Photo of the Week: NS 5349

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: Photo of the Week Railroads: ,

NS 5349

Conrail Blue still lives on today in Ohio! For this week’s photo we are returning to the largest contributor to our Flickr pool, Todd Dillion aka Fan T. He took this shot a few months ago of Norfolk Southern’s ex-Conrail GP-38-2 near Youngstown, OH. On the right side of the frame you can also see one of my favorite types of locomotive, the hi-hood Geep (GP-50 #7007 to be precise, according to Fan-T).

If you have a photo of your own to show off, put it up on your Flickr account and add it to the Ohio Valley Railroads Flickr Pool. Include some details like the date, location, and subject matter. You might see it featured on the main site.

DL&C Trackcharts

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: History Railroads: ,

I know a lot of readers are sick of these track chart posts, but I promised to post the ex-

charts from the Conrail era. This will be the last post of its type for a while. I’ll try to do something different for my next couple posts.

At any rate, the first chart I’ll be posting tonight was referred to by Conrail as the “Clement Running Track”. This was the original narrow gauge alignment as built by the TD&B. It runs east from the wye at Hempstead and connects to the mainline to Xenia.

This chart shows the DL&C’s mainline built into Dayton proper. The major customer on this light was the National Cash Register Co, or NCR for short. NCR and the DL&C worked together to provide relief supplies during the great Dayton flood in 1913. By this point the track through the plant was out of service, and today neither the track nor much of the NCR plant remains.

This chart completes the remnants of the DL&C. The line south of Hempstead was operated as another light density line, but was the cost proved to great over the long term and the line did not survive.

These charts provide a wealth of information for anyone doing serious research on the former system. For the casual reader, however, they might appear a bit on the boring side. If you made it this far in the article your reading is appreciated. For something a little more interesting, try this article on Operation Lifesaver in Northern Ohio.

CL&N Trackcharts

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: History Railroads: ,

Once again attempting to prove the old saying “better late than never” I’m back with Part 2 of my series on track charts. Today we’ll be looking at some excerpts from a Conrail track chart circa 1985.

The first scan is a little rough but you can see what is basically the right half of the chart featured last week. Not much has changed on the Lebanon Branch besides its owners in the last 21 years. Note the heading at the top that reads “ Estate Sub”. After the Penn Central bankruptcy this line was deemed impossible to operate at a profit. Instead the government created the concept of the “Light-Density Line” and it was up to the shippers on the line to pay the cost difference. Also notice that no major maintenance occurred on the line since 1955. It’s been no surprised the branch has struggled to remain open. About the only thing that has changed is a drop in track speed to a maximum of 10 mph.

The rest of the Mason Secondary Track is located in the scan above. By this point the 3 mile segment between Brecon and South Mason was out of service but the chart is ambiguous as to whether the rail was still in place. I’m guessing it was, at least in places. On this chart you can also get a little better idea on what spurs have been built since the 1980′s (a lot of development around Stokes for starters) and what spurs have been abandoned in the intervening years (downtown Mason). Compare this to my interactive map of the ex- to see what the line looks like today.

Now we turn to the Blue Ash Secondary track, located above. The far left starts in McCullough Yard and runs North through Blue Ash, ending in Brencon. The Blue Ash Industrial Park made this line a profitable acquisition for Conrail. Once again this is all 10 mph restricted track.

The last segment of the CL&N that made it into Conrail was the other half of the Blue Ash Secondary, running from McCullough through Idlewild to Avondale. This segment didn’t make it to the I&O acquisition and now much of the original ROW has been destroyed by new development in Norwood.

Later this week I’ll be taking a quick look at the ex- segments that made it into Conrail and their respective charts. If anyone has any other particular lines in the Ohio area they would like to see, drop a line in the comments below.

A Brief History of Buckeye Yard

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: History Railroads: , ,
Photo: Entrance to Buckeye Yard (Source)

With the announcement earlier this week about the mothballing of Buckeye Yard I thought it would be appropriate to take a closer look back on the yard that the Penn Central built.

