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Re: (erielack) Akron Questions
If I get a chance in the morning, I'll go down and take a look.But IIRC, the EB main still sits higher than the WB. I never found out why.
Mike Spinelli
Paul Brezicki <doctorpb_@_bellsouth.net> wrote:
List,
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=33185
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=54104
Here's a couple of Akron questions, I'm hoping Steve Timko in particular can help. Steve Twarogowski kindly sent along some Akron materials. Here are links to two photos taken in 12/75 looking west from the Market St bridge in Akron (location of JO tower which is to the left of the photographer). One is EL train NY-100; the train on the parallel Chessie/PC line is probably a Trailer Jet. Note the derails on both westbound mains, EL's with a guardrail and Chessie's without. Presumably these protect the movable-point crossing (obviously Erie was here first!) and presumably there are also derails on the eastbound tracks. I don't think I've previously seen derails on such busy mainlines, and I wonder if they were installed after the fatal near head-on collision of B&O and EL freights at Sterling OH in January 1965. This crossing was about 25 miles to the west and had an almost identical configuration. IIRC the accident occurred one night when the B&O crew fell asleep and ran th!
e red signal. Presumably at that time the Sterling crossing was not protected by derails, so the wreck would have been prevented or at least mitigated. It appears the Chessie derail would keep a wayward train away from the crossing as well as from the EB main, but the guardrail on the EL derail would keep the train aimed squarely at the crossing, which raises the question, what was the speed limit approaching the crossing? The third crossing of Erie/B&O mains was at Kent, but was an Erie overpass.
The second question involves clearances through downtown Akron. The second highway overpass east of Market St was Perkins Ave, which in Erie years had a 17'9" restriction on the EB track only. This clearance permits TOFC and loaded bilevels, which have a maximum height of 17'. However loaded trilevels (in the non-fully-enclosed years) were in the 18'6" range. It appears the bulk of loaded trilevels on EL were WB Fords from Mahwah. Was the EB track undercut at Perkins Ave after 1960 to accomodate loaded trilevels, or did EB trains with these cars use the WB main through here? If the latter, was there an occasion where EL inadvertantly created convertibles as happened once in Binghamton? Fully enclosed racks first appeared in 1975, but I've never seen a photo of these on EL.
Paul B
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