Driving Trip - August 5, 2023
Note: click on the thumbnails for a larger image
This write up is the next installment of the
series of
trips with my former coworker John. As usual a SPV atlas and back roads
map will be helpful.
John and I don't often take driving trips during
the summer. Most of the time we are traversing the Ohio countryside
while the leaves are down so we can better see the railroad right of
ways, both active and abandoned. In fact our last trip during the
summer months was over eight years ago on August 2, 2015 which you can
read here.
However
the schedules aligned and we were both itching for a trip versus a day
roasting at one of the popular train hangouts (Berea, Fostoria, Marion,
etc.) so into the Honda we went.
With the leaves on the trees our focus was going
to be on active routes. In addition with it being only six weeks after
the Summer Solstice we would have 2-3 more hours than normal of good
sunlight so we put us on a route that would take us almost to the far
northeast edge of the Ohio border.
We headed out as we have on many trips following
the CSX Columbus Line Subdivision northeast (railroad direction east).
The line from Columbus to Galion recently had the remainder of its NYC
style signals replaced with "hooded" signals and the pole line removed.
This line only sees a couple trains a day at most along with a
local based out of Crestline which services the large Anheuser-Busch
plant on the north end of
Columbus, a customer in Delaware as needed, and a couple customers in
Mt. Gilead and neighboring Edison. Hope springs eternal for the local
passenger rail fans that this will some day be the line for a 3C
(Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati) route.
Our first stop was in Mt. Gilead where the line
was once crossed by the Toledo & Ohio Central Eastern Branch. A
short piece about a mile long, called the Edison Industrial Track,
branches to the southeast to serve a small grain elevator. We were last
here on 11/22/2015 (click
here to see)
and things really haven't changed. A car was spotted at the elevator so
it was good to see this is still active. There also were several tank
cars spotted at the customer along the main south of the Rt. 95 road
crossing.
Something John and I did not see but I noticed
while researching our trip is that there used to be a spur off the NYC
line that paralleled the T&OC line, then crossed it and went into
Mt. Gilead. The historic topo maps show this being pulled up sometime
between 1974 and 1980 however this was a surprise to see this. This was
part of a shortline railroad abandoned in the late 1920s according to this site.
Next we stopped briefly in Galion where the
Columbus Line meets with the Mt. Victory Sub. which comes in from the
west. An Erie mainline also used to cross here but the part east of the
Columbus Line Sub. was abandoned in the early 1980s. We drove around
the south end of town near where the two lines split noting how it
appears there used to be quite a bit of rail activity here. On the
north end of town the nicely preserved Big Four depot continues to
stand ready to take passengers again.
The CCC&StL depot in Galion still looks good and is being
maintained.
Galion, OH passenger platform still has a canopy but the fence needs to
be removed. This fence was not here a few years ago.
A few miles up the road is Crestline where the Mt.
Victory Sub. crosses the NS (ex-PRR) Ft. Wayne Line. John and I were
last here on 11/14/2020 (click
here for this trip)
not long after NS had reportedly taken sections
of the line out of service. At the time everything appeared to be
intact however a couple years later we can see that NS has reconfigured
the trackage. The connector in the southeast quadrant between CSX and
NS has been severed and the main reportedly taken out of service now
has a chunk of rail removed. A few signals have also been removed
however PRR signals still govern the interlocking. The once mighty PRR
route from New York to Chicago
continues to get picked apart, however at least it is still completely
intact except for a small piece just outside of Chicago. Based on the
satellite photos, this work took place shortly after we were last here.
Here are some
side by side photos of the area for comparison.
11/14/2020 - Looking east on the PRR at EAST CREST. The main track is
on the left, and a
connection to the CSX Mt. Victory Sub. is on the right.
8/5/2023
- Looking east on the PRR at EAST CREST. The main track is on the left
remains however the connector and signal are gone. The signal footing
can still be seen on the far right.
11/14/2020
- Looking west on the PRR at EAST CREST. The track on the right is the
main NS took out of service but it still looked in use.
8/5/2023 - Looking west on the PRR at EAST CREST. The track on the
right is out of service and signal removed however is still connected
to the main.
11/14/2020
- Looking east on the PRR at EAST CREST. The track on the left is the
main NS took out of service but it still looked in use.
8/5/2023 - Looking east on the PRR at EAST CREST. Here we can see where
sections of the main have been removed.
Continuing north we saw an autorack train tied
down on the main.