Planning and Construction

Buckeye Yard was originally planned by the Pennsylvania Railroad in the middle of the century. By this point Columbus was a PRR town, with 4 lines running through the city.2 Each of these lines were formerly independent companies with their own terminals and facilities. The PRR was forced to use a number of yards all across town. The largest yards were located on the east side of Columbus and were known as Yard A and Yard B.

Buckeye Yard, known in planning as simply Columbus Yard3, was designed as a modern classification yard that would eliminate the expense of operating these yards separately as well as simplifying operations around Columbus. In 1968 the PRR merged with its arch-rival and competitor the New York Central System. The new company, known as the Penn Central Transportation Company, was designed to increase profitability by reducing duplicate routes and their associated costs. With planning of Buckeye Yard already completed, the new company decided to continue with its construction as well as folding the NYC‘s former yards into it as well.

Construction of Buckeye Yard began in 1968 under Penn Central. It was completed in December the following year. Columbus Railroads has a great photo (with labels) of the yard in 1970. About a year after its opening the Penn Central formally renamed Columbus Yard wit the name is has been known by since.3

Operation

Photo: A look down at the classification tracks (Source)

Buckeye Yard was built on the west side of suburban Columbus between two major PRR lines. It was oriented perpendicular so that traffic could flow most efficiently through the yard and out the mainlines. The ex-C&I Bradford line that ran west to Indianapolis was located on the north end of the yard while the ex-Little Miami line ran by on the south end of the yard.1

The classification yard itself involved 1 track going over a hump and 40 classification tracks in the “bowl”. There was also an (undersized) yard for locals, a car repair shop, and a locomotive shop. During the Conrail era the locomotive shop was converted to a signal training facility for crewmen.

Mergers and Changes

Throughout the Penn Central years Buckeye Yard was a model of what the railroad could do when it had money to invest in capital improvements. However, the efficiency of one yard could not save a decrepit system, and Buckeye Yard was absorbed by Conrail on April 1st, 1976.

Under Conrail Buckeye Yard served as the busy hub of Conrail’s Columbus operations. Traffic flowing east-west and north-south was able to use the yard for classification. However, the abandonment of both the Little Miami through Cincinnati and the Bradford Line through Indianapolis left the yard isolated. Only short stretches of the former mainlines were left in order to allow access to the yard.

After Norfolk’s Southern purchased Buckeye as part of the Conrail split in 1999 the future became more murky. It was clear that the yard played a less crucial part of Norfolk Southern’s route map, with large yards in nearby Bellevue and Cincinnati. Trains in Columbus had to travel out of their way to get to Buckeye, and over time more and more trains were cut from the yard.

Still, it came as a shock when Norfolk Southern announced the temporary shutdown of Buckeye Yard in May 2009. While an end to the recession and an increase in traffic could bring the yard back online, it is not guaranteed. For now the once busy classification yard will be used for locomotive and car storage. CSX’s nearby Intermodal Yard (also acquired as part of the Conrail split) has not been affected, so abandonment of more trackage seems unlikely in the near future.

Photo: A quiet Buckeye Yard in May 2009 (Source)

Today, subdivisions have sprouted on the farmland that the Pennsylvania once surveyed for their “Columbus Yard” and the tracks sit empty as a ghost town. Could this be the end of Buckeye Yard’s story, or will there be more to tell? It’s hard to say. From troubled beginnings Buckeye has served a prosperous life, but the legacy of the Penn Central hasn’t completely disappeared yet.

References:

  1. Alex Campbell. “Photo of the Month January 2009“, Columbus Railroads, January 2009, Accessed 8 May 2009.
  2. “PRR Terms“
  3. Jerry Taylor. A Sampling of the Penn Central. Indiana University Press, 2000.

In other news, I found an interesting story about the last Pullman Porter reunion that will be happening in Philadelphia.

Also, this Sunday is Mothers Day. I’d like to thank all the mom’s out there and let everyone know that the Toledo, Lake Erie, & Western Railway Museum is letting mom’s ride for free Sunday with a child’s ticket.