There is a light snow on the morning of Nov. 10, 1968, as westbound Erie Lackawanna EMD E8A 825 and a rather short The Lake Cities heads through Akron near where Wilbeth Road once crossed the tracks. The 825 was built for the Erie Railroad in February 1951 so it knows this route very well.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Former Penn Central SD35 No. 6022 is northbound in Akron on May 26, 1977. Very likely, this train is heading to Hudson and then on to Motor Yard in Macedonia.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
At our request the wayback machine has taken us to the 1970s in Akron. Shown is Chesapeake & Ohio GP38 No. 4825 on June 6, 1976. The unit was built in July 1970 and would later serve CSX before a career with various locomotive leasing companies.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
The wayback machine has landed us in Akron in the late 1960s or early 1970s. We can’t quite tell which it is. But we can clearly see Baltimore & Ohio GP38 No. 3830 leading an eastbound at Voris Street in a classic Akron Railroading scene. The 3030 was later painted in Chessie System colors.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
It is 1967-1970 in Akron. Westbound Erie Lackawanna F3A No. 7091 has stopped, and I was very careful as I took this scenic photo.
The bottom image is the same train only the image has been cropped, which gives it a different look and feel from the original photograph.
The train is on the Voris Street crossing and looks like it is backing into McCoy Street Yard.
How strange to think in a few years Conrail would change all this. The 7091 was built for the Erie Railroad in February 1949.
Article and Photograph by Robert Farkas
It was the late 1960s when Mike Ondecker and I found westbound Baltimore & Ohio E8A No. 1447 with The Diplomat at the Akron Union Depot. The train on the left is an eastbound Erie Lackawanna freight. No. 1447 was built by EMD in October 1953 as B&O 26A. It would later work for Amtrak wearing roster numbers 203 and 353.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
These photographs were taken in the era when railroads still had open air auto carriers. The location is unidentified but was most likely in or near Akron. I believe the photograph was made in 1968 or 1969 according to the Fords which look like 1969 Fords.
Remember open-air auto racks? Imagine all the damage that was done to roofs, windows and other parts.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
It is between 1967 and 1969 in Akron when Pennsylvania Railroad No. 6217 heads an eastbound freight underneath the Wilbeth Road walk bridge.
The train is on joint tracks used by the Pennsy and Baltimore & Ohio between Warwick Tower in Clinton and Arlington Street Tower in Akron.
Looking down makes the superelevation of the curve at this location seem more severe than it is. The nearest track is PRR/Penn Central. The next two are the B&O-PRR mainlines.
The three tracks on the other side of the B&O-PRR mainlines are the Erie Lackawanna mainlines and a long EL track to serve industries paralleling the EL mainlines.
Today only the two ex-B&O-PRR mainline tracks are still in place here.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
CSX SD40-2 No. 8070 is westbound on Feb. 28, 2012, in Akron with a grain train. The unit was built for the Louisville & Nashville in October 1979.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Sometimes backlit images can be saved and here are two examples. Both were made in 2016 on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad in Akron.
In the top image Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 767 is southbound approaching Akron Northside Station in Akron on the afternoon of Sept. 25. For a short time NKP 765 was renumbered to 767. It is shown crossing the remains of the Ohio and Erie Canal. In the bottom image, CVSR FPA-4 No. 6771 is about to pull its train and the NKP 767 north.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
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