Railroading as it Once Was: A Youngstown Snapshot Shows How I Remember this City

In defense of the grab shot, here is one I snapped in the summer of 1975. It was one of those stop the car, jump out, point and press, so I wasn’t expecting museum quality results.

I just wanted a shot of that Alco C425 as this was one of my first trips to Brier Hill in Youngstown.

Tucked away with all the other less interesting negatives, I took another look at this image recently and decided to scan it.

It is, indeed, a snapshot of what the everyday Erie Lackawanna looked like back then in that area.

From what I can see all equipment is lettered either Erie or EL. That’s the old Division Street bridge and what I think was the YS&T furnaces beyond the bridge.

EL Alcos moving ore hoppers surrounded by the mills: That’s the snapshot of Youngstown I’d like to remember.

Article and Photograph by Roger Durfee

Railroading as it Once Was: Some Strange Bedfellows Showed up in Early Conrail Days

There were some strange bedfellows in Conrail’s first year or two as the newly merged railroad was leasing anything it could beg, borrow, or even steal for a day or two.

In this August 1976 example we see a former Erie Lackawanna caboose being moved by a former Spokane, Portland, and Seattle Alco RS-3 (renumbered as BN 4065) at Brier Hill Yard, a former EL facility, in Youngstown.

West Coast meets East Coast in the shadow of the YS&T steel mill. In a few short years, Conrail would get its act together and these SP&S/BN units would make their way back to Washington State.

Article and Photograph by Roger Durfee

Railroading as it Once Was: When Center Street in Youngstown Had a Variety of Signal Types

Like railroad signals? If so, then Center Street in Youngstown was the place to go to see a variety of them.

Take a look around this scene. There is a Pennsylvania Railroad style position light signal, a target signal and Baltimore & Ohio style color light position signals.

At left is CH Tower and the Chessie System yard. The train is a Conrail local sorting out idler cars.

The lead unit is a former Penn Central Alco C425 that still wears its PC livery, albeit modified, and carries its PC roster number.

Photograph by Roger Durfee

Railroading as it Once Was: Two Once Common Sights That are no Longer Seen in Younstown

The Chesapeake & Ohio gained stock control of the Baltimore & Ohio in 1963, but the B&O still lived on paper for years to come. Locomotives and rollings stock continued to bear the B&O herald and markings.

As far as the public was concerned, the B&O never went away because the two railroads even maintained separate timetable listings for their passenger trains and operated as independent entities.

Shown are a pair of B&O GP-9s pulling a transfer j ob from Conrail to the Chessie System yard at Center Street. In the background is the hulking presence of the Republic Steel blast furnaces.

Today, the B&O and the Republic Steel plant are both only memories and there are fewer tracks at this location in Youngstown.

Photograph by Roger Durfee

Railroading as it Once Was: Youngstown Was the Place if You Wanted to See Alco Power in Action

There was some magic about the early years of Conrail, a blending of old and new. OK, so there was more old than new, but Conrail combined both by taking veterans locomotives and giving them some minor changes to show who operated the locomotive now even if the previous operator was still obvious.

And if you wanted to watch old Alco locomotives in action, Youngstown was the place to be. Motive power assignments saw large number of Alcos roaming the rails in the Mahoning Valley.

The former Erie Lackawanna Brier Hill locomotive shop was a mandatory stop to check out what was laying about, particularly in the early years of Conrail.

In the photograph above, former Lehigh Valley, Penn Central and Erie Lackawanna units gather at the EL Brier Hill locomotive shop in Youngstown in 1977.

The old and new is apparent with this former Lehigh Valley C-628. The LV name has been painted over and the initials “CR” applied to the nose. But the heritage of the unit remains unmistakable.

Photograph by Roger Durfee

Railroading as It Once Was: When Steel was Still King and Center Street Was a Busy RR Junction

Rubber in Akron and steel in Youngstown. Neither of them are what they used to be. There was a time when the Baltimore & Ohio and other railroads reaped large revenue from both industries.

But the industrial base of Northeast Ohio deteriorated in the 1970s and the rust belt moniker became an accurate description of the region.

In the photograph above, we’ve gone back to the days before the steel industry collapsed in the Mahoning Valley.

