Nostalgia & History > B&O next to the poor Erie Lackawanna

A Chessie southbound on the joint Conrail/Chessie main is rolling down some good looking track. A clean B&O GP35 leads a blue GP40 and a Chessie GP40-2 with a train of coke, Akron, Ohio on October 27th, 1982. That "18" post off to the right is Akron Branch miles from Hudson, Ohio, formally CA&C/PRR/PC. That unused track on the right was the 104 track, a long yard lead from Bridge 16 (PC South Akron yard) to Lambert interlocking which was located on the other side of the bridge I'm on. The "poor EL" part is of course the tracks off to the left. The former EL eastbound main has already been lifted and the rail and OTM carted away. The former EL westbound main is still in but little used and the siding is still in but OOS. Both would be removed in the near future. Today both of those "nice" tracks are still used by CSX but converge into one single main at Lambert...everything else is long gone.

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH

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Great shot and narrative Roger ! Must have been one busy place back in the day.

perklocal Wrote:
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> Great shot and narrative Roger ! Must have been
> one busy place back in the day.

Thanks Rod. It was busy, at least up until about 1980 when Conrail yanked the through trains off the former EL. Today it's slim pickings with the CSX PSR operating plan. The Akron Barberton Cluster does add a little variety on these rails though.

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH

Nice B&O action photo from an interesting era.
Thanks for the postting.
ALLEN

I like it.  There's a wealth of glass insulators on the pole line to the right.  Probably a lot of value in that copper, too.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> I like it.  There's a wealth of glass insulators
> on the pole line to the right.  Probably a lot of
> value in that copper, too.

Indeed. Wouldn't surprise me if some of those insulators are still buried in the brush near there. As for the copper, more than once some sections would come up missing, although I think much of it was copper coated steel by then.

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH

Great shot with the B&O units but another sad one with the demise of the EL trackage.
Gary

Ouch that hurts! 

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

Great shot. Look at that manicured ballast!