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  • NYC/NKP connection on Cleveland West Side

  • Discussion relating to the NYC and subsidiaries, up to 1968. Visit the NYCS Historical Society for more information.
Discussion relating to the NYC and subsidiaries, up to 1968. Visit the NYCS Historical Society for more information.

Moderator: Otto Vondrak

 #1269728  by NKP1155
 
Prior to the Cleveland Union Terminal project the LS&MS connected with the Nickel Plate at the NKP W 110th St. Yard. The interchange track was in the NW quadrant, dropping down from the LS&MS which passed over the NKP main tracks. The maps do not show any Lake Shore sidings at this area, just a turnout off the Westbound main. Can any of you advise how long this interchange existed (replaced by one linking Kingsbury Run Yard with NKP's E 55th St yard.) and where the LS&MS yard engines were dispatched from to make interchange moves? WJP
 #1269779  by shlustig
 
Prior to the opening of Rockport Yard, the main LS&MS yard on the West Side was at West Park. For local service, there was a very small yard at Detroit Ave. along with a station and freight house.

After Rockport was opened and the LS&MS operations were coordinated with the Big Four, the main west side interchnage with the NKP was at
Cloggville. The Kingsbury / E. 55th St. interchange was lightly used for East Side traffic from Collinwood and Buckeye Rd. Yards as well as to / from the Orange Ave. Food Terminal (NYC) and the Northern Ohio Food Terminal (NKP).

I don't have a date on hand for the elimination of the W. 110th St. connection.
 #1270467  by NKP1155
 
Looking at the "Cleveland Historic Maps" pre-Rockport I see the West Park yard, but no locomotive facilities, only a wye. Seems unlikely yard engines would have come all the way from the lake front to do switching. Was there a shed or roundhouse at West Park at one time?
 #1272700  by NYC1956
 
As someone who lived in this area, I am also interested in this topic.
A map, circa 1934, lists a freight station (space for 2 cars), car repair facility(2 tracks, 28 cars), team track (1) for 6 cars and the yard itself (14 tracks, 625 car capacity).
There is no roundhouse or engine shed listed.
By 1956 the yard was still active, but was being used mostly for storage - mainly auto frame gondolas.
I was unable to determine where the car repair facility might have been located, but perhaps southeast of the tracks and W. 150th street grade crossing. There were some sheds and brick structures there.
Not mentioned was a scale and scale house which was located just northwest of the W. 150th street grade crossing.
The 150th street crossing watchman's shanty was still there, also the yard office.
Further to the northeast I found the freight house, water tank, and water column. Those disappeared about 1958 and is now the site of the Lorain-W. 143rd transit station.
Early maps show a passenger station on the opposite side of the tracks from the freight house. That disappeared probably well before 1930.
A 1914 map shows a wye southeast of the tracks, about where John Marshall High School was later located. I am intrigued by the wye and why it was located there. Perhaps it was used to turn locomotives for local train service between there and downtown Cleveland.
The team track would have been southwest of the tracks adjacent to the W. 150th street grade crossing. All I saw there was a small coal unloading facility, office, and garage.
Locomotives approached the yard from the northeast on the main line and entered the yard via a crossover. I never saw a locomotive lay over there or receive any service. Often there would be a couple of cabooses parked opposite the yard office.
I have black and white photos of all these taken in 1957.
If any one has more information about any of these features, especially the wye, I would be delighted to hear about them.
Mike Kmetz
 #1273388  by NKP1155
 
Looking at the Nickel Plate 1905 Annual Report, I see the railroad spent over $9,000 installing a connecting track to the LS&MS on the West Side. This would imply more use for this connection rather than it all moving to Cloggville. In the year prior to this report, the newspapers were talking about the Nickel Plate entering the Lake Front station to avoid what was nearly street running by the NKP through the near West Side. But the annual report states the track was a "freight connection".