Last week I did a little exploring of the tracks downtown. There’s not nearly as much in the yard as there used to be, but a well-observant eye can be surprised by what it can find.
For starters, here is a track plan of the yard circa 1923. This can be used as one reference point when you compare things to how they are today:
And now here is the same area as it appears recently from above:
I spent a few minutes walking around with my camera on the sidewalks and a short one way street that has replaced some of the tracks. Here I am standing on the West Side of Broadway looking towards the station. Originally there were two tracks crossing the street going into the station (one to the right), and the track on the left had a switch that was partially in the street. #55 is currently sitting in the midday sun.
Here is looking the other direction. To the right there was once a siding that started in the street. You can see the space is still there for the siding and has been replaced by some smaller trees. I imagine the one siding still used to possibly be the Lebanon ‘accommodation track’. This was where cars were stored when the team track was full, but I’m unsure where it was.
Next is a view of the yard looking across the one-way street. The road is partially on the abandoned second track as well as the area where sidings used to run parallel to the industries. An oil distributor and lumber yard where on the south side of the tracks. None of these survive in any way I can tell.
I did manage to find a small bit of exposed rail on the south side of the street. This was once part of a spur east of Sycamore Street and into the WM Evans Lumber Yard. I know little about this yard other than it vacated the buildings sometime between 1917 and 1923. There was also at one time a small ‘Cement Block Factory’ on this block but I know even less about it.
The South track used to be configured as a through track similar to the north track. Sometime between 1901 and 1917 it was reconfigured as two separate spurs for Standard Oil and the Lumbar Yard.
To the North there was the ‘Aungst Brothers and Spreng Flour Mill and Elevator’. This eventually became the Lebanon Farmer’s cooperative. The only picture I have of this is from Narrow Gauge in Ohio taken by John W. Hauck in 1975. I heard somewhere that parts of it might have burnt down.
Moving west, we can see where at one time a spur left the north-most track into Lebanon Gas and Electric. I’m unsure if any of the present-day structure remains from this time. It is now (still?) owned and used by the City of Lebanon.
All along this part of the yard and into the woods there were discarded ties, spikes, tie plates, and rails. I looked on some of the rails trying to find a date on when they were made with no luck. All the used tracks had their rails replaced a few years ago, but I don’t know exactly where this came from.
Here is a part of the second track. It’s easy to see just how long its been since the second track has been active and used. [Update: Spur was abandoned during the filming of Milk Money (Early 94 or late 93). See comments for details.]
The ties for the switch are still in the ground. You can clearly see where the second track began, just over the bridge. While on the map it looks almost like a 3-way switch was used, the ties tell a different tale.
Finally, we come to the far west end of the yard and what I would consider to be the boundary of the Lebanon yard. A short bridge crosses the North Fork of the Turtle Creek. In the photo the second deck-girder bridge over the Turtle Creek is also visible a little further along the mainline.
Exploring the Lebanon Yard was quite an adventure. I was amazed at some of the detail and artifacts I discovered. If ever doing something similar, make sure you never take anything from the ground, and never walk on the tracks.
All in all I consider my exploratory trip a success. However, I’m still searching for the location of the Lebanon turntable. According to my references it is to the west of the yard, possibly between the North Fork and the crossing of the Turtle Creek. The Lebanon yard for over a hundred years has served the city and the railroads that ran through it.
