulations.
I photographed a few NS trains and at one point ventured into Kent where I captured an eastbound empty CSX hopper train as I stood on the West Main Street Bridge.
But most of my photographic endeavors on this day were devoted to railroad infrastructure images in winter.
Winter is a good time to photograph Brady Lake Tower, seen in the top image above.
I say that because during much of the year leaves block a clear view of the tower from the railroad side.
You can get all the unobstructed views you want from three sides of the tower from within Towner’s Woods Park, but if you want to create a view of the tower as passing railroaders saw it you have to wait until winter.
Even then you still have to contend with tree trunks creating “noise” in your photographs.
The tower was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1928 to control a set of crossovers and the flying junction here with the Lake Erie & Pittsburgh.
The latter extended from Brady Lake to Marcy in Cleveland. It was 50-50 owned by the PRR and the New York Central but used by the latter to move freight between Cleveland and Youngstown.
East of Brady Lake the NYC used the PRR to Ravenna and then the Baltimore & Ohio to Youngstown.
The former LE&P was mostly taken out of service not long after the creation of Penn Central.
As for Brady Lake Tower, it was taken out of service on May 14, 1966, but the interlocking plant remained intact with the tower was used as an emergency block station through 1969 and possibly sometime into 1970.
Because it is located on park land its future is assured.
The ex-Erie tracks also got much of my attention. There used to be a double track mainline here but one of the tracks was lifted in the Conrail era when this line was downgraded to become the Freedom Secondary.
I thought on this day as I have thought often while walking the Portage Hike and Bike trail about what it must have been like in the late 1960s or early 1970s when Erie Lackawanna freight trains with their colorful locomotives lumbered through here.
Oh, how I wish I could go back in time and enjoy that.
But the trail is built on former Erie right of way and didn’t exist during the EL years.
The second of the four images is looking railroad eastward to a curve after the Erie tracks crossed over the Pennsy on a plate girder bridge that can be partly seen at right.
About where the tracks curve is the site of the original Cleveland & Pittsburgh right of way, which built the line between its namesake cities and today is the NS Cleveland Line.
However, in the early 20th Century the Pennsy rebuilt the line to eliminate grade crossings and shifted the tracks slightly to the south.
The Erie used the now vacated C&P right of way between Brady Lake and Ravenna.
What got my attention in this scene is the lone pole that once supported the Erie code lines that still stands but without any wires. And note the lone tree to the left that still has its leaves, albeit rust colored.
The third and fourth images are looking railroad westbound toward Kent on the other side of Ravenna Road.
There is still some snow accumulation in a shady spot. Perhaps the snow was deeper here because it had drifted. That grade crossing up ahead is Lake Rockwell Road.
I was struck by the pattern the melting snow made on the tracks, still clinging to the ties but gone on the ballast.
Most of the infrastructure that once supported the Erie and later the EL is gone.
I’ve seen a few photographs of what it used to look like here, including an image made by the late Robert Redmond of a steam train passing a semaphore signal near Ravenna Road. I’ve found the concrete base for that signal.
In my mind at least, the EL sent some ghost trains past as I walked along the adjacent trail. That and seeing the occasional photograph made during Erie or EL days is as close as I’ll ever come to experiencing what it must have been like here in days past.
Article by Craig Sanders
Over the years Brady Lake has been a favorite hang out of mine to watch Norfolk Southern trains on the Cleveland Line. On occasion I’ve also caught an Akron Barberton Cluster Railway train here, too.
Towner’s Woods Park is located next to the tracks and has plenty of parking. The park also features a former Pennsylvania Railroad interlocking tower, which the PRR named Brady’s Lake.
At one time, the tower controlled switches and signals for the Lake Erie & Pittsburgh line to Cleveland that diverged here.
The LE&P is nearly all gone today and there are few signs by the tower that it ever existed. Portions of it are a hike and bike trail.
