Erie Lackawanna Track Removal soon, Ohio City Ohio

[Barricade360]

wow that track at 1:55 is in dam good shape for maybe a short line, i live in milton-freewater oregon we used to have the walla walla valley railway so many tracks that used to run through the city and now only one mainline track remains which is used by a leasing company i love your video its a dam shame what they are doing to our nations history

[franky98765]

@Barricade360 Yeah, you got that right, it is a dam shame. That track at 1:55 is former Erie,( Erie Lackawanna ), it was double track through this whole area. Back in the late 70's early 80's it all looked just like that, or better, it was bought by L.B. Foster and scrapped... l remember as a teenager at that time thinking what the hell are they thinking???... too late now though. It' like all the railroad workers hard work and dedication are simply forgotten from that whole era now.

[CONRAIL1991]

for some railfans this is a nightmare for them. It's sad to see all that gone. I live in Orrville, Ohio and alot of the old PRR lines are gone now, luckily the orrville station and switch signal tower still remains thanks to the orrville railroad heritage historical society preserving them. If i had my own railroad corp, those tracks would be back, but thats just me. i don't like seeing tracks ripped up and gone. its a piece of history that died hard, great vid, but sad

[CONRAIL1991]

for some railfans this is a nightmare for them. It's sad to see all that gone. I live in Orrville, Ohio and alot of the old PRR lines are gone now, luckily the orrville station and switch signal tower still remains thanks to the orrville railroad heritage historical society preserving them. If i had my own railroad corp, those tracks would be back, but thats just me. i don't like seeing tracks ripped up and gone. its a piece of history that died hard, great vid, but sad

[pianomanmaestro]

It's the same way in my town ex Rock Island RR tracks everywhere just sitting there not used allot of them shortline and allot just lonely tracks still allot of old signals and RR Crossing Boxes still intact and some old old old telephone lines, with the greenish blue glass bells still on them...

[Jamersonde]

@franky98765 The worst part is many cities that were once railroad hubs are now down to only one line, if any remain. Logansport is one such city. It had many mainline railroads in it's heyday: The Pennsy, the Wabash, the Vandelia, & more, but now it's just Norfolk Southern.

[Jamersonde]

Kokomo, Indiana has become much the same way, except there tracks are still there on all 3 of the old lines. Thankfully, the Central Railroad of Indiana US Rail Corp., & occasionally Norfolk Southern still operate on the old Pennsy lines. The other trackage, including the old N&W IMC line is either abandoned or currently not is use.

[FWD37]

Thanks for this, I was at this location(Ohio City) in Oct 2007 and took many photos.

It would be great if there were some vintage films and/or still photos of trains at Ohio City available. It must have been a great location to rail fan in the 1950s!!!! A member of our RR Museum grew up in Ohio City and used to deliver newspapaers to the former station there.

[fredstuckmann]

Nice shots Franky, was down there in Nov. 2010, looks pretty much like you showed it here. Thanks for posting.

[Boss302fan]

I like this video. I did some work for both SPEG and IHRC over the years. Still do some work for R/A. These shots bring back memories. I remember pulling tankcars in storage off the SPEG one afternoon. Took all day just to fish out the ones we needed.

[davenwin1973]

That's like from Hammond to North Judson Indiana, the EL lines were ripped up. A short line was started in 1976, but failed 3 years later, & the tracks were slowly ripped up. It started in Hammond in 1979 & were gone in Griffith by 1981. I hear the only part still intact is the portion from North Judson to Monterey Indiana, & that's part of Rail America. C&O also eliminated a line that ran along side EL from Griffith to Hammond by 1985,& that line eventually met up with EL in North Judson.

[Intocable8306]

This is sad and shows first hand America's crumbling infrastructure. This is happening all over to the railroads that helped make this country what it is or should I say "was". Greenville Michigan seen this same sad thing happen, a once busy place with railroads all over and now nothing.

[franky98765]

@Intocable8306 Same as in Decatur Indiana, where I'm from, double track Erie Lackawanna, Penn Central North-South, as well as the Nickel Plate, later Norfolk Western, all gone, we have one line, a spur basically from Fort Wayne serving Bunge, that's it. It's really sad to look at Google and visibly see "what once was". We lost way too much in the last 30 years now, Railroads, manufacturing, when will it end?, just don't make sense to me, and each town has a similar story.....

[metroliner89]

@Intocable8306 Just like aransas pass and rockport TX

[AGDemo]

Can I buy the rails??

