Sheldon Lustig can you help me with a question

Sheldon hi my name is Luke and I was wondering about the east end of Rockport Yard at cp 17. I was traversing I 480 and looked down and saw the interlocking where the shortline comes up from Berea. I noticed that the track continues northeast to cleveland I'm assuming, and what did the NYC use this track for? The track itself seemed to be in pretty good shape
and their was a signal bridge all lit up northeast of the diamond. Now I know the majority of csx trains use that bypass parallel 480 part of the way, and what uses shortline into Cleveland today? Does the B&O line from Sterling and Medina still see any usage and are the tracks still in place to Cleveland?

Any information would be appreciated.
Thanks
Luke

Luke,

This location was formerly known as Short Line Jct., and all trackage was New York Central.

The Cleveland Short Line was double track east of Rockport Yard and crossed the original Big Four mainline which ran through Linndale, Clark Ave., and the Central Flats en route to the Lakefront where it crossed the NYC (Lake Shore) and PRR tracks to get to the Big Four coal dock. The original Big Four Depot was sold to the Erie after the Big Four affiliated with the NYC and moved into the LakeFront Union Depot.

Linndale was the main Big Four yard for Cleveland.

As part of the Cleveland Union Terminal Project, this became the main passenger train route to points west and south on the NYC. From Linndale (end of the electrified zone) west to Berea (BE) there were 3 tracks, later reduced to 2.

Today, the diamonds are gone. CSX operates from BE, around the SE Wye, and east on the Short Line to Collinwood. The route is double-track TCS except for the single-track segment through the tunnels.

NS heads east out of Rockport, around the new connection in the NW quadrant, and generally NE to Linndale, Knob, and Cloggville where the connection to the NKP mainline was rebuilt. This line is also double-track. NS traffic to/from Buffalo uses this route.

From Cloggville to Central Falts, the operating carrier is the Flats Industrial RR. North from there to the Lakefront, the track is gone.

The B&O (CL&W) line is in daily use. It crosses the Short Line at old PA (Parma Tower), directly under I-480 just east of W. 130th St. The serving yard is the old B&O W. 3rd St. Yard in the Flats (just South of I-490). There is also a local service yard for the Chevy Plant at Brookpark Rd. and an interchange connection with the Short Line. Last I heard, there were 2 through freights each way and 2 local freights daily, plus the yard jobs at Chevy Brookpark.

The CL&W connected to the B&O's CT&V line at RD Tower (long gone) to access W. 3rd St. Yard. RD (located just east of Jennings Rd.) was also the junction of the Wheeling Belt (now NS) line from Campbell Rd. Yard to Knob on the NYC.

Hope this helps.