Changing Face of Voris Street in Akron

For decades, photographers who hung out at Voris Street in Akron, made photographs featuring the former Akron Brewing Company building in some of their images.

Trains of the Erie, Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio railroads passed here for decades.

Construction of the Akron Brewing facility began in 1903, but the building’s function as a brewery was short-lived with Prohibition putting it out of business.

The building took on a variety of functions over the years, including housing such companies as Beatrice Foods, Sumner Butter and Tasty Pure Food Company.

Planners working on a new interchange determined that the building was in the path of a planned new interchange with Interstates 76/77 and South Main and South Broadway streets.

Demolition of the building began in April and work on building the new interchange is well underway.

The Voris Street crossing of the CSX New Castle Subdivision is officially closed although the gates and flashing lights are still in operation.

The top photograph was made in July 2011 from the ramp leading from the interstate to South Broadway and shows a westbound CSX tanker train.

The bottom photograph was made from the same ramp on Nov. 6 and shows that the site where the Akron Brewing Building once stood is now being reworked to become a highway ramp.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

DC to AC Conversion Units Make Their First Foray Through NE Ohio; Virginian H Unit Visits, Too

On Thursday afternoon Norfolk Southern sent two interesting trains westbound. The first was 60H a unit train of gypsum that had the Virginian heritage unit leading.

The second had two brand new DC to AC conversion units leading 65K, an empty crude oil train. Both of these have a black mane but different color separation stripes one one blue and one maroon.

I got both of these trains at Rootstown.

Photographs by Todd Dillon

Colorful NS Motive Power Duo

It wasn’t an all heritage locomotives consist, but Norfolk Southern train 64T had an unusual motive power consist when it passed through Northeast Ohio during the morning hours of Monday, Sept. 12.

Leading the train was the Erie Railroad heritage locomotive while the tailing unit was the DC to AC conversion No. 4000.

The same duo had led the train or tank cars westbound through the region last Saturday, but that was during early morning hours and NS 4000 had been leading.

Reports on HeritageUnits.com indicated that on Monday the 64T was reported at Alliance at 11:06 a.m.

No reports were made for the time that train passed through Cleveland.

Rich Thompson was able to get to Hines Hill Road near Macedonia to capture the 64T as it made its way east on the NS Cleveland Line.

Photographs by Richard Thompson

Increasing Pipeline Capacity Could Mean Bakken Crude Oil Trains Will be Gone After 2017

Tank car trains carrying crude oil through Northeast Ohio may seem ubiquitous today, but they might be gone by 2017 if an analysis conducted by a Houston-based consulting firm comes true.

RBN Energy LLC made the prediction on its blog and it was picked up by Railway Age.

Increasing pipeline capacity combined with falling crude oil prices has depressed the level of Bakken crude oil being shipped by rail.

The falling prices have reduced the price differences between international and domestic sources of crude oil.

“Since 2012 a combination of rail and pipeline has given Bakken producers ample crude takeaway capacity but pipelines alone have not had sufficient capacity on their own,” said RBN’s Rusty Braziel in an interview with Railway Age. “However, with production slowing down, pipeline capacity is catching up and by 2017 there should be enough pipelines to carry all North Dakota’s crude to market.”

But Sandy Fielden, the author of the blog post, said the situation is more complicated than that.

“ . . . just because pipeline capacity is available doesn’t necessarily mean producers will prefer to use that capacity instead of rail,” Fielden wrote. “In the long run – assuming that they do not have other overriding obligations – shippers will look to their crude netbacks at the wellhead to decide where and how to send their crude to market. That means they should favor market locations where the combination of crude sales price less transport is the highest – regardless of transport mode.”

Fielden, who is RBN’s director of energy analytics, wrote that wide price differences between North Dakota Baaken crude oil and crude from overseas made rail the ideal option for producers sending it to the East or West Coast because there was no pipeline capacity in those regions.

“As soon as price differentials—especially between domestic benchmark West Texas Intermediate and international benchmark Brent—narrowed, then barrels shifted back to pipelines to take advantage of their cheaper tariff rates,” Fielden wrote. “Yet significant crude volumes continued to be transported to market from North Dakota by rail because pipeline capacity could not handle the demand.”

But more pipelines have been built or are being planned in North Dakota that would provide space for all the barrels currently traveling to market from North Dakota by rail.

Fielden’s analysis found that new pipeline projects due to go into service during 2016 and 2017 will expand Bakken takeaway pipeline capacity by 680,000 barrels per day.

Another 100,000 barrels per day of pipeline capacity would come online in 2019 if the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline is completed, with 220,000 barrels per day more in 2020 if the TransCanada Energy East project is built.

Miss Liberty Dodging Snowflakes in Vermilion

The snow is flying as the NS 65V with the Central of New Jersey heritage unit in the lead passes through Vermilion. The former New York Central station is the right.

The wind-angle perspective of NS 1071. The Vermilion railfan platform is the far right.

My friend Adam and I were doing to get in some railfanning before attending a banquet Saturday night in Berea.

As we drove out that way we saw an online report that the Central of New Jersey heritage locomotive was leading a westbound 65V and getting a new crew at CP Ram in Cleveland.

Our plan was to intercept this train in Olmsted Falls. It was snowing steadily and traffic on I-480 was slow. As we were passing by Cleveland Hopkins Airport Adam saw an online report that the NS 1071 had just passed trough Berea.

We would never make it to Olmsted Falls in time. Plan B was to drive to Vermilion. We easily got ahead of hit despite the snowy conditions.

Much to my delight the snow continued to fall as we waited beneath the overhang of a shop on the north side of the NS Chicago Line.

After waiting longer than expected, the headlight of the NS 1071 came into view to the east. That gal looked good in the snow.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

Tank Cars Everywhere

It was bound to happen. With the proliferation of trains carrying crude oil it is no surprise that while railfanning in Berea you might be able to see tank car trains passing simultaneously on Norfolk Southern and CSX.

However, in the interest of accuracy, the train on CSX being lead by a Canadian Pacific locomotive is carrying ethanol. The tanker train on NS, though, is carrying crude oil.

Photograph by Craig Sanders