[franky98765]

@AGDemo I think someone over there got busted for trying to steal some small pieces of scrap off a pile, around Ohio City. I would have really liked to have the old diamond, Nickel Plate/Erie, would have gave them more then the scrap price to have it, that's for sure....

[AGDemo]

@franky98765 How can I contact the rairoad there?

Thanks!

[Grapes767]

Grew up just 100 ft from the EL mainline in Lima. Lots of trains in the late 50's thru the early 70's. Whata shame..same as the PRR mainline Chicago to PIT. just terrible what the government caused by too many taxes and regulation of RR's. IF Staggers had been passed in 1965, we would still have some of these fallen flags that had great arterial routes.

Never had a problem sleeping!

[franky98765]

@Grapes767 You would have thought the Govt. would have been able to use some foresight and try to balance trucking vs. rail, and keep it more evenly regulated, whether taxes or regulation, just like still today the industrial regulations are regulating us right out of competition. Here around Decatur, in every township, right down the line, Indiana Hi-rail owed a fortune in property taxes before formally dis-banding the whole Adams County segment back in late 96' early 97'.

[65bigjoe]

can,t belive people would tear up american history like this.rail roads that have been around seems like for ever and they want to tear them up

[franky98765]

@65bigjoe I agree, just like in Decatur IN where I'm from, we lost all three railroads through here, one spur-line from Fort Wayne to Bunge, and that's it, all thru-freight is gone, some gone for 30+ years now, you have to look hard to find remnants, it's as though it never even existed.

[ma7799]

When was the depot razed?

[franky98765]

@ma7799 I'm not sure when that was razed....

[TheZepmeister]

Bet it was hard to sleep in that town back in the day :)

[franky98765]

@TheZepmeister Yeah, I bet it was, totally different from now.....

[Conraildan]

I cant remember where i heard it from , but this section of track is isolated, due to a bridge being out of service. Apparently it would take more money to fix it then the Ohio Rail Development cares to spend for tracks that havent had any business in over 20 years. i recommend you get down there and look for date nails in those ties. The EL was known to put nails with the year date on them on their ties when they were installed. Its a neat souvenior!

[franky98765]

@Conraildan Hey, thanks, sure will, I was gonna head over in the next several days.... I wonder if they just sold the remaining signal posts, etc., that they took out of Ohio City for scrap, one day I was there and all were just laying at the intersections, a day or two later, all was gone..... those would have been nice souveniors as well....

[franky98765]

@huntec I was just going to head back over that way, I was thinking it was about the time they would be starting the removal. I always kind of wondered if RJ did at all, if so, I didn't know what year it was last used, it's unfortunate.

[southern197882]

Greenwood SC now has just one railroad now CSX it bypasses downtown.

[franky98765]

Erie Lackwanna, West of me, Huntington Indiana, at one time it had nearly 400 employees operating of that city, now nothing, then they wonder where the jobs went???, seems to me something could have been done years ago, to not let these go by the wayside. I'd like to visit Ashland VA, it still has the trains right through the middle of town, like many used to be.

[intercityrailpal]

@franky98765 When you tax the private railroads and spend the money on highways and airports and waterways but very, very little finally on trains. This is what happens. Even the train tickets had taxes on them at one time. Today Amtrak passengers indirectly pay a fuel tax, real estate taxes etc. All added to trust funds and spent on ROADS, waterways and AIRPORTS. What do you expect? Something was done, the government invested in other forms of transportation! Which killed most railroads.

[Boss302fan]

@intercityrailpal Not at all. Amtrak passengers are given a free ride. They may pay a little tax, but almost 1/2 of their fare is paid for by the government. And that money comes from other tax sources. Only the Northeast corridor pays its own way.

[southern197882]

At one time Greenwood SC had five railroads the names were Piedmont & Northern ,Georgia & Florida , Southern, Charleston & Western Carolina, and Atlantic coast line. After 1982 not a trace of railroad history could be found. The city of Greenwood did a 30 million dollar downtown revitalization project it wipeout any trace of it's railroad history. To me it was a slap in the face for my late grandfather worked for the railroad.

[southern197882]

The same also happened in downtown Greenwood, SC on 11-04-82 after 150 years of railroading it all ended in one short rainy day.

[franky98765]

@southern197882 Yeah, it's sure too bad, in another 20-30 years it will be hard to believe it ever it existed..... any of it.