In the photo collections of numerous Ohio railroad photographers are images similar to this. Ohio Central 1551 is pulling the Sugar Creek-Baltic steam excursions. The 1551 was often given this assignment. The train is southbound in mid 1998.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
The wayback machine has transported us back to Aug. 13, 1996. Ohio Central 4-6-0 No. 1551 is running southbound in Baltic with an excursion train. The 1551 was often the standard motive power for the Sugar Creek-Baltic trains.
It once was part of the Steamtown USA collection and before that was owned by Canadian National. It was built in 1912 by Montreal Locomotive Works.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Ohio Central ran a day-long excursion on June 13, 1993, on R.J. Corman track that was once part of the Baltimore & Ohio.
The train ran from Canal Fulton on the Corman and got onto Ohio Central rails at Justus for the remainder of the trip to Coshocton.
The return trip was pulled by an Ohio Central diesel.
In the top image and the first two images below, former Canadian National 4-6-0 No. 1551 pulls the train through the Mace interlocking in Massillon.
The fourth photograph shows the train crossing the Wheeling & Lake Erie at Harmon just east of Brewster.
The fifth image was made at Justus where the connection to get onto the Ohio Central is just south of the diamond.
Next up the excursion train is shown about halfway between Sugarcreek and Baltic. This location is about 1.5 miles south of the Age of Steam Roundhouse, which had not yet been built when this trip ran.
The last image shows the return trip passing through Massillon as it nears Mace. In the background is the curved bridge over the Tuscarawas River carrying the Fort Wayne Line of the former Pennsylvania Railroad.
The far straight bridge over the river once carried the original W&LE mainline between Brewster and Orrville.
From 1975 to 1990 the summer and autumn norm in northeast Ohio was former Grant Trunk Western 2-8-2 4070 running from Cleveland to Akron on the Cuyahoga Valley Line.
Even though it was shut down during 1986 and 1987 due to the transition of the ex-Baltimore & Ohio branch from CSX to the National Park Service, when it returned in 1988 many figured 4070 would be running for years to come.
During the 15-year period I spent many available weekends riding, photographing, then volunteering on the restoration and operating crews.
Little did we all know that after the September 1990 mechanical breakdown of 4070 that a changing of the guard was in the works with the organizations and steam in the area.
Luckily Jerry Jacobson’s Ohio Central began operating steam tourist trains out of Sugarcreek in October 1988.
For the next 15 plus years we saw a variety of steamers operating, the former Canadian National 4-6-0 No. 1551.
It had been built by Montreal Locomotive Works in April 1912 as Canadian Northern 1354.
These are two of my favorite photos of Jerry’s first operating steamer on the Ohio Central taken just one month after 4070’s last time under steam.
In the top image, No. 1551 leads a train near Fresno. In the bottom image it cruises through Baltic. Both images were made on Oct. 14, 1990.
The Ohio Central began running its steam-powered Sugarcreek-Baltic tourist train behind former Canadian National 4-6-0 No. 1551 in 1989.
Although I moved to Northeast Ohio in August 1993, it would more than four years before I ventured to Sugarcreek to see that tourist train in action.
However, my first encounter with the 1551 had occurred two years earlier when I rode behind it on an Orrville Railroad Heritage Society excursion that originated in Beech City and ran to Coschocton. A diesel pulled the return trip.
What would turn out to be the last time that I saw the 1551 in steam would be on a sun-splashed Saturday afternoon on Sept. 27, 1997.
I’m not sure how I learned about it, but the Ohio Central had two working steam locomotives in town that day.
The 1551 would be pulling the regularly-scheduled tourist train to Baltic and back. But also in town was the newest edition to the Ohio Central roundhouse, former Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 No. 1293.
OC owner Jerry Jacobson had acquired No. 1293 in 1996 from Steamtown and restored it to operating condition. It debuted in fall 1997 and would eventually take over the duties of pulling the Sugarcreek-Baltic tourist train.
My memory is a little hazy as to why the 1293 was in Sugarcreek on this day, but it probably had something to do with pulling an excursion train.
In the photograph above, the 1293 is idling on the siding as the 1551 prepares to depart for Baltic.
What is crystal clear in my memory was how I was thinking that on this day this was one of the few places in America that featured two operating steam locomotives. This remains one of my favorite Ohio Central steam memories.
Given that the Ohio Central steam program is a thing of the past, that makes those memories all the more special.
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