Next stop was a brief drive-thru of Shelby where
the Mt. Victory Sub. crosses the Ashland Railway on the north end of
town. There's a small grain elevator on the south end of town which
John always comments he remembers seeing a car spotted there on a
previous trip (we have driven by here several times). I like to think I
have a good memory about things but
John always seems to come up with these tidbits of information I've
long forgotten. The spur into the elevator is still in place but is
also paved over in spots and is also no longer connected to the main.
Based on the Historic Aerials photos it looks like the spur was still
active in 2013. To save time we did not check out the OWLS diamond
between the two railroads (check
out our 11/22/2015 trip to see photos of the diamond) however we
did drive through the former
military compound now being used as a industrial park. A number of cars
were spotted in the complex however many looked to be in storage.
Regardless it looks like this is a revenue source for the Ashland
Railway.
The next town along the line is Shiloh. After a
brief drive through of the town we were about to continue north when
the scanner came to life so we quickly got back to the track to see
this westbound train.
This westbound stack train snuck up on us and rolled through town close
to the 60 mph speed limit.
Next up is Greenwhich where the Mt. Victory Sub.
crosses the CSX (ex-B&O) New Castle Subdivision. A Wheeling &
Lake Erie route used to also thread its way through but now the
Wheeling uses trackage rights on CSX to bridge the gap between where it
exits/enters home rails. The old Wheeling RoW is now a recreational
trail called the AC&Y Trail. This busy junction became busier after
the Conrail split when CSX got the NYC Water Level Route trackage east
of Cleveland. Traffic was now funneled south to Greenwich and then on
the ex-B&O west to Chicago.The scanner traffic indicated something
was coming and sure enough a westbound appeared on the New Castle
Subdivision. My photo also shows three doves trying to race the train!
A westbound mixed freight rolls west on the New Castle Subdivision in
Greenwich, OH.
We were going to start heading north when again
the scanner came to life advising another CSX westbound was coming. We
caught this train a little east of Greenwich.
A
westbound autorack train was next on the e New Castle Subdivision just
east of Greenwich, OH. The uphill grade here is evident in this photo.
Eventually we wanted to head north but again
scanner traffic was advising yet another westbound was on the heels of
the train we just saw. We saw this train around what is showing as
Hereford on the SPV atlas.
Yet another westbound train on the New Castle Sub.! This mixed freight
is climbing uphill towards Greenwich.
We kept driving north to the town of New
London which still has a couple freight buildings or other former
railroad structures along the RofW. The RofW here is very wide
and the old topo maps show multiple tracks used to be in place. One
thing John
noticed but I overlooked was how the Wheeling RofW, which has been
paralleling the CSX line since Greenwich, loops west through the west
side
of town then turns back east and crosses at what is showing on the SPV
at CP Hiles. The topo map also shows a spur off the loop track leading
to what probably was a quarry. The connection in place today also
existed but this looks to have been an interchange rather than a
connection between the
two railroads. I should have taken some photos here but didn't.
Continuing northeast we cris-crossed the line in Rochester on our way
to Wellington. Just west of Wellington we crossed another Wheeling line
(one of the original Wheeling & Lake Erie lines) and saw this train
tied down with a freshly painted unit on the head end leading an
all-EMD consist.
Looking like it was fresh out of the paint shop, W&LE 7009 is stopped just west of Wellington.
Wellington is a town we have been to a couple times. West of the center
of town a tourist railroad called the Lorain and West Virginia operates
a few miles of ex-Lorain Amherst West Virginia trackage north from
where
it connects to the Wheeling line. A long abandoned Lorain, Ashland and
Southern line also ran basically north-south through town and crossing
where the CSX and Wheeling lines cross today and parallelled the Lorain
and West Virgina line north of town. The Wheeling and CSX lines cross
on
the southeast side of town and are connected via a very circuitous
connection in the southwest quadrant of the diamond. The track is so
circuitous that most of the Lorain County Fairgrounds is inside the
connection track!
Looking
west on the W&LE line at Wellington. NYC-style signals still govern
the diamond with CSX.
With nothing doing on either line we continued to
follow the Mt. Victory Sub northeast. Other than the small town of
LaGrange (much smaller and less notable than its counterpart in
Illinois), there isn't much until the town of Grafton which we visited
on a previous trip. Here the Mt. Victory Sub. crosses a CSX
(ex-B&O) CL&W Subdivision extending from Lorain to Lester. The SPV also shows
an abandoned line the Grafton and Brunswick Railroad extending from
Millers to Brunswick. This is
long gone but does exist on the older topo maps. Here's
a blurb about
this company. The
local park service has also incorporated some information about this
line in their brochure.
