Eastern Railroad Discussion > Erie in Ohio question

Looking at the Erie system map in the book "Erie Power", it shows a line heading south from Marion through Urbana and Dayton on into Cincinnati.
Was this an actual Erie line or trackage rights on someone else's line?
Also, is this line still intact and used?

Thanks for any input.

rfprr

Erie to Dayton then B&O haulage to Cincy. If memory serves. Interesting note the Erie/EL also ran some shared double track into Dayton, but I cannot remember central or pennsy.

pal77 Wrote:
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> Erie to Dayton then B&O haulage to Cincy. If
> memory serves. Interesting note the Erie/EL also
> ran some shared double track into Dayton, but I
> cannot remember central or pennsy.

All,

The Dayton Branch was the original main line of the Atlantic and Great Western. Yes there was some shared trackage on the Dayton end of the line with the NYC.

J.

Marion to Dayton was former Erie the rest b
eing trackage wrights on former B&O.
A short section of under five miles is used to access
the Honda Plant near Marysville. Connection is made at
Peoria with the Scottslawn Secondary.

Most Erie/E-L maps out there also show another trackage-rights line, using the B&O from Hamilton, O. to Indianapolis.

I followed this line with a good friend back in 2007. There are still a lot of remnants remainging of this line. Here are some selected pictures from that trip:

1. Just west of Green Camp, Ohio (SW of Marion). Taken from the ROW across Green Camp River Road and the Scioto River toward the elevator in Green Camp. There are still some rails left in the road near that elevator.

2. In Richwood, Ohio. Behind me is a large grain elevator that would have had rail service.

3. Also in Richwood, this old boxcar serves some purpose at a baseball field.

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4. Another shot of the former depot in Richwood.

5. Just southwest of Broadway, Ohio, this spur was built into a large electrical substation in the middle of nowhere. I'm guessing AEP or whoever owns this paid for the rails to be left in place in case they need to replace a transformer.

6. Taken in Peoria, Ohio. This is looking northeast toward the substation.

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7. Last one. This is the former Dayton Branch, now used by CSX to access the Honda plant. As you can see, there is also some room for car storage here.

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The WESTCO Port Authority owns around 10 or 11 miles of the Dayton Branch with the I&O as the designated operator. The biggest chunk is from Cold Springs (connection to the NS Dayton District) to 9 miles north to Glen Echo where it connects to WESTCO's former NYC Bellefontaine Branch. With the I&O using their own Cincinnati-Springfield trackage, the Cold Springs to Maitland section is now only occasionally used. Maitland to Glen Echo is now part of the I&O's Urbana Sub to access the former NYC trackage north of Springfield. There's maybe a mile of the line buried in the weeds and underbrush at Glen Echo into the Erie's former International Harvester auto ramp. It nearly came back to life with a plan by WESTCO-I&O-NS to build a new ramp at the former Erie site for Navistar. The plan was contingent on a Navistar-GM partnership for the Springfield plant that fell apart 2 years ago. As of 7 or 8 years ago there still was 3 or 4 miles still in service in Urbana by WESTCO. Today it's down to maybe a mile or so in 2 different sections. One section is used to access the Heritage Co-op grain elevator just west of the US 68 grade crossing. The other section is used to access the Orbis molding plant with the line visible from Rt 36 near the Orbis plant. Both sections are accessed using a stub of the former PRR Bradford main.

First pic is of Heritage Co-op grain elevator at Urbana. A Springfield based I&O crew is switching with CEFX 3092. The track in the foreground is the former Dayton Branch. The blacktop in the foreground is the bike trail on the former PRR line. Heritage splits 65 car grain trains into 2 sections for loading at their Urbana and West Liberty locations.

Second pic is a bad shot from a cold miserable day back in Jan. 2009 at Glen Echo. A signal mast still stands next to this disconnected section of the former Erie. The switch for the first of 2 tracks to the auto ramp is just past the old signal mast.

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I like that last shot. To the original poster, there have been articles in railfan magazines about the EL Dayton Branch. I think Railpace, and maybe another one, if you wanted to look deeper into it.

I'm former EL tower operator and worked on the Dayton Branch in the 70s. I worked at Maitland Tower where the DT&I crossed the branch and also worked in the Richwood depot as an agent-operator. The EL had trackage rights over the B&O between Dayton and Cincinnati but never exercised them. Instead, all EL-B&O interchange was done at the B&O's Needmore Yard in Dayton. The EL's Dayton 97 from Marion would pull down to clear the B&O at Second St Junction and then back to Needmore. Conversely, Dayton 98 would back out of Needmore down to clear Second St and then head for Marion. These two trains were noted for their backup moves as they also had to back into and out of Marion yard. Both trains were assigned cabooses that had horns and headlights to facilitate the backup moves.

I don't know why the EL never used their rights over the B&O to run trains to Cincy but it would have been much more efficient than the backup moves to and from Needmore. Let me know if you have more questions.

Bill Haines