Railroad Forums 

  • Cleveland & Marietta

  • Discussion related to the operations and equipment of Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail) from 1976 to its present operations as Conrail Shared Assets. Official web site can be found here: CONRAIL.COM.
Discussion related to the operations and equipment of Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail) from 1976 to its present operations as Conrail Shared Assets. Official web site can be found here: CONRAIL.COM.

Moderators: TAMR213, keeper1616

 #1438163  by ohioriverrailway
 
I'm told this was abandoned in 1976, although not entirely dismantled until 1981.
Did CR abandon a bunch of lines early-on, or could this have had the dubious distinction of being the first to bite the dust?
 #1438226  by BR&P
 
I'm not familiar with the line you mention but as Conrail was formed, there was an extensive study done of every bit of track in all the components railroads. There was a Preliminary System Plan published which gave suggestions on which lines would be conveyed to Conrail and which would not. After comments, revisions and politics, a similar document, the Final System Plan was published listing what would and would not be included. In some cases, lines not included in CR were continued for a short time under state subsidy, and in other cases new railroads were formed to operate segments.

But on Day One, there were many lines which had seen their last train and were removed months or years later. I suspect the part you ask about was such a line.

For those interested, the USRA Final System Plan might be available on Amazon or eBay. It provides interesting info on line segments, stations on the lines, annual carloads, etc.
 #1439936  by shlustig
 
IIRC, the line was gutted in the Final System Plan even though there were segments that had some revenue potential. This apparently was a tactic used by the planners to ensure the extensive abandonment of trackage regardless of local development plans.