Nostalgia & History > A Brief Visit to Columbus, OH, in '79

A Chessie System caboose hop consisted of C&O GP7 #5811 + caboose #A958 in Columbus, OH on 5/8/79. This was the second time I visited Columbus, and the first time (in '70 or '71) I didn't have a camera with me. There's more at:

http://members.trainorders.com/gputz

Gerry

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All I can say is "wow". Great photos.

Chris
K8CRQ

Gerry:

A few months after you took these, photos, I moved to Columbus where I worked for a year. Our house was located next to the C & O and CR (ex-NYC) lines and not far from C & O's Parsons Yard. Much of what I saw is shown in your photos. Thanks for the memories.

Dave

Great stuff! The T&OC "pagoda" station is still there, on West Broad St., near where Scioto Tower used to be. The area shown in the CR pics looks totally different now. Most of the track is gone, the mainlines have been realigned, and the whole area cleaned up and festooned with highway bridges. This is where CP138 is now, formerly known as "Grant". The Amtrak station became a police station after passenger service ended, and is now gone, I think. Clear Block Productions in Marion, OH, has excellent DVD's available of this area in its heyday, showing and explaining all the trackage that used to be there. Check 'em out!

Sweet! I remember seeing many a classic C&O lashup like that here in Columbus.

Phil

I grew up in Lancaster not far away, and those GP7's worked the Athens Sub. thru there. I miss those 567's as the crew drilled cars in the small yard in Lancaster.

CJ Wrote:
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> All I can say is "wow". Great photos.
>
> Chris
> K8CRQ

Darn, I keep getting an error message when I try to use the link. Maybe the new upgrades have shut me out because I've not had a problem with going off site before. Too bad, I would like to see those pics, as I grew up there as well and can remember when Columbus was a major player with the Pennsy and then the PC, as well of course as the C&O, NW, and to a samller degree the B&O. The yards sprawled across the downtown from Union Station to East Columbus and 5th Avenue for the B&O. It was gritty, rundown, and to a youngster who liked to see trains that area was a sight to behold. I recall the N&W inherited a track that crossed Cleveland Ave. on the bridge over the Penny's yards(20th Street?), on sort of a rickety flover arrangement of it's own.

The shot of the west bound hopper train on CR is not off of the N&W, there is no place to interchange close by. Rather it is probably coming off of the old NYC line that was/is parallel to the old PRR now NS Sandusky District line..The Ohio Central Station is indeed still there today and has not changed much. However, the whole look of the general area sure has. Gone is US Tower, replaced by a steel case or two. There used to be switch tenders in the area as well. US Tower had a switch tender located near by and I recogize one of the guys in the photos as a Union Station switch tender. I cant, for the life of me, remember his name though. The Amtrak Station did indeed become a Columbus Police Dept. Substation and as haflmoon stated it is now gone as well. If one were to go to this general area today you would not believe it is the same place. Of course, the RRs represented in these photo's are gone as well. At one time the Chessie used those SD18s as helper power on the old C&O north from Columbus and CR used to keep a pair old SD7's or 9's near the Amtrak Station to shove loaded trains up the old Big Four out of downtown to the north.

DBlake

Thanks to all for the added color information. That's what this board is all about, sharing the history. Gerry