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  • Dayton Ohio Track Question

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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

 #753993  by srohio
 
Does anybody know if the track is still used that goes to the Tenneco(old delphi) plant in Kettering off of woodman drive. I drive past these tracks regulary and have not seen a train in some time. If it is still used do you have any idea how often and at what time a train comes.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 19205&z=16

I would also be curious to hear of any good locations to go watch trains in the Dayton Area.

Thanks for your Information
 #754096  by kr4bd
 
I used to live in the Dayton area (pre-1982) and can tell you that the line you cite came off the now defunct Pennsylvania RR line (Conrail) on the East side of Dayton extending southward to the Delphi (former Delco Products) plant in Kettering. That Pennsy line from Dayton to Xenia was torn up in the 1980's, I believe, but they left enough track in East Dayton to allow access to that Delphi plant.
 #754453  by 262
 
I too have wondered about the status of that line.But I can give you some history.It was built in narrow gauge and went all the way to Cincinnati.Some of the trackage was built on a lateral moraine from the ice age and several times when the Ohio and Miami Rivers flooded it was Dayton and Cincinnatis only route for relief supplies.It ended at a place called Lebenon Jct.,(Woodman Dr.)where it gainned access to Dayton Via the CH&D.Till they completed a branch through the Dayton State Hospital and NCR.After the PRR gained control they extended the line from Lebenon Jct. to Clement Yard on the Panhandle Passenger line.It was stub ended at Lytle I believe in the 1950s and the south end was serviced from Cincinnati.And the DELCO Plant from Clement in Dayton.Conrail sold off the southern end to I&O who again sold the now land locked tracks around Lebenon to a tourist line.I think the part I&O runs is called the Oaias Subdivision.NS calls there northern end The Xeina Industrial Track.Oldtimers called it The Cincinnati Lebenon and Northern,or The Highline Route.A bit of triva I read do not no if it is true,In the 50s and 60s the fan assemblies for EMD Locomotives were built at the DELCO plant,when they had their yearly open house at the factory and had train rides PRR whoud bring in an EMD locomotive special because the switchers at Clement were all ALCO or BLH.
 #757127  by RailMike
 
Somewhere south of the DELCO plant, there was a wye between that track, the line south to lytle, and the line that went to downtown Dayton. A Meijer was built just east of the wye, which was a little bit south of Stroop Rd. While the downtown connector did go through the NCR factory complex, it only had a spur into Dayton State Hospital, probably for coal delivery. The spur must have had a grade crossing over Wilmington Ave, and possibly Irving Ave. as well. (While on the subject, the VA Hospital in West Dayton also had a rail spur. Again, while I can't say for certain that these were never used for passenger service, I think more than likely these were primarily for coal deliveries to fuel their furnaces and/or power plants.)

On this same downtown line, a railroad bridge STILL stands over Patterson Blvd., complete with PRR engravings, despite not having a train for over 30 years. I remember still seeing some rails embedded in pavement behind the University of Dayton as recently as the early 90's. Other than that, little physical evidence of the line remains.

When Interstate 675 was being built in the 1980s, originally there was going to be an overpass over the line to Lytle. A big to-do was made about how a bridg would be a waste of money with the tracks abandoned, so the right-of-way was in-filled instead. Note that there was a plan to run a light-rail line between Dayton and Centerville along this corridor; it was to be called "DART" for Dayton-Area Rapid Transit. Ironically, the same acronym would eventually be used in Dallas.

As for the trackage in Lebanon, OH, is it really "land-locked" or rail-isolated? I thought I'd heard they had a connection to the outside world somewhere in the Middletown area. They were going to connect to Brecon/Blue Ash by restoring about 2.5 miles of abandoned track, but apparently the public utilities commission wouldn't allow it.
 #757397  by 262
 
Thank you for your corrections Railmike,I covered a lot of ground clear back to the ice age.I did a search for railroad abandonments,and found a site called Trainweather that has a list of STB fileings.There was nothing for the CL&N or Xenia Industrail Track or anything recent for track in Ohio from NS,CSX,I&O or Rail America.
 #758133  by srohio
 
Thanks for all of the interesting information.

I guess you could say that today I just answered my own question. My dad was out in Kettering today and saw a Norfolk Southern train going down these tracks pulling one tanker car to be dropped off at the delco plant. He said it was moving along very slow which would make sense because of the tracks conditon/location.

I am guessing it is a every once in a while trip to the plant.
 #761587  by midland sub
 
One of the NS locals based out of Moraine makes the trip over to Tenneco usually once every other week. It just depends on busy Tenneco is at the time. I heard back in the fall it up to once a week and one week saw two trips. It's 10 mph trackage with the entire route operated under Rusty Rail Conditions (i.e. all grade crossing protection considered as having activation failure. It should be right around 8 miles from the Dayton District to the Tenneco plant:

Xenia I.T.: MP CJ 207 to MP ZX12-Clem (former Pennsy Dayton-Xenia main) 5 miles
Clement I.T. : MP ZQ0 to MP ZQ3 end of track. (former CL&N branch) 3 miles

The Tenneco spur is an approved gravity drop location.

It looks like Conrail abandoned the line line south of Kettering in stages. There's a shot of a Conrail U23B on the rail train removing the line that diverted to downtown and NCR, Dayton Mental Hospital and D.E.S.C. on 7/26/1982 in PRR Lines West Vol. 1. The line south of Tenneco to Homestead was removed in 1984.

The city of Lebanon bought the Lebanon to Hageman section of the IORY's Mason Sub several years ago. The last shipper north of Hageman was the Southwest Landmark spur in Lebanon (last car rec. was in Nov. 2007). The Cincinnati Railway Company (CNRY) runs the tourist operation as the Lebanon, Mason & Monroe. At Hageman the line's outside connection to the Dayton District is via the former PRR Middletown Sec. Track. The IORY operates this section and south of Hagman into Mason and the 4 or 5 customers left on the line. An IORY crew out of McCullough yard (former CL&N) in Norwood uses trackage rights over the Dayton District to switch the Mason Sub a couple of times a week.
 #806720  by urose82
 
Why are rail spurs such as the one to the Tenneco Plant in Kettering, Ohio left in poor condition? Wouldn't delivery of rail cars to a plant with greater speed and safety be desired?
 #1203521  by lvrr325
 
When you only deliver once a week at the most, all that's needed is enough to keep the wheels on the rails. If it takes 2 hours to make a 16 mile round trip, so be it. Why spend money to get there faster? It would cost more than the money spent to pay the crew the additional time.


I see a couple of blocks of street trackage on W. 5th street in Franklin, right off a bridge across the Great Miami river. Then it follows Riley Blvd./Rt 73. It's just a stub to an industry as I follow it south. Any idea what it is/was or how often it's used?