A Chessie System freight is curving through the Center Street junction in Youngstown. At one time this was a hub of railroad activity.

Note the large iron ore pile and Republic Steel gantry crane off to the left. The double main the lead unit is on is Conrail’s former Pittsburgh, Youngstown & Ashtabula Branch.

The lines over on the right are Conrail’s ex-New York Central line to Ashtabula.

Center Street is still a railroad junction, but the scene doesn’t look like this today.

Photograph by Roger Durfee

Chasing the Y&S Was My Plan D for Monday

On the original PL&W east of Rogers, Ohio.

I had taken off work on Monday to chase the Nickel Plate Road No. 765 ferry move back west.  I was planning on chasing locally and westward as far as Bellevue or even Fostoria.

Well, it turned out that Norfolk Southern had a major derailment near Fort Wayne and the ferry move was cancelled for this week.

What to do?  Plan B, obviously, but chasing the 765 had been my plan A, B and C.  OK, time now for plan D.  I headed for North Lima (across the state from Lima where the 765 was built) to check on the Youngstown & Southern.

The power was missing which was a good sign. Now the question was which way did the train go?

Normally it will head north to Youngstown one day then south to Darlington the next.  I guessed south. The line is more scenic and I could backtrack if need be.

I guessed right as I caught the train returning around Negley. This trackage dates to 1852 at the earliest going through many incarnations until becoming the Pittsburgh, Lisbon & Western in 1896.

he PL&W didn’t reach Pittsburgh but terminated at New Galilee, Pa.; also, it never did build west of Lisbon.

The original Youngstown & Southern was built in 1902 as an interurban between Youngstown and Columbiana, Ohio. Later an extension was built to Leetonia and in 1936 a connection was built to Signal connecting with the PL&W.

All of these disparate lines were merged into the Youngstown & Southern in 1945.  By 1951 the electric operations had ceased and the remaining trackage was dieselized.

I chased the return trip over PL&W tracks, the new 1936 line, and the original interurban tracks back to North Lima.

On my way home I stopped by Midwest Steel in Youngstown.  This is an industrial concern that primarily scraps freight cars and has two switchers.

I saw on the property an ex-Conrail SW1 still in blue paint and a former Providence & Worcester SW1200. The SW1200 was switching today. This trackage is inherited from another Youngstown area short line, the Youngstown & Northern.

The northernmost part includes the diesel shop that is owned by LTEX. The middle part has been abandoned and the south end has morphed into a giant scrapping operation.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon

A scenic view near Rogers, Ohio.

The Route 558 overpass on the newest 1936 built Columbiana-Signal connection.

The original Y&S former interurban at Columbiana. The short siding was not for freights but for the interurban cars.

The former Y&N is now Midwest Steel at Youngstown.

 

Yes, They Do Run Trains on the Old Y&S

I had training in Pittsburgh last week and on my way home I a train on the Youngstown & Southern local on the south end of the line.

Trains run on this line during the week but rarely on weekends.  Usually weekends are the only time I can railfan so this results in photos of parked equipment.

This week was different and I was able to get a moving train at some scenic locations I have previously scouted.

The Youngstown Southeastern as it’s known currently is like a cat with nine lives.  Like on most railroads in the rust belt, traffic has declined and the railroad closed in the early 1990s.  It was then resurrected and shut down several more times.

Around 2000, garbage hauled to landfills caused a traffic boom.  Sadly, this did not last as the landfills eventually closed.

Then fracking,  a new way to drill for oil, created a new boom.  Loads of pipe are hauled by rail to a staging facility at Darlington Pa.

I caught the local on its return trip.  It is a scenic branchline with much of the line on cinder ballast and first generation diesel power it’s kind of like a time machine.

I felt a little like O. Winston Link must have when he discovered the N&W Abingdon branch in the late 1950s.  True, there is no longer steam but No. 18 tried its best to smoke like one.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon

 

Sale of Y&S Delayed Yet Again

The saga of the sale of the former Youngstown & Southern line continues. For years, the Columbiana County Port Authority has been trying to sell the 36-mile rail line that extends between Youngstown and Darlington, Pa.