The existing diamond is in the center of town and
is next to State Rt. 57 (the diamond is almost in the road itself). An
interlocking tower being preserved still exists in the northwest
quadrant of the diamond, though it has been moved from its original
location.
Interlocking
tower in Grafton has been moved a little northwest of its original
location but appears to be well maintained. The signal box that
replaced it can be seen in the background on the right. This is CP25.
We picked up the B&O line a little south of
town where we
got a few photos.The purpose of this line is a little bit of a mystery
to us so more investigation is needed. What's also interesting is there
used to be a connector of some sorts between the existing lines east of
the diamond. Today a Chessie caboose sits on what was the RofW for this
connector. Part of the connector still exists off the Mt. Victory Sub
east of the diamond.
View
of the CL&W Subdivision looking north toward Grafton which still has the pole line in
place at this location. Rail here is welded 131 lb. 1946 vintage rail.
Judging by the flat profile of the head of the rail the rail grinders
haven't been through here in a while.
This caboose sits on the east side of Grafton and is on the RoW of the
connector between the B&O and Big 4 trackage. Appropriate placement
of this caboose: ex-B&O caboose on ex-B&O trackage!
John noted he thought he had seen photos of a
B&O distant approach signal on the north side of town so after
rerouting ourselves we headed northwest and found the signal.
Just west of Grafton, the distant approach signal reveals the line's
heritage as ex-B&O.
We went back to the Mt. Victory Sub. and continued to cris-cross the line to see if
there was anything of interest along the RofW, and to see if anything
was coming. For a supposedly busy line it was awfully quiet!
Finally we reach Berea which we briefly stopped at
on our previous trip. Berea is one of the most popular trainwatching
locations in the state and for good reason. CSX usually runs 15-20
trains a day through here, and NS, which sweeps in from the northeast
and curves to the west, runs probably double that amount of trains on
what is the Water Level Route toward Toledo and Chicago. There's a
parking lot on the south side of the tracks so the light is usually in
your favor for photos. We parked and within a minute or two we saw this
westbound NS train.
Westbound NS train greets us at Berea.
A few minutes later this eastbound CSX train arrived. Finally some CSX
action on this line! The Canadian flag looks good next to the CP unit.
Eastbound
CSX train passes the Canadian flag and a handful of railfans in Berea,
OH. The closed block tower is in the background.
While John and I were contemplating our next move
(and lunch) another train came through. Three trains in 20 minutes!
Westbound NS train passes BE Tower in Berea, OH
At this point we decided we would check out some new territory for us
and head east of Cleveland and follow the parallel CSX and NS lines
(CSX Lake Erie Line and NS Lake Erie Division) which also
parallel the south shore of Lake Erie on their way toward
Buffalo. CSX picked up this portion of the ex-NYC Water Level Route in
the Conrail split agreement. The CSX line is also used by two pairs of
Amtrak
trains (the Capitol Limited and the Lake Shore Limited), all of which
are more or less nocturnal though if the eastbound Lake Shore Limited
is running late you may see it in the morning (departs Cleveland around
6:45 a.m.). The NS line is ex-NKP trackage and looks like a racetrack.
This fact would be evident later on.
Our first stop was Willoughby where the two lines briefly split
from each other by about a city block. CSX is three tracks here (two
mains and a siding) but the RofW is clearly four tracks wide. NS is
single track though it is evident it used to double track up to the
bridge over the Chagrin river. It looked like NS had just done some
track work laying new 136 lb. rail and also possibly removal of the
second
main. The satellite maps show a second track in place just a few years
ago.
Looking
west on NS Lake Erie District at Willoughby. This is all new rail and
looks to have been recently installed. The removal of the other main
track is evident on the right.
The rail here was so new it had that "new rail smell." Well not really,
but it's clear this hasn't been here very long.
We also found this depot which Dan West's awesome depot page states is
from the Cleveland, Painesville, and Ashtabula railroad and was built
in 1852. A business currently occupies the depot which was moved from
its original location.
Cleveland,
Painesville, and Ashtabula railroad depot still stands in Willoughby
though it has been moved. It is now in use by a local business.
A little further east is Mentor which still has a freight and passenger
station in place. Both are now occupied by local businesses.
Looking east on CSX Erie West Subdivision at Mentor, OH. The RofW
clearly supported more than two tracks at some point.
The scanner finally started to come alive again and it was indicating
an eastbound was coming on CSX. We found a road crossing a little
east of the Mentor station and watched this train roll by at a decent
clip.
