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.
Quick question - who operates the north/south line through Ashtabula? I was driving on Route 90 and noticed a relatively full yard (a small-ish yard - nothing enormous) just to the south of the turnpike. Looked like it was filled mainly with hopper cars. Just curious - thanks for any information.
judgesmails wrote:Quick question - who operates the north/south line through Ashtabula? I was driving on Route 90 and noticed a relatively full yard (a small-ish yard - nothing enormous) just to the south of the turnpike. Looked like it was filled mainly with hopper cars. Just curious - thanks for any information.
The Yard just south of I-90 is Carson Yard. Since the line from Ashtabula Harbor to Carson is a steep grade, Carson was used as a holding point for Harbor-bound trains and a marshalling point for southbound traffic.
Southbound helpers were usually cut-out at Carson.
Consists were coal northbound and iron ore / taconite and stone southbound.
Through freights (e.g.: Buffalo - Youngstown - Pittsburgh) also used this route in NYC and PC days.
OD (Ore Dock) Tower was the mainline crossing / junction. Originally, there were connections in all quadrants between the nYC lines, with the SE and SW ones being double-tracked. The PRR double-track (PY&A) was on the west side of the NYC double-track. Main track crossing was 4 tracks over 4 tracks for 16 diamonds plus the diamonds on the SW and NW connectors. This was simplified with the pC merger and several derailments in the interlocking.
NP (Nickle Plate) Tower was the crossing of the PRR and NYC lines and the NKP mainline. IIRC, the SW connector there was added to allow the N&W access to coal traffic and through freight routed from Youngstown through the Buffalo gateway. However, these trains usually had to go to the Unionville / Madison double-track portion for the power to run around.
The NW connector for the Harbor traffic was added after the CR split.
CSX also runs trains over the Norfolk Southern's Youngstown Line. Carson Yard is also the northern terminus of the Ashtabula Carson & Jefferson Railroad that operates out of Jefferson, the county seat.
Not much traffic these days since harbor shutdown several years ago, no steam coal to Canada anymore, and no ore south. Conneaut on CN's former B&LE has the only ore traffic anymore and I do not know how well that is doing these days.
Last summer [2019], I did catch sight of a stone train heading south from the Harbor at the Lake Avenue bridge, had not seen a train there in years!
CSX does still have a run through that occasionally I catch a glimpse of.
Carson Yard is only used for storage on what few tracks remain.