A problem with the property title has delayed the sale. Mule Sidetracks LLC, a subsidiary of MarkWest Energy Partners, agreed in September to purchase the rail line.

MarkWest operates a natural gas storage and processing plant in the area. The Surface Transportation Board approved the sale on Oct. 24.

On Monday, however, the authority voted to hire the engineering firm of Dallis Dawson & Associates for $16,000 to perform survey work needed to transfer the title. That work may take as many as two months.

The latest glitch occurred when the county engineer’s office discovered that a 1.4-mile segment of the line was still in the name of a previous owner and not the port authority.

Among the various owners of the line over the past two decades have been Pittsburgh & Lake Erie subsidiary Youngstown & Southern, Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad, Central Columbiana & Pennsylvania Railway, and present operator Youngstown & Southeastern. The Youngstown & Southeastern, which is owned by Indiana Boxcar Corp., is expected to continue to operate the line after the sale is completed.

Another Part of the Erie is Dying

Looking north on the Youngstown Line at Latimer. The Erie crossed the New York Central between the signal and the control box.

In one of my usual quests to catch Norfolk Southern heritage units, I ventured to the area north of Youngstown on Nov. 16.

A stone train bound for Lordstown was making its way from the quarry to the “45” stone yard in Lordstown.

The routing of these trains has been to use the former Nickel Plate Road to Ashtabula, then the former New York Central Youngstown Line to the ex-Erie Lackawanna Niles Secondary to the Lordstown Secondary.

This routing came about several years ago when NS took over the Lordstown Secondary from just east of Alliance to just west of Lordstown is out of service.

The train I was looking for had the NKP Heritage unit as third of three units. I thought I might be able to catch it on the Youngstown Line as it took the connection to the former EL at Latimer. Prior routing of these trains as well as the Warren ore trains from Ashtabula, had seen them take a section of the ex-EL Youngstown bypass into Warren and exit the EL for ex-Pennsylvania Railroad rails to  Warren and onto the Lordstown Secondary.

This is one of the few sections of the EL in the eastern part of Ohio that still saw daily movements of heavy trains.

My goal was to catch this stone train taking the connection at Latimer, which was where the EL bypass crossed the NYC on a diamond.

Conrail lived up to its “consolidated” name and put a connection in the northwest quadrant from the ex-NYC to the ex-EL and ripped out the bypass from Latimer to Transfer (Pa).

Once the tracks of hotshots like first NY 100 and ACX 99, the EL right of way today is a barely recognizable path east of Latimer.

I walked around the interlocking taking several different views, including some that show what appear to be ex-NYC and Erie signals still in use.

I noticed that the connection and the former EL to the west had not been used in a very long time.

The steel mill in Warren slowly shut down its operations in 2012, resulting in no more ore trains from Ashtabula.

This leads me to believe that these stone trains didn’t run on the ex-EL after all. Even though I didn’t see the stone train, I later found out that was the case.

It passed right through Latimer on the Youngstown Line, ran around its train near Center Street in Youngstown, then headed out the Lordstown Secondary, using the Crab Creek connection near downtown. This is an all ex-NYC and PRR routing.

So like many other miles of ex-EL track in the state, this section now waits out its days quiet and rusting, waiting for trains that may never come. On my way to Latimer, I stopped in an area west of Leavittsburg – a former busy EL junction near Warren – to photograph some remains of the former EL mainline to Kent.

Whistle posts and crossing flashers still stand, but have not seen a train in probably 10 or more years.

A rusting but sturdy truss bridge over the Mahoning River reminded me that even though the Erie was built to last it couldn’t survive the economic and political climate that brought down so many railroads in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Article and Photographs by Roger Durfee

Looking west on the ex-EL toward Cortland. The connection is off to the right.

Wider view looking west standing on what was the EL main.

Looking east on the ex EL, connection to the left, Youngstown Line up ahead.

A lonely whistle post in Braceville, looking toward Kent.

Silent relics in Braceville stand and wait….and wait….and wait.

A rusty lock and peeling silver paint indicate years of no attention from the signal maintainers at Braceville.

Looking east toward Leavittsburg.

Closer view of the bridge over the Mahoning River. Ghosts of the Lake Cities and time freights must live here.