(rshsdepot) Exploring Railroad Relics in East Ohio

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From the Aurora Advocate.
 
Original article with photo at:
_http://www.auroraadvocate.com/news/article/4513766_ 
(http://www.auroraadvocate.com/news/article/4513766) 
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Kaleidoscope: Exploring railroad relics in East Ohio 
by Ken  Lahmers
 
Editor
 
Having become a "rail fan" -- the term used to describe a train enthusiast  
- -- I'm always looking for things to do relating to motive power.
 
With forecasters predicting an unusually warm weekend Dec. 27-28, I decided  
to hunt relics on long-abandoned railroad lines in Eastern Ohio.
 
Although rails along many of the routes through Tuscarawas, Jefferson,  
Harrison, Belmont and Guernsey counties have been pulled up, some remnants  remain 
and make good subjects for viewing and taking photos.
 
Not only did I visit some interesting spots, my trip ended near Cambridge  
with a 1 1/2-hour talk with a man who really has a passion for railroading. 
 
More about him in a future column.
 
Bridges, yards, tunnels
 
With a map of old rail lines and some books of steam locomotives operating  
on them on the seat beside me, I rolled out of Kent at 8 a.m. that Saturday. 
 
First I headed to Gnadenhutten in Tuscarawas County, where I've always  
wanted to photograph the twin highway/railroad bridges along Route 36.
 
I traversed the highway bridge many times when I was growing up down  there.
 
The truss-style steel bridges span the Tuscarawas River. It's difficult to  
get both of them in the same shot when leaves are on the trees, but this time 
of  year is perfect.
 
The highway bridge is painted a light green, but the RR bridge on the Ohio  
Central System -- old Pennsylvania RR Panhandle Line -- is either painted a 
dark  color or is just plain rusty.
 
I couldn't have been luckier. As I stood on the single track at one end of  
the RR bridge, I saw the headlight of a train approaching in the distance.
 
I stood away from the track and watched as five engines and about 50 empty  
hopper cars passed, coming from the upper Ohio River valley.
 
Only one engine was pulling the train; the other four had no operators and  
were just along for the ride to another location.
 
As I walked back to my car, an elderly fellow waiting to pull out from a  
county road onto Route 36 asked me if I was a train buff. Ironically, he told me  
he once was a telegrapher on a railroad.
 
NEXT, IT WAS on to Adena in Jefferson County, where Wheeling & Lake  Erie and 
later the Nickel Plate Road and Norfolk & Western once had a large  yard 
where coal trains were assembled for their journey to the Lake Erie  shore.
 
I have a handful of books with several photos taken in the late 1940s-early  
1950s at the yard, and wanted to see if I could recognize anything.
 
I was overjoyed as I passed an old wooden trestle that I recognized in a  
photo. I spent 30 minutes checking it out and climbing to the track bed at one  
end of the 200-foot long span over a creek.
 
The trestle once was part of the Adena branch to Neffs, which joined the  
main line in the yard a few hundred feet away.
 
No signs are visible of the old yard. It was situated beside the old  
football field for Adena and later Buckeye West high schools.
 
The concrete stands, built as a WPA project in 1937, remain. I covered a  
couple of football games there in the mid-1970s, when I worked for The  
Times-Leader in neighboring Belmont County.
 
Norfolk & Western coal trains were still being assembled in the yard  then, 
and activity on the now out-of-service main line was brisk during Friday  night 
football games.
 
About a mile from the old yard is the 500-foot long Adena tunnel. I wanted  
to walk through it, but getting there required going across private property, 
so  I refrained.
 
I HEADED east to Dillonvale, keeping an eye on the W&LE rails. There  once 
was a busy yard there called Pine Valley, but it also has disappeared in  the 
last 25 years.
 
I followed the Adena branch a few miles south into Belmont County, where it  
once passed through the 1,148-foot long Harrisville tunnel, the longest bore 
on  any of the original W&LE tracks.
 
I drove through Barton, a former Youghiogheny & Ohio Coal Co. town,  where 
the Eastern Ohio branch of the B&O once was prominent. All track has  been 
removed, and the mighty Y&O is no longer in business.
 
The Barton tunnel is hidden somewhere in the hills, but I couldn't find  
anyone in town old enough to pinpoint its location so I could explore it.
 
On my way to St. Clairsville, I went under a couple of impressive old  
bridges on the Adena branch, and eventually came to the St. C. tunnel under the  
National Road.
 
When I lived in St. C., I passed over the tunnel dozens of times, never  
knowing it was there. A drugstore sets about 60 feet atop the tunnel, which was  
built in the late 1800s.
 
The 532-foot long, 40-foot high bore is part of the 4-mile National Road  
Bikeway, the only rail-to-trail facility in Ohio which features a tunnel. After  
several years without train traffic, the line was converted to a trail in  
1997.
 
Other railroad relics
 
After staying overnight in St. Clairsville, I headed to Bellaire, where an  
old truss bridge spans the Ohio River to Benwood, W. Va.
 
The former B&O bridge was built in 1870 and is still used by W&LE.  Leading 
up to the bridge is a magnificent 1,433-foot long stone arch viaduct,  with 43 
arches each 35 feet high.
 
Part of the viaduct is still used and links with a steel trestle which  takes 
W&LE traffic north toward Bridgeport and Martins Ferry. Another part  once 
took B&O trains to the western part of Belmont County and on to  Cambridge.
 
Twelve miles south along the Ohio River to Powhattan Point and 10 miles  west 
to Alledonia I encountered modern day RR activity.
 
Along Route 148, coal was being loaded into hopper cars at the tipple of  
Ohio Valley Coal Co.'s huge Powhattan No. 6 underground mine, which annually  
produces 4 million to 5 million tons.
 
As I paused beside the highway, the loading operation had just started and  
the first hopper was being filled. There probably were 40 to 50 more cars  
waiting behind it. The coal goes east to the Ohio River docks.
 
Heading toward Guernsey County, I stopped to admire and photograph the  
former B&O depot in Barnesville. Built in 1917, the brick structure has been  
restored and sets along what is planned to be a rail-to-trail conversion.
 
E-mail: 
 
_klahmers_@_recordpub.com_ (mailto:klahmers@recordpub.com) 
 
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3155
 
 
 
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