Ohio Valley Railroads

This week in Along the DL&C we’re featuring a post card that pictures the Orgonia Bridge Company. This picture is taken looking North from Mound Street in Lebanon. The site of the Bridge Company might be known to long-time Lebanon residents as the site of Dave Steel. Today, Siemens owns the property.

The Orgonia Bridge Company was developed from a blacksmith shop called Bradbury and Spencer owned by John Bradbury and Thomas R. Spencer. Charles A. Spencer joined the company in 1985, and in 1986 the named was changed to the Orgonia Bridge Company. In 1903 the company moved their headquarters and factory to Lebanon. Here’s a picture I found of their first location in Orgonia. The photo is from the Warren County historical society’s website.

Even today some of the bridges built by this company still stand. This is an example of a bridge built by the company is 1904. The photo is from historicbridges.org. Here’s one more Orgonia bridge from their website.

The railroad was critical to get the needed raw materials and to help ship out finished steel beams. In addition to being an important customer, the bridge company returned the favor when it was time to replace some of the CL&N’s aging wooden trestles. Many of the steel bridges along the CL&N were in fact constructed by the Orgonia Bridge Company.

Now for some details about the photo itself. The main brick building in the background was the main factory. Originally the spur track went straight into the building through a large door in the back. Sometime between 1907 and 1917 another track was added along the north side of the building. By 1923 this had replaced the spur that ran into the building, save for some abandon rails along the outside. If I were to guess I would place this photo sometime in the late 1910′s early 1920′s.

The switch in the foreground lead to a small coal yard located south of Mound street. This spur was still in existence and used for switch moves as late as 1975.

The move to Lebanon wouldn’t be the last expansion for the company. This photo is a picture of the company plant later on in the century. My best guess is 40′s or very early 50′s. By this point in time the spur had been connected at the other side of the plant and a number of expansions have been made. This is similar to the way the building looks even today.

The Orgonia Bridge Company was an important source of freight traffic for both the CL&N and the DL&C. It was one of the few industries north of Norwood and fewer still in Lebanon with their own private siding. The Bridge Company was purchased by Dave Steel of Asheville North Carolina in 1950 and was merged into the parent company in 1957. Until it’s closing in 1983, the plant was one of the few reasons for the Lebanon’s branch existence. During the first years of Conrail it helped pay the subsidies to keep the branch from complete abandonment. After sitting empty for a number of years, the property was purchased by Siemens and moderately renovated in the 1990′s.

This post card provides a historic snapshot, and an interesting look, at the development of such an important industry in Lebanon. Today the building no long has rail service, as the line has been abandoned North of downtown. There are, however, still some rails located on the DL&C tracks that twist behind the plant up the hillside.

Sources:

• Warren County Historical Society
• Dave Steel History

This will be a shorter post, just because I know so little about this scene. This reproduction postcard is a photo of the DL&C mainline somewhere north of Lebanon. The caption on the back reads, “Looking south from Sunnyside, Ohio.” Yet for the life of me I can’t seem to find a mention in my references of a ‘Sunnyside’ anywhere along the DL&C main.

There are a number of very long straight areas on the DL&C line. This could be a picture of any of them. Just from the lay of the land (it hasn’t changed much in all those years) I would hypothesize this shot to be somewhere between Lebanon and Lytle. Going off the tree line, I would guess the photo to be looking south from near Lower Springboro Road. However, it could also be taken in one of the numerous places that today have housing developments occupying the old fields.

This photo tells me a number of things. First, notice the ballast laying on the ties. The DL&C was known for the relatively poor condition of it’s track. The track also isn’t raised very high compared to the surrounding land. This presented a drainage problem. The bad track was part of the reason it earned the local nickname, “Damn Long Coming.” You can also, along the left of the photo, see the telegraph line. I’ve yet to find any of these telegraph poles still standing today, though a few are likely still out there.

Recently I managed to procure a number of reproduction postcards featuring scenes from the Dayton, Lebanon, and Cincinnati. There were a number of post cards for sale, I tried to pick the interesting ones and those featuring images I didn’t have in other sources. For fifty dollars I got six post cards and I’ll be featuring one a week for the next couple of weeks.

The postcards themselves are reproductions. On the back they have space for a stamp and all small description of the scene. This description can be anything from “Looking South from Sunnyside , Ohio” to “Along the DL&C”. They’re very basic. They also either list the date as “1912″ or “Before 1912″. The poststock itself is firm and resists bending. The front differs from modern postcards and isn’t very glossy.

The first image I have in this series isn’t exactly on the DL&C, but in Lebanon. The CL&N and DL&C negotiated a deal where the DL&C could lease the Lebanon terminal tracks, and by extension they were both allowed to service the Lebanon industries. This is a photograph of the Aungst Brothers. Mill located on Sycamore Street. Together with a nearby grain elevator (to be featured soon) this building helped make up what became the Lebanon Farmer’s Corporative. The building faced Sycamore Street and was located with one side on the tracks and one side bordering South Street. You can see how the farmers would pull their horse carts up to the dock on the side of the road. Today Lebanon’s Electrical Department and Central Receiving occupies the land seen in this photo.

Judging by the layout of the tracks, this photo was taken sometime after 1907, but before 1923. The map I have lists the Aungst Brothers Mill being there in 1917. The spur track closest to the mill building is the spur that begins in the middle of Broadway. It was extended across Sycamore Street in order to serve both the Mill and the Grain Elevator. The next closest track is the Lebanon yard’s double-ended spur that exists to this day. Finally in the far left of the photo you see the mainline. Notice this is a different shade, as the mainline would be ballasted more heavily than the spur tracks. The classic box car on the spur would have been used to transport everything from feed to grain.

That’s it for this post card. In the next edition of this series, we’ll be taking a look at at an interesting stretch of the line.