Railroad Forums 

  • Marion, OH

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in the American Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. For questions specific to a railroad company, please seek the appropriate forum.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in the American Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. For questions specific to a railroad company, please seek the appropriate forum.

Moderator: railohio

 #9852  by WNYRailfan
 
What were the names of the railroads that utilized the terminal in Marion, OH?

What tracks border the station/museum?
Note: Old names and new names would be helpful :wink:

What can a railfan do in Marion today?
Is there still lots of rail action today?
Can you still see the signal bridge that was in Emery Goulash's videos?

Thanks.
WNYRailfan

 #9875  by catfoodflambe
 
Marion is still a great place to watch trains - you can literally be trackside and still be off railroad property. The place is very popular on nice days.

The signal bridge is gone, unfortunately.

The north-south lines are relative simple - the PRR/N&W/Norfolk Southern main from Columbus to Sandusky runs along the east side of the station.
The Hocking Valley/C&O/CSX Columbus-Toledo line runs along the west side of the station.

Along the north side of the station, the old Erie/Erie Lackawanna and Big Four/NYC/PC came into town from the east on what functioned as a double-track main line from Akron and Cleveland respectively. Just west of the station, the two lines split - the Erie-EL peeling west-northwest to Lima and Chicago, and the NYC/PC going west-southwest to Bellefontaine and Indianaoplis. In addition, the Erie/EL Dayton branch took off to the southwest at the same location. The Erie/EL maintained a sizable yard opening up west of the station.

All of this was merged into Conrail in 1976. CR pulled up the Erie/EL side of the eastern line as well as the Dayton branch. The yard is still there, however.

CSX, of course, purchased the Big Four/NYC/PC/CR line in 1999. Today, they run a great deal of traffic over the connection between their north-south line and their east-west line - carload traffic moving into and out of Williard from Cincinnati and Indy, plus intermodal traffic moving south off the old B&O main line to Columbus (it goes west to Ridgeway, then south to Marysville and the IM yard in the west side of Columbus - the straight shot south involves very unfavorable connection layouts and traffic situations in downtown Columbus.).

 #10260  by nycrick
 
Don't forget AC tower and the Marion MR Club. AC Tower was moved from the northside of the EL/Big 4 main to Marion Union Station property(about 100') and is now open to the public. The MR club occupies the western portion of the building & is open on weekends.

 #10793  by MR77100
 
When was the EL branch ripped up? I know it was cut back to Richwood at one point?