Eastern Railroad Discussion > Sunday Doings in Lake Erie Land

Sunday May 1, 2022

One of those days that nothing seemed to quite come together, but it was still fun being out.

1 - 3.  A shot I have wanted to do for some time while the rail is still there and visible, is where the former New York Central Chicago Line crosses over the former Wheeling & Lake Erie Huron Branch. The Chicago Line is very busy, but the Wheeling is dead track with mother nature taking over. A few more days and this season's vegetation will probably hide the rails, so today was the day. Besides that, it works best on a cloudy day as the view is southwards into the sun, excepting for a later hour that then casts shadows on the W&LE.
Today the 21T passes over with NS 9587, 3623 and 1037, while below are the rusted rails of the W&LE, and behind me is the remains of the port and pier area of Huron, OH. The photo is especially challenging too as there are utility lines that are about dead center in the way unless you get low and creative (without using photshop). Photo from the Route 6 highway bridge.

 

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4. Here is what the view looks like from top side at River Road looking east as 23M comes by with NS 9447 and 9700.

5 & 6. We did a little hiking just south of here on the old W&LE line along the river and then had an excellent lunch at Jim's Pizza Box in Huron before heading down to the NKP at Barrows, but nothing was around. Popping back up to the Chicago Line at Risden Road, west of Vermilion we caught the 24M with NS 1215 and 9839 seen here coming and going.
In the going away shot you can see the new connector in the foreground which takes eastbound Chicago Line trains to the eastbound Nickel Plate line. It is now raining.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/22 16:45 by train1275.

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7. Stopped by the docks at Vermilion and checked Nickel Plate intel, and nothing seemed to be happening so we went east to Lorain and caught the tug Defiance  with barge Ashtabula coming past the old lighthouse.

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Great set! Thanks for the look at the ex-W&LE.
—Mac

Great series

Posted from iPhone

Great shots, and thanks for the extra with the barge and tug!

Posted from iPhone

The reddish ballast on the old W&LE track is spilled taconite pellets from when they were still accepting cargoes and moving them from the dock to the yard beyond.  The docks shut down around 2012, if not earlier; after the WE (the "new" Wheeling and Lake Erie) tried buying ballast by the boat load and having it dropped at Huron; loading it from the pile as they needed it.  It must not have worked out, as once the pile of ballast was gone, all service ended.  WE has since ended their trackage rights to the Huron Docks.  NS still services the Asko Nobel/PPG paint plant south of Huron and uses a portion of the yard for that purpose.  The remainder of the yard and the docks are disappearing into the weeds and, eventually, into resort/residential developement.