An eastbound mixed freight speeds along just east of Mentor. It looks
like a typical August day in Ohio.
The two lines pull away from each other again and in Painesville are
about a mile apart. This area has some interesting trackage due to how
the Grand River threads its way through the area to Lake Erie.
Overview of trackage in Painesville area.
Source: openrailwaymap.org
In Painesville, CSX has a small yard to serve a couple large customers.
On the north end of the yard a line branches off
of it northward
toward the lake. This is the Grand River Railway which is a shortline
that runs on two miles of ex-B&O trackage from Painesville to the
end of track in Fairport Harbor. We
found their power and shoving platform tied up.
This locomotive screams ex-ICG rebuilt unit! Unit was laid up on half
way between Painesville and Fairport Harbor.
GRRY
21 is used for the backup move to the north end of the railroad. John
accurately identified this as an ex-CR caboose (21202).
http://railroadfan.com/wiki/index.php/Grand_River_Railway
NS was oddly silent of any scanner chatter so I wasn't sure I had the
correct frequency for the line (I thought I had figured this out while
we were in Berea). However the scanner was chattering again on CSX and
we saw this eastbound train do its best to move at the maximum
authorized speed by the Painesville station.
Eastbound
CSX train at track speed in Painesville. We were both happy to see
actual trailers on the head end, something becoming increasingly rare.
This
ex-B&O caboose is far from home rails. Though the B&O did go
through Painesville the line is a mile or so west of this location. The
caboose sits next to the LS&MS depot which is occupied by a local
rail group.
Looking
west on CSX as Painesville. The large depot is in use by a local rail
group who have assembled a collection of rail items. The wide RofW of
the line clearly supported at least one more track here.
After seeing this train, we followed a branchline that breaks off
from the
NS main at a spot called Perry on the SPV map. A connector between CSX
and NS also exists at this spot. John was
somewhat familiar with the trackage and I had seen the end of the
trackage but was not familiar with how it connected with the main. The
line ducks under CSX, and extends to a power plant and a couple
other customers on a fairly steep decline on the east side of the Grand
River in Fairport Harbor. At one point this track used to be connected
with the track on the west side of the river via a bridge. The
satellite maps show the bridge being removed sometime in the 1980s or
early 1990s. In spite of us spending about a half hour just
driving around looking at the trackage, we took zero photos of the
area. Something for the next trip...
At this point I was really getting annoyed by the lack of scanner
traffic on NS. Somewhere between Fairport Harbor and Ashtabula as we
drove on U.S. 20 we saw from a distance an NS train racing east at a
high rate of speed. No chance for us to catch up to it even in this
fairly rural area! My suspicions were correct that the frequency we
needed was not programmed in the radio.
From Perry to Unionville the two lines are basically next to each other
with a former interurban line south of the NS main. At Unionville the
interurban moves between the two lines. The interurban RofW is more or
less still visible next to the existing lines. This part of the state
is very pretty with lots of wineries, plant/tree farms, and summer
vacation homes. During the winter this is the heart of the snow belt
where they get buried with lake effect snow.
Our next stop was Ashtabula (pronounced ASH-ta-bu-lah, not
ash-TAB-u-lah) where the two lines we have been following are again a
little over a mile apart and are crossed by a north-south NS
(ex-LS&MS) line. The SPV map also shows an abandoned PC (ex-PRR)
line coming in from the southwest which has been turned into a bike
trail. Some history about this line can be found here. Both CSX and NS have decent sized yards here and a
small roundhouse still exists that we missed! While checking out the
CSX diamond which has transfer tracks in all but the northeast
quadrant, this eastbound snuck up on us.
Eastbound CSX train pounds the diamond with NS at Ashtabula. CSX has a
yard on the other side of the bridge in the background.
While in Ashtabula we found these relics:
This
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy intermodal trailer is a long way from
home rails and has seen better days. This was near the Ashtabula docks.
This
Conrail caboose appears to be used as a shoving platform by NS crews
when working the Ashtabula docks.
I had ideas of going to the Ohio-Pennsylvania border however that
would
have added another hour to go there and back (there's a lot of
territory between Cleveland and the OH-PA border!) and I wanted to
check out
another shortline operation so this would be the farthest east we would
go on our trip. We then started following the NS Youngstown line south
which crosses the other NS line we have been following less than a mile
south of the CSX line. This is new territory for both of us and
surprisingly John did not have his usual arsenal of knowledge about
this line. The SPV shows this as jointly operated by CSX and NS, and ex
LS&MS trackage south of Carson. Additional information about this line can be found here.
