Chillicothe Union Station

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: History Railroads: ,

I don’t visit the various regions of Ohio nearly enough, but recently I had a chance to visit Chillicothe. While in our first capital, I didn’t have the time to properly explore, but I did check out the old station on Main Street. Even better, I happened to catch a Norfolk Southern freight come by on the Columbus District (seen above). It was one of those moment where I just jumped out of the car, put it on automatic, and prayed.

The first railroad to reach Chillicothe was the Marietta and Cincinnati in 1852. Because it primarily ran East-West, the railroad complemented rather than competed with the Ohio and Erie Canal. The town became a major transload point, and the canal remained active until 1907. The Marietta and Cincinnati later became part of the System in 1868.

The Scioto Valley Railroad came to town in 1875 and was the railroad responsible for constructing the station. The  acquired the Scioto Valley in 1907 and double-tracked their line. At one time the junction contained 8 diamonds, but only 4 mainlines crossed. The station itself is a nice two story brick station. At one time Amtrrak’s Shenandoah passenger trained stopped here (later moved to an Amshak), and you can still see the concrete platforms. Passenger service ended when the Shenandoah was cut in 1981. CSX abandoned much of the former B&O St. Louis main shortly thereafter. Photos can be found here.

The Virginia Tech N&W Photo Collection has a nice shot of the N&W passenger platform at Chillicothe. The station is on the right (looking south). Note that in all these old photos the line is double tracked through the city. Now it is one of two single-track sections on the district. I also found a shot of the B&O Yard Complex. The N&W main runs across the bottom right of the photo. It’s amazing how much the area has changed since the photo was taken. Check out this saitillite view.

Like a lot of the rail buildings around Chilicothe, the station is currently pretty run down. The windows are boarded up and it’s not the best part of town to begin with. The overpass built for main street has especially changed the area, and I don’t think it was for the better. Chillicothe seems like a very nice and historically minded town. I think a restored depot could go well with that. However, from what I understand the depot is currently privately owned, and this could be a hurdle for any major restoration effort.

For those looking to learn more about the current state of things in the Chilicothe area, this forum thread is very interesting.

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Famous Railroad Photographers

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: Photography Railroads: ,

Regular readers will note that I’ve been on a bit of a photography kick lately. For one I just got a new SLR and for another I’m taking an introductory photo class here at school. I’m sure more pictures will be making it to this site sometime soon. With any luck, they’ll be even better quality than before (I can hope at least).

I’ve decided now to take some time and research some famous railroad photographers. Their work can be of interest to pretty much anyone who sits track-side with a camera, and even if that’s not exciting their plenty nice to look at. I’ve prepared a couple paragraphs with some basic bibliographic information on two of the more well-known railroad photographers.

Otto Perry

Otto Perry was famous for his work out west during the late steam and transition eras. He spent a great deal of time documenting the Denver & Rio Grande Western while working as a post officer in Denver. Many of his photos feature long manifest trains streaking their way across the plains, but just as many could be old narrow gauge lines snaking their way through the mountains.

Regular readers might also have seen the photo he took at the ’s yard in downtown Cincinnati. This photo features 4-4-0 #17 and was made during one of Perry’s trips to the east.

After Otto’s death his work was donated to the Denver Public Library and is now available for display. A sample of the collection was also put together as a book that can be found at all the usual used book sources. I picked it up from my university library and would recommend it.

O Winston Link

Probably the most famous of railroad photographers was Ogle Winston Link who was most well-known for his photographs of the last days of steam on the Norfolk and Western. Often these photographs were taken at night, requiring elaborate flash setups in order to capture the entire locomotive with light. I’m sure the crew really appreciated it when 100 flash bulbs suddenly went off! His most famous photo, known for displaying three types or transportation, is us at the top of this post.

The majority of Mr. Link’s work is available for viewing through the Link Museum. His famous book Last Steam in America is also easy to find, although I haven’t yet taken the time to read it myself. I’ll be sure to post a review up when I do.

I’m sure that I’m just scratching the surface of great railroad photographers. Are there any that you know of? Let me know in the comments and I’ll try to find some of their work for a future post.

Hyde Park Branch to Close

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: News Railroads: ,

According to sources posting on the CincyRails newsgroup the end appears to be near for norfolk & Southern’s Hyde Park Branch. The branch, which runs from Red Bank Road through Hyde Park to Montgomery Road may have seen its last train run on 8/28. The bulk transfer facility at the end line appears to be empty and closed. It was only a few months ago we reported about a car getting hit by the local working this section of track.

The Hyde Park line was originally part of the mainline from Cincinnati to Portsmouth. It was originally built by the Cincinnati and Northeastern, a narrow gauge railroad which eventually reformed as the Ohio & Northwestern. The O&NW had no enterance of its own into the city of Cincinnati, and used trackage rights on both the PRR’s Little Miami line and the on various times throughout its history.

Around the turn of the century, the successor of the O&NW the Cincinnati, Portsmouth, & Virginia built the Cincinnati Connecting Belt Railway, a line that ran from Idlewild Jct to Ivorydale Yard. This connected the railroads running down the Millcreek Valley on the west side with the railroads running in on the east side. Norfolk Southern filed for abandonment of this line about a year ago, with some of the terminal land being sold to Xavier University and the Right-Of-Way sold to SORTA for future light-rail use (Source).

The terminal of the Hyde Park Branch was in Idlewild where there stood a junction with the CL&N. The 1934 PRR timetable shows that at one time this junction was busy enough to warrant 1949 electric signals. The junction made for some interesting switching, as proceeding from the mainline through Hyde Park to the Connecting Belt required a switchback move in a relatively small yard, all while trying to avoid blocking Montgomery Road.

