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RailMike wrote:Approximate abandonment dates for the rail lines through Xenia:According to "Next Stop! Xenia" the B&O timeline is thus: 1932--last passenger service, 1981--last through freights, 1982--last revenue freight, 1983--line abandoned, track removed in Feb and March.
B&O: The line was officially abandoned in 1981 or 82. In 1984, when I first went to see "Blue Jacket", an outdoor drama located not far from the tracks, the grade crossing was freshly asphalted over and crossties were neatly stacked. Some months earlier, the company ripping up this line was selling, in Dayton, these very same ties for landscaping.
Pennsy Panhandle: I first noticed the tracks alongside US-35 in Beavercreek missing rails, with some bridges removed, in early 1990. But exactly two rails were removed near the Woodman Dr. overpass in 1987. Even so, I thought I'd heard the last locomotive was taken out of Xenia in 1989. Not sure what year the line east of town was taken out, but I remember seeing the signals still lit in 87 or 88. I thought I heard they remained lit until the very end.
Pennsy Little Miami line: The street-running segment of the line on US-68 was discontinued in either 1962 or 64. Between there and the last customer south of Yellow springs, the line was probably ripped up in the 1960s. Between Yellow Springs and Springfield, the track was ripped up in 1983. This line had a street-running segment in Springfield (as did the still-operating NYC mainline, which was routed off the street by 1990) which is now blocked by some large performing-arts type building.
South of Xenia, the Little Miami line was severed somewhere to the south and gradually whittled back to town throughout the 1980s. Though I don't known the exact dates, it was ripped up near King's Island in 1983 and gone north of Waynesville in 1985.
Alloy wrote:I was impressed that one street ran on a truss bridge that spanned the entire yard. Even then, the bridge looked decrepit, although I think that it was still open. (This was around 1967).From "Next Stop! Xenia": ". . .the Monroe Street Viaduct . . .was moved to Xenia by train from Johnstown, PA following the famous Johnstown Flood of 1889. . . . The viaduct was closed to traffic in 1968 and torn down in 1987."
Growing up, I mistakedly thought that the Little Miami was the main line from Cincinnati to Columbus, and that the line to Dayton was "the branch."
It was a shock to hear that they were tearing up the Little Miami--when I left in 1972, it was still operating, I believe. I thought it would always be a major route. It sounds like the segment through Spring Valley to Roxanna survived the longest.
Thanks again for all the info!
the Monroe Street Viaduct . . .was moved to Xenia by train from Johnstown, PA following the famous Johnstown Flood of 1889. . . . The viaduct was closed to traffic in 1968 and torn down in 1987."That's quite a story. I would never have thought that transporting such a huge bridge would be cost effective. Poor thing got to see two major natural disasters in its time--the flood and then the tornado.