I took this photo at the diamond location looking east because
I thought it was neat that part of the pole line was still in place.
It's also clear this used to be double track.
Looking
east on NS Lake District at the diamond with the NS Youngstown Line.
Part of the pole line is still in place on this ex-NKP line.
A few miles south at Carson the line splits with the CSX main
continuing southeast and another line heading south. This is the
Ashtabula, Carson, and Jefferson Railway which runs between these
towns (less than 10 miles). There's a small yard in Carson which
appears to be used for
staging cars and for some transload activity. The main track is pretty
lousy
shape however it does appear they have done some tie replacements here
and there.
A mile north of Jefferson looking south. The AC&J is not breaking
any speed records on this track!
Jefferson is the end of the active track and where the railroad appears
to store their power. There's a section partially overgrown which has
some rolling stock including a nice Erie passenger car. Not sure how
often things get moved on this part of the track. There also is a
business
and spur at the end of the active track but nothing has been over it
for a while. Here are some photos of the area including the nice depot
and yard office.
We'll
start with the end of the track! This the last possible customer on the
line. Judging by the vegetation nothing has been over this for a while.
This
Erie heavyweight coach was tied to some plastics hoppers near the end
of the track. Jefferson, OH is almost as close to the city of Erie, PA
(50 miles) as it is to former Erie rails (35 miles).
This Alco switcher and dilapidated rolling stock were north of the Erie
coach.
Here's a closer look at the Alco switcher which doesn't look to be in
service.
The AC&J has cabooses (cabeese?). This is an ex-NKP caboose
according to the Railfan Wiki site.
This
AC&J caboose looks to be of N&W heritage based on the number.
The AC&J has a small office in Jefferson.
On
the north end of town several plastics hoppers were spotted along with
another unit. Surprisingly the large grain elevator in the background
does not have a spur. Note the boxcar on the right being used as a
storage building.
The
LS&MS depot still stands in town and is part of a historical
village. On the other side of the depot is an ex-PRR caboose.
At this point it was close to 5:30 p.m. and we
were at minimum three hours from home (again, there's a lot of
territory east of Cleveland) so we back tracked on U.S. 20 to keep
relatively close to the rail lines in case the scanner came alive again
which it did not. We decided to follow one more line and picked up a
CSX (ex-B&O) Cleveland Subdivision in Middleburg Heights. The line runs from
Cleveland to Lester where it joins the previously mentioned CL&W Subdivision and continues to
Sterling. Think of it as a giant Y and we were on the right leg of the
Y (the ex-B&O line we saw in Grafton is the left leg). We
zig-zagged this line which
has a couple customers in an industrial part a few miles north of
Lester. The SPV also shows the Grafton & Brunswick railroad
crossing somewhere around here but there is nothing left of it.
In Lester the two legs of the Y meet with the
connector that runs east-west between the two. A substantial depot
(considering there's no real town of "Lester" and few houses nearby)
still exists where the two legs meet. Some power was also tied up here.
The CSX railfan wiki shows L323 based here. The mainline rail by the
station is welded 131 lb. 1945 vintage rail.
The depot in Lester is still used by CSX crews. This is the view
looking south toward Sterling.
CSXT 2727 was tied up on the southwest leg of the large wye in Lester.
As we drove south from here we noticed a sign for
the "Lester Rail Trail" which is paved on the former RofW of a B&O
line from Lester to Medina. The SPV shows this abandoned by B&O so
it has been gone for a while.
At this point light was just about done so we
drove back home and discussed what locations we needed to check out on
our next trip. Total mileage was 505.5 miles so we made it roughly to
Chattanooga, TN without leaving the state of Ohio.
Questions, comments welcome!
= = =
Some information for this
write up was obtained from the following sources:
Abandoned Rails: https://www.abandonedrails.com/mount-gilead-short-line-railway
Abandoned Rails: https://www.abandonedrails.com/youngstown-to-ashtabula
Abandoned Rails: https://www.abandonedrails.com/franklin-division
Google Maps: http://maps.google.com
Historic Aerials: https://www.historicaerials.com
Lorain County Metro Parks: https://www.loraincountymetroparks.com/indian-hollow-reservation-info
Ohio Stations Past and Present: http://www.west2k.com/ohstations/stations.htm
Railsandtrails.com: https://railsandtrails.com/QuarryRRs/index.htm
USGS Historical TopoView: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/
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