How did NS acquire the Pennsy Line to Sandusky Ohio?

How exactly did Norfolk Southern end up with the ex-Pennsylvania line from Columbus to Sandusky? Did Penn Central own this line or did Norfolk and Western buy it from them? Did Conrail ever own this line and sell it to NS? Help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Joe M.

I believe that it was either the PRR right before the merger or early in PennCentral that the line was sold to the N&W.

In October 1964, N&W merged with Wabash, NKP, and AC&Y and acquired the Sandusky line from PRR to connect the N&W with NKP. Penn Central was formed 4 years later.

This seemed to be the best fit with the N&W plans. It ran right into Bellevue, the major switching yard on the NKP and the line had also been a connecting line for N&W coal for years.

Did N&W install the red lights on the PRR position lights or did PRR do that themselves? When was the line double-tracked between Bellevue and Chatfield?

The N&W installed the Traffic Control between Columbus and Sandusky. I'm almost certain that the line was dispatched by Manual Block before that, with several interlockings along the route (Worthington, Marion, Bucyrus, Chatfield, Carrothers, Attica, Bellevue, and Sandusky). When the N&W installed the traffic control, the dispatchers were located in Portsmouth, 100 miles south of the start of their territory.

Line was doubletracked about the time of the Conrail acquisition, perhaps someone else can be more specific