On a light engine move after interchanging with the Wheeling & Lake Erie, Ohio Central Nos. 4093 and 3185 are southbound in Beach City on June 15, 2012. Note that the 3185 has received a Genesee & Wyoming logo on its nose.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
In its early years the Ohio Central used a livery that was reminiscent of a scheme used by the Nickel Plate Road. That was appropriate because tracks used by the OC between Harmon and Zanesville via Sugarcreek and Coshocton were once part of the NKP system.
Shown above is GP9 No. 99 with an excursion train in Dennison on May 24, 1994, sitting on former Pennsylvania Railroad rails. Toward the end of the Jerry Jacobson era of the OC, the railroad had a pair of F9A units painted in a livery similar to the pinstripe livery of the Pennsy from the 1950s.
Article and Photograph by Craig Sanders
It is Sept. 27, 1997, in Sugarcreek, Ohio. It’s a sunny and pleasant fall day and two Ohio Central steam locomotives are in town and operating. No. 1551 is handling the Baltic tourist train while No. 1293 brought into town a special sponsored by the Orrville Railroad Historical Society.
I was aboard the latter train and during the layout I walked around and made several photographs. There also was an Ohio Central freight train working in town at one point.
In the top image a crew member stands an the rear platform of GP10 No. 7561, which still wears Conrail colors. In the bottom image, the 7561 is coupled to Alco RS3 No. 1077.
Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders
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
During the early 2000s the Ohio Central acquired a pair of F7A cab units that it used in excursion train service.
Both units were rated at 1,500 horsepower and came to the OC from the Gettysburg Railroad. Each had been built for the Milwaukee Road, although not in the same year. No. 1000 was built in 1951 while No. 1001 rolled off the assembly line in 1950.
They were painted a rust red color and carried “Ohio Central System” gold lettering on their flanks.
Neither unit received an Ohio Central livery and their stay at the railroad would be relatively brief. By early 2007 they had moved on to the Aberdeen, Carolina & Western in North Carolina.
I never thought the scheme the 1000 and 1001 had during their time on the Ohio Central was all that attractive. But they were F units and in the early 2000s there weren’t many of those still around outside of museums.
In the photograph above, the pair is seen on one end of an excursion train that originated in Zanesville and ran to New Lexington on Oct. 14, 2001.
The train traveled the Ohio Southern Railroad and the excursion ran shortly after the route had been reopened following years of being mothballed.
The former Pennsylvania Railroad branch had been rehabilitated in a $12 million project largely funded by the State of Ohio, which had purchased the line in the early 1980s.
It was mostly cloudy on the day of the excursion with occasional peeks of sunshine. One of those came as the train was getting into position in Zanesville for boarding.
This would be the only time that I photographed Ohio Central operations in Zanesville. The 1000 and 1001 would eventually be supplanted by a pair of F9A units that were painted in a striking livery that was reminiscent of the PRR pinstripe livery of the 1950s. But that is another story for another day.
Article and Photograph by Craig Sanders
Here are two photos of Youngstown & Austintown GP7 No. 1501, formerly a Pittsburgh & Lake Erie unit, on the Ohio Central in July 1998. The top image shows the 1501 sitting in Sugarcreek,. The bottom image was made of it pulling a southbound train approaching Baltic.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Here are three photos of Ohio Central SD45R No. 7499 taken with my 4MP Olympus camera near Coshocton on July 29, 2004. The views are across a field with the Ohio Route 83 bridge in the background and a different view across a field. The 7499 was built as an SD45 for Southern Pacific in May 1968.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
An Ohio Central B237-R and its train are southbound on the R.J. Corman Cleveland Subdivision at Butterbridge Road south of Canal Fulton on April 17, 2006. This pond has been photographed often by railfan photographers over the years.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Here are two photographs made in Clinton on April 17, 2006. In the top image, Ohio Central B23-7R No. 4095 is about to enter the Warwick Yard on CSX to interchange cars. In the bottom image, CSX GP40-2 No. 6149 is shown on the R.J. Corman track wearing a “patch” paint job. It is a former Baltimore & Ohio unit and is sitting on ex-B&O rails.
Photographs 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
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