It’s amazing to look at the old maps and see the amount of industrial customers along the track through Idlewild and Norwood. Today the increasing commercialization of the old industrial buildings in Norwood really put a hurt on this line. Spurs that use to run into industries today dead end into brand new parking lots. Even now before this news no trains would cross Montgomery Road, the rest of the old track standing unused.

At this point I would expect Norfolk Southern to attempt a sale of the ROW to SORTA before fully abandoning the line. At any rate, I wouldn’t expect them to continue to pay property taxes on a forgotten branch line for much longer. This line looks to be another victim in the decline of Cincinnati’s east side railroads. For a detailed tour of the Hyde Park Branch check out its page on Cincinnati Traction History.

Watch Where You Park

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: News Railroads: ,
Photo from News 5.

There was an interesting news story posted earlier in the week about a car that was hit by a train in Hyde Park. The driver of the car, an employee at Busken Bakery, apparently assumed the tracks near his workplace were abandoned. It was a costly mistake, as it just so happened that Norfolk Southern was running a local down that line today. No one was hurt, but the car was crushed up pretty good.

Photo: Idlewild Yard circa 1917.

There’s an obvious lesson in this about assuming railroad lines are abandoned. That assumption can come back to bite you anywhere when you find that it’s not the case. This line was in fact the old Ohio and Northwestern () mainline from Portsmouth into Cincinnati. Here’s a nice map of where the accident took place. This line (originally narrow gauge) interchanged with the at Idlewild. The N&W’s commuter trains would travel down the to Court Street while their long distance trains would use the Little Miami into the PRR’s station downtown.

Photo: The end of the line and the remains of Idlewild Yard. Photo courtesy Cincinnati Traction.

With the CL&N abandoned this line’s importance as a through line diminished significantly. Now it’s open to local traffic through Montgomery Road. There’s still a number of fairly active industries, including one at the very end of the line that gets a great deal of tank car traffic. The local that hit the parked car was transporting cars for this business. There is some nice pictures (including the one above) of this end of the line over at Cincinnati Traction History.

In other news the FRA has a website up with details of Obama’s vision for high speed rail. In non-Ohio Valley but still interesting news I found this article about a house located near a railroad branch line. It would be the perfect house if you enjoyed a daily 7 AM train.

Then and Now: N&W #562764

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: Then and Now Railroads:

The caboose that is currently on display in downtown Lebanon started out life as Wabash #2764. It was built at the Wabash’s Decatur, Illinois shops in May 1944. It was part of a series of steel cabooses built for the Wabash Railroad from 1941 to 1946. When the Wabash was leased to the Norfolk and Western in 1964 it was reclassified as the C-17 Class and used over much of the Norfolk and Western.1

In July 19881 the caboose was sold and made its way to the I&O and was used as IO #562764. It was used for a number of years in assistance for long shoving moves along the Mason Subdivision. After a number of years in this service it was finally stored at the end of the Leggett & Platt spur in Stokes.4 The picture at the top of this post above is a photo of the caboose at the end of this spur.3 After being donated to the City of Lebanon in the early 2000′s, it sat at the end of track along South Street. In 2004, through the generosity of Carstar Collision Center, the exterior of the caboose was restored to its present state. At some point in time after 2006 it was also lifted off the mainline and placed on a short display track near the angled parking spaces on South Street, close to where one of the team tracks used to be located. It is currently being used by the City of Lebanon for safety classes and as a community meeting place.5

The photo below of #562764 after restoration located on its track along South Street. The Montreal Commuter Cars are located in the background.7

Here is another shot of #562764 before its restoration.2


Sources:

  1. Robert G. Bowers, and James F. Brewer, Cabooses of the Norfolk and Western (Norfolk and Western Historical Society, 1994)

  2. Ohio, “Larry’s Caboose Pictures,” http://caboosepics.multiply.com/photos/album/9/Ohio, Accessed 2 April 2009.

  3. William McFadden, “Gallery of Cabooses,” http://home.frognet.net/~mcfadden/wd8rif/caboose.htm, Accessed 2 April 2009

  4. Bob Zoellner, “Modeling the I&O,” Personal Email, 26 February 2009

  5. “Report to Citizens 2006,” http://www.ci.lebanon.oh.us/pdfs/AR%20&%20NEWSLETTERS/2006%20Report%20to%20the%20Citizens.pdf, Accessed 2 April 2009.

  6. Dave Dumbacher, “Lebanon Countryside Trail,” http://www.miamivalleytrails.org/Lebanon%20Countryside%20Trail.htm, Accessed 2 April 2009

  7. Kyle Montgomery, 12 September 2009

Update 4/7/09: I’ve pinned down some of the dates more firmly thanks to the Norfolk and Western Historical Society and have updated this article accordingly. I also added another photo courtesy of Larry’s Caboose Page.

Modeling N&W #562764

Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: Model Railroad Railroads:

Those modeling N-Scale are in luck. Atlas has produced a caboose model already numbered for N&W 562764. With a modest amount of detailing, this could be made into a fairly accurate model of the caboose.

For those who model HO, the Norfolk and Western Historical society offers a C-17 caboose kit for $39.95. They don’t have an image of it on their site, but I imagine if it comes from the Historical Society it can’t be too bad.

A number of companies also offer models of the similar C-18 caboose class. This class is identical to the C-17 class with the exception of the coupla, which is more slanted on the C-18. If all else fails you could probably kitbash this into a close approximation of the C-17. Wright Trak Railroad Models offers a C-18 kit and a C-17 kit based off of their C-18 kit.