NKP depot in Maumee

[WNYRailfan]

Last week I took a tour of the The Wolcott House Museum Complex in Maumee. I had a long discussion with the curator about the Maumee depot that is on the site. He is new to the job and does not know a lot about the history of the station.

Does anyone know about the history of the station?

I know it was a NKP station and was part of the Cloverleaf division. Since
I grew up in NY state I actually do not know what the significance of the Cloverleaf division was or why it was called the Cloverleaf. Any ideas?

The brochure only states: The 1888 depot was moved from the center of Maumee to this site in 1971. It was a frantic hub of activity when serving as the passenger and freight station for Clover Leaf Railroad. Construction is typical of the period.