The top image was made on Nov. 4, 2005, and shows NS westbound manifest freight 15K passing the tower, which is shrouded by colorful fall foliage.
The bottom image was made on Feb. 1, 2000. The tower is easier to see with the leaves off the trees but remains somewhat obscured by tree branches and trunks.
Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders
I was looking in my slide collection earlier this week with an emphasis on images made on the Cleveland Line of Norfolk Southern in the vicinity of Brady Lake and Ravenna when I ran across the image shown above.
Seeing it brought back a lot of memories of a late October day, Oct. 28, 2005, to be exact.
I was in my first year as president of the Akron Railroad Club. It was a Friday and the October meeting was that night in the Carriage House of the Summit County Historical Society.
Before the meeting Ed Ribinskas and I got in some late day railfanning around Ravenna.
As you can see in this image the fall foliage along the Cleveland Line east of Lake Street was at peak color although some of the trees had already lost most or all of their leaves.
We were there in late afternoon and fortunate to get two westbounds before the shadows completely covered the rails.
As it was, the shadows were rapidly moving in, which turned out to be a good thing by creating some dramatic contrast. Contrast helps to give an image visual tension, which increases its drama and interest.
It is noteworthy that as dramatic as these images are they are not the photographs I remember the most from this outing.
Those images were made several minutes later on the CSX New Castle Subdivision at Chestnut Street.
In the last direct sunlight of the day we caught a westbound with a BNSF leader. I framed it with a Baltimore & Ohio color position light signal and the block sign denoting the end and beginning of the Kent and Rave blocks.
The warm light on a BNSF “pumpkin” was, I thought at the time, the catch of the day.
CSX has long since dropped the use of blocks on the New Castle Sub and the CPLs have been gone for years. So those photos now make nice period pieces.
Curious as to who had the program that night I dug out the October 2005 Bulletin. The program was titled Now and Then with the “now” being presented by Marty Surdyk and the “then” being shown by his father, the late William Surdyk.
The photographs shown were made roughly 40 years apart and used different types of slide film.
Marty’s images were 35 mm slides shown in a Kodak Carousel projector.
He featured the Bessemer & Lake Erie, CSX in the Akron area, Marion, Berea and the Wheeling & Lake Erie around Spencer.
Bill’s images were 2.25-inch format slides shown in a 1950s era Goldie projector that could be fed one slide at a time. In Bill’s show were images from Berea, Marion and Akron among other locations.
The meeting minutes for October reported that a record 18 members went to the Eat ‘n Park in Cuyahoga Falls after the meeting for dessert, a late dinner or an early breakfast.
The next day ARRC members gathered again, this time in Berea to dedicate the Dave McKay memorial.
A week before the meeting, ARRC members had enjoyed an excursion on the Ohio Central between Dennison and Morgan Run. It was supposed to have been pulled by 2-8-0 Baldwin-built No. 33.
But the steamer was sidelined with mechanical issues. Instead, a Montreal Locomotive Works RS18 pulled the trip to Morgan Run while an OC FP7 powered the return trip.
What a month October 2005 was for the ARRC.
Under normal circumstances the Akron Railroad Club would be holding its February meeting tonight. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic the club won’t be meeting. In fact it last met in February 2020 and who knows when the next meeting will be.
In past years I sometimes would drive to Alliance on the afternoon of ARRC meetings and spend a couple hours watching NS trains there.
In late afternoon I’d put the camera and scanner away and head north out of town and eventually west on Interstate 76, stopping for dinner at the Cracker Barrel in Ravenna or the Bob Evans on Gilchrist Road in Akron right around the corner from the club’s meeting site.
Shown above is an eastbound headed by SD70 No. 2563. The train is about to take the connection from the Cleveland Line to the Fort Wayne Line as it continues its trip toward Pittsburgh.
This locomotive was built for Conrail and Chris Toth’s NS locomotive website reports it has since been retired.
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