Muskingum electric

Anyone know when this line went into operation and does it still exist?
My SPV atlas shows it abandoned as of 1996..
Anyone have any info on this electric railway????

IIRC, (I was a teenager at the time) the Muskingum Electric started in the mid-70's and originally was about a 10 mile run from the mine to the processing plant. At the end, as the strip mining moved closer to the processing plant, the run was 2 miles or less, this was a closed system, no interchange with and other railroad although the equipment got there through an interchange with CSX (B&O). I think they had 2-3 E50's and about 100 hoppers/gon's I think it was not scrapped out until sometime last year.

Mike Fleming

As of last summer, all trackage, poles, and bridges were gone from the ME. A long line of cars that outlasted the two electrics were also gone, unfortunatly. Active scrapping started in 2002/2003, south end first. Interestingly, the track that connected ME to the outside world still crosses a road near the village of Cumberland, a few miles north of the end of the Musky 'Lectric. Pretty sure most of the line to Cambridge is gone though.

Any word on what happened to the MERR office car? I've seen a few pics and it was a heavyweight on 6-wheel trucks. For that matter, where are the E50's?

Hello,

Yes i might know where 2 of them are one still in the tan MER paint The Hocking Valley Scenic Railway has MER DOVER FORT & MER OAK LANE. OAK LANE is still in the MER paint with the words Muskingum Electric Railroad across the upper half (above the windows. Can i be sent a copy of the photos you have of this car by chance?

Any idea what happened to the two E50 electrics?

Charles

If anyone can find a copy of the March 1979 Trains magazine, it has an entire section (7 pages) dedicated to "Ohio's Robot Railroad" (the Muskingum Electric). I was in Chicago this weekend and got a copy while visiting the Illinois Railway Museum in their used book store.

The railroad was completely unmanned. Trains ran in sets of one E-50 locomotive and 15 hoppers. Trains operated in a "push/pull" manner where the unpowered end consisted of a specially designed hopper car with airhorns, a headlight and other equipment mounted on it's front to allow for the push operation from the rear upon returning to the coal tipple for new loads.

The two trains used a loop track at the loading tipple to load, and automatically slowed to 1/3 of a mph for the loading sequence. E50 #100 always used the west loop track while #200 used the east loop track to avoid any collisions.

Truck-mounted shoes on the hoppers picked up signals to control hopper door opening and closing at the unloading trestle. Command signals placed every 50 feet between the rails controlled train movements (such as speed, etc) on it's 30 mile round trip.

Really is an interesting article that tells you about anything you wanted to know regarding this railroad (except for the abandonment info obviously).

If anyone would like a copy, let me know. I can probably send a couple out by mail (although I can't guarantee overnight service between work and college course hours ).

I read somewhere that the 2 E50's were sold for scrap. Anybody know if
they were cut up on site or transported somewhere else?

Where the 2 E50s ever confirmed scrapped?

Charles