A section of the Old Road is being taken up

[Super Chief]

They can only scrap out to Big Hill Rd. MSO owns from Big Hill west. Thats why the AK with arrow to the east is it.
Too bad the vandals torched the ole track gangs shed. In Conrail days that was the crews office, they had remodled it inside and it was actually quite cozy for the crew to work out of. Conductor did his paperwork there. Way back it was in front of that shed that the pumpkinvine line from Goshen was there with the dwarf semiphore.The line actually added two additional diamonds to the plant. It crossed over the GR&I first then the Old Road next then on to the Northeast towards Findlay. RK tower was in the southeast quadrant of the diamonds with all the rods connecting to the signals going six directions. Thanks Notch 8 for the pictures.

[JStryker722]

And now with the Old Road being scrapped east of Sturgis,both the Old Road and GR&I are now rails to no where more or less.

[Super Chief]

Correct. The GR&I ends just north of the Toll Road and at Abott Labs and the Old Road from Big Hill west to White Piegon. Old Road was as stated in posts before the first mainline from the east to Chicago. Mileage markers between Sturgis and White Piegon show mileage between Buffalo NY and Chicago. B on one side C on the other. Hence when the great Ohio swamp had to be avoided this was the preferred route get around it. What I said before the plan was for a classification yard west of White Piegon as Airline merging into the Kalamazoo branch and that merging into the Old Road as GDLK does today that was considered before Elkhart's yard. Hillsdale was the division point hence the buildings that are still left there. I'll check on more of this with Carl Gearhart in Marcellus that Gearhart Yard in Kazoo is named after. He had a 35 year career with NYC, Penn Central and Conrail. He started out on the Old Road.

[MagnumForce]

The Old Road was already a road to nowhere though. Ottawa Lake to Riga and Adrian to Hillsdale were already missing.

[JStryker722]

At least before now it was a line to Hillsdale from the west lol

[jwilliam33]

The NYC had a habit of abandoning thru routes in the middle, thus ruining them for overhead traffic and allowing further abandonment/downsizing such as what they did to the Old Road.

[Notch 8]

It would be neat to see the Old Road still intact and as a thru route, I believe today had it been left intact that it would be a viable operation... Grain to Maumee and Ag Products inbound..Riga, Ottawa Lake, just a thought.

[MagnumForce]

It was doomed as soon as the Airline was built to replace it.

[JStryker722]

Well the Old Road had quite a bit of traffic even after the Airline ( Toledo-Elkhart ) was built, it was the general downturn of Michigan railroads of the 50s and 60s is what doomed the Old Road.

[MagnumForce]

Yes but you are misunderstanding me, it's fate was still assured the day the Airline opened. I am a from Pittsford, wish things would have been different from but they weren't.

[jwilliam33]

While there was Old Road traffic up through the time of the severing of the line with the abandonment of sections between Hillsdale and Adrian, it just wouldn't have held up as a thru route in the long run. I've often thought of this and the old Cincinatti Northern line nearby and how they could've continued. The CN would've been a poorer version of the DT&I north/south line and there just wouldn't have been a good reason to keep it other than a little local traffic(I'd love to have it still to serve our local elevators). The old road was too close to both the Airline and the Michigan line to serve as a thru route and, just like the downgraded Michigan line, didn't have enough local traffic to maintain it as a main route.

[MagnumForce]

Exactly Jay. The Biggest towns on the line with any real Indistry still have service and that is all that matters. Places like Clayton, Hudson, Pittsford, Osseo and Burr Oak just have and had little to nothing to give a reason for them to operate on the line, a lot of extra miles for no gain at all when you have this spectacular, straight as an arrow, low cost main that cut 50 miles off the trip just a few miles South.

Speaking if the Cinncinnatti Northern, Dad was doing some custom cutting over along the CN the year it was pulled up and was scared to death when he got to the end of the corn field and there was a train right on top of him.

Mom remembers more trains on the line but she grew up in Prattville before the town went to crap.

Also speaking of CN and the Elevators it served, the interior of the Station in Waldron is still in great condition and owned and used by Waldron Grain. The CN thing was a little different than the Old Road. The only towns that really lost out were very tiny, Hudson is probably the biggest until you get into Ohio. Anyway anyplace else that was larger actually had another rail line that survived already serve it. Paulding is kind of sorta served. But the largest towns on the line, Bryan, Van Wert, Celina, Greenville all still have service to this day while tiny towns like Cement City, Waldron, and Ney all lost service but there was and still is little to no industry in these towns and nothign that could support a Railroad.

[Steve B]

MagnumForce, ditto on everything you said, except that the Old Road was actually only about 9 miles longer than the Air Line, not 50 (as measured from where they split at Air Line Jct. in Toledo to where they reconnected at "B" Elkhart).

[JStryker722]

Yes but 9 miles shorter AND being arrow straight for faster run times makes a huge difference.

[Notch 8]

Burr Oak....

http://www.fwarailfan.net/community/vie ... 860#p16860

[JStryker722]

It won't be long now...