Nostalgia & History > Muskingum Electric Railroad

This was American Electric Power's private mine-haul shoreline railroad in Ohio. I believe the two E50C locomotives were scrapped at Zanesville, Ohio, in 2004 (after the line and mine shut down several years earlier). Did anyone photograph the locomotives being scrapped?

contactpatch Wrote:
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> This was American Electric Power's private
> mine-haul shoreline railroad in Ohio. I believe
> the two E50C locomotives were scrapped at
> Zanesville, Ohio, in 2004 (after the line and mine
> shut down several years earlier). Did anyone
> photograph the locomotives being scrapped?


weren't they single cab E-60s a freight version of Amtrak'S unit

Out_Of_Service Wrote:
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>
> weren't they single cab E-60s a freight version of
> Amtrak'S unit

No, they were basically a souped-up version of the E44s "bricks" purchased by PRR.

Sorry, I don't have any photos to post of them. The railroad was featured a couple of times in Trains magazine.

The single-cab E60s (six of them, if I'm not mistaken) went to Black Mesa & Lake Powell in AZ.

NZ

The goal was to have the line operate by automation getting commands from boxes in the gauge. It never did seem to work well as a "driverless" operation.

I rode it the day American Electric Power unveiled the operation and they wanted to run manually that day with a unit pulling passenger cars on the line. They had a heck of a time because the automation kept overriding the override for manual control.

There is a web site somewhere about the MER but it probably hasn't been updated for a long time. Do a search.

Due to a number of washouts the operation finished "landlocked" so stuff had to be hauled away by truck.

Dale

Although the mine and the power plant were owned by American Electric Power, the MERR itself was actually owned by the Southern Pacific.

SP's investment in the MERR was for two reasons. First was divestiture, trying to move away from being "only" a railroad company in the pre-deregulated world. (yes, the MERR was a railroad, but not a common carrier as its sole business was hauling coal for AEP, with no competition.) Second, the MERR was seen as a rolling test bed for SP's planned electrification (using 50,000 volt AC catenary, just like the Muskingum's) of the Sunset route between West Colton and Yuma or El Paso.

Wow. I'm learning things about this line that I didn't previously know. Had no idea SP was owner! I was interesting watching those trains. On a backing move to the loader from the dumper the rear car had horns and a headlight and would "bamp" the horns every few hundred feet as it moved along, especially due to all the recreational activity on the "Ohio Power Lands" with plenty of lakes and ponds for fishing and lots of campers and hikers.

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> Although the mine and the power plant were owned
> by American Electric Power, the MERR itself was
> actually owned by the Southern Pacific.
>
> SP's investment in the MERR was for two reasons.
> First was divestiture, trying to move away from
> being "only" a railroad company in the
> pre-deregulated world. (yes, the MERR was a
> railroad, but not a common carrier as its sole
> business was hauling coal for AEP, with no
> competition.) Second, the MERR was seen as a
> rolling test bed for SP's planned electrification
> (using 50,000 volt AC catenary, just like the
> Muskingum's) of the Sunset route between West
> Colton and Yuma or El Paso.