Welcome to Akron Railroads, formerly known as the Akron Railroad Club Blog, a site once connected with the Akron Railroad Club. The ARRC meets every month but December in Akron, Ohio, at the New Horizons Christian Church.
This site is not formally connected with the ARRC but instead serves as an archive of past postings about ARRC meetings and activities as well as railfanning adventures and photographs posted by some members.
Also included in the site are historical overviews of the railroads of Akron and Northeast Ohio as well as some news and information about current railroad operations in that region.
Toledo, Lake Erie & Western 0-6-0 No. 202 is in Grand Rapids, Ohio, on July 6, 1980. The steamer was built in 1920 for Detroit Edison. Upon its retirement from DE, it was donated to the Michigan Railroad Club, who owned it until 1973, when the TLE&W purchased the locomotive. By Late 1974, it was operational and spent the next seven years hauling excursion trains. It currently resides with other equipment in TLE&W’s Grand Rapids yard, awaiting funds for restoration.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has approved funding for grade crossing projects involving four railroads.
The Napoleon, Defiance & Western will install lights and gates at the Cleveland Street crossing in Antwerp. Federal funding of $466,880 will cover the cost of the work, which must be completed by Oct. 7.
Kanawha River Railroad will install lights and gates at the Ohio Route 256 and Main Street crossing in Fairfield County. Work must be completed by Oct. 7. Federal funding of $399,761 will cover the project’s total cost.
The Wheeling & Lake Erie will install flashing lights and gates at the Ohio Route 3 and Main Street crossing in Wayne County. Project work must be completed by Oct. 7. The total cost of the project is $374,310. Federal funds will pay $299,448 of the cost, with the railroad covering the project’s remaining $74,862 in expenses.
The Ann Arbor Railroad will revamp the lights and gates and install cantilevers at the Summit Street crossing in Toledo. The railroad must complete the work by Jan. 7, 2027. State funding of $500,000 will go toward the $659,366 project cost with the remainder covered by the W&LE.
Philadelphia-based Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority said it continues to put sidelined Silverliner IV cars back into service and Regional Rail passengers could soon see an end to overcrowded conditions aboard trains.
SEPTA has received the thermal wire needed to add heat detectors to the cars, a fire-prevention measure ordered by the Federal Railroad Administration.
Thermal detectors have been added to 203 of the agency’s 223 Silverliner IV cars. SEPTA also completed other repair work, found during FRA-mandated inspections, on about 180 cars.
FRA-mandated inspections and repairs have limited many Regional Rail trains to two cars instead of the usual three or four cars.
Today’s three for Thursday features a trio of photos from the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, Pennsylvania, made in August 1998. Shown are Philadelphia Rapid Transit 5326, New Orleans Public Service 832 and Allegheny Port Authority (Pittsburgh) 1711 stored while Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (Philadelphia) 24 is operating.
CSX said this week that it has completed an infrastructure project at Willard Yard that will double daily car capacity and expand the terminal’s role as a freight hub.
The project came in the wake of moves several years ago to convert Willard from a hump yard to flat switching, which left some area of the yard underused.
In a news release, CSX said the revamping of the yard took two years to complete. The Class 1 carrier said the project will result in improved flow and reliability of the facility.
Among the steps taken in the project were reconnecting the former hump area to the classification yard with new track panels and installing multiple new switches.
Some power switches were converted to hand-throw. Some tracks that had been unused since the hump was closed were rebuilt and received new surfaces.
CSX said Willard Yard now handles more than 600 cars per day and supports six trains that stop to drop off and pick up cars.
This map shows the current route of the Norfolk Southern intermodal trains in green and the future trackage rights route in blue, with Voorheesville, New York, highlighted with a yellow dot northwest of Selkirk Yard.
Norfolk Southern this week plans to begin operating a pair of double-stacked container trains over a new route between Chicago and Ayer, Massachusetts.
Trains 264 and 265 will begin using CSX trackage rights east of the Albany, New York, region.
NS trains 264 and 265 will operate over the CSX Water Level Route and Boston & Albany mainlines between Voorheesville, New York, and Worcester, Massachusetts, then up the former Pan Am Railways line to the Ayer terminal on Pan Am Southern.
The trains currently run over a Pan Am Southern former Boston & Maine route across northern Massachusetts though the 4.75-mile Hoosac Tunnel, which cannot accommodate domestic double-stack trains.
Train 264 will depart from Chicago via the new route on Jan. 11. East of Binghamton, New York, the 264 will operate with NS heritage units in the liveries of Delaware & Hudson (leading) and Conrail (trailing).
That same motive power set is planned to depart Ayer on Jan. 14 with the first NS westbound stack train, No. 265.
NS said the new route offers a transit time savings of roughly 10 hours compared with the Hoosac Tunnel route. About half of the time savings comes from eliminating work the trains perform at the NS intermodal and auto terminal in Mechanicville, N.Y., which is at the western end of the Pan Am Southern Patriot Corridor.
NS trains on the new route will have a top speed of 50 miles per hours compared with 25 mph on the Hoosac Tunnel route.
Most of runs of Nos. 264 and 265 east of Voorheesville will be in darkness.
The eastbound 264 is due to depart Voorheesville around 2 a.m. and arrive at Ayer at 10 a.m.; the westbound 265 is scheduled for a 1 a.m. departure from Ayer, with a 9 a.m. arrival at Voorheesville, which is 15 miles northwest of Albany.
Trains magazine reported on its website this week that CSX has laid off 166 management employees, which represents 5 percent of it non-union workforce.
The Class 1 carrier also was reported to have reduced some some management benefits and furloughed 193 conductors, including 61 covered by the railroad’s Baltimore & Ohio lines union agreement and 132 conductors on former Chesapeake & Ohio, Seaboard Coast Line, and Louisville & Nashville lines.
An additional 157 conductors were placed in unassigned status, meaning they were not awarded jobs for the week when bids opened. CSX also has reduced some of its extra boards.
In a message to employees, CSX CEO Steve Angel said the moves were “part of our efforts to streamline the organization given challenging economic conditions.”
CSX will announce its fourth quarter financial results on Jan. 22. Chief Financial Officer Kevin Boone said last month at an investor’s conference that fourth-quarter earnings would take a $40 million hit because of lower coal shipments and auto shipments.
Short line holding company Watco has announced changes in its executive ranks that became effective on Jan. 1.
CEO Dan Smith has assumed the responsibilities of executive chairman of Watco’s governing board while continuing in his role as CEO. Smith joined Watco in 2009 and became CEO in 2018.
Rick Baden, who previously served as executive vice president and chief financial officer, and has now assumed the role of EVP and vice chairman. Baden joined Watco in 2004.
Andy Nielsen, formerly EVP and chief accounting officer, became the EVP and CFO. Nielsen, who joined Wattco in 2015, will be responsible for overseeing Watco’s finance, treasury, capital allocation and investor relations functions.
Western Maryland F7A No. 53 is on the Norfolk and Western in Brewster between 1967 and 1972. It was common to see WM power on run through freights in that era.
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