Nostalgia & History > A couple of Conrail C425 at Crestline,Ohio -- Dec78

This is at the former PRR shops and yard at Crestline,Ohio. The shops and roundhouse were abandoned but Conrail was still using the yards.
Next to Altoona,the Crestline shops were one of the largest on the Pennsy.
The Broadway Limited didn't have many stops between New York and Chicago but the small town of Crestline was one of them. K4's were switched out, crews were changed etc. Even the Amtrak version of the Broadway stopped here for a crew change.

---

There is next-to-nothing left in C-line now. And, to make matters worse, some of the locals are complaining about "excessivley long train whistles at all hours." The city gov't is supposed to be sending CSX a letter asking for restraint in the whistle-blowing. I wrote a letter to the weekly paper saying that the offended should be glad the whistles ( mostly on the former NYC line ) are being blown for the safety of everyone involved. ETTS, chapter umpteen..........

Question?

Before the split of Conrail, St. Louis/Columbus/Cinncy bound traffic on the Ft Wayne got on the Big 4 at Crestline. Now that CSX has the Big 4 and the NS has the Ft Wayne to Alliance, OH, what has become of the Ft Wayne from Alliance to Crestline? Is there much traffic. When I lived in Akron in the mid-80's, the line was 2 main track CTC.

Crestline is a ghost town for railroads now. Unbelieveable empty. I remember staying at the railroad YMCA at the crossing. But no shops, little activity on the PRR. The whole shop area, yards, etc. is totally gone. A person would have difficulty imagining how extensive it once was.

Can one estimate how many people worked at Crestline in its peak period?

Others will answer this better than I, but here is my impression, anyway. The connector from the Big Four to the PRR in the s.e. quadrant of the diamond is basically unused now. There is very little traffic on the PRR thru C-line. CSX sends its trains up the Big Four, either to Cleveland or onto the B&O at Greenwich. Someone else can tell you better how NS routes its traffic that used to go thru C-line. The shell of the PRR roundhouse remains, along with a very small remnant of the yard. Ironically, the PRR signal "bridges" still stand at both ends of the yard. There is still a small interchange of cars between the NYC and PRR lines. On a positive note, a new grain-loading facility has been built near the west end of the PRR yard, to load unit grain trains. In the center of town, Crest Tower remains as a storage-or-whatever at the diamond. The diamond is accessible, but is a bleak, empty spot. CSX occupies what I beleive used to be the railroad Y. It is now the crew-change hub on the NYC, tho the actual crew changes occur north and south of town. Truck traffic on U.S. 30 thru town is non-stop, but that will change when the by-pass south of town opens ( maybe ) in May. C-line has one grocery, a Dollar General, a couple of "convenience" stores, a neat old hardware store, and a few other retail outlets. Much of the town's housing is deteriorating, but that is the case in towns all over the Midwest. The hospital closed recently, but is supposed to re-open. And the weekly newspaper features a railroad history piece in the last issue of each month. Overall, a pretty sad picture in what was a vibrant little division point on the PRR.

NS runs 3 scheduled trains each way daily, plus extra coal and steel moves. These connect to the Sandusky line at CP Colsan in Bucyrus. Meets are often made at West Yard in Crestline, especially if one of the trains is over 6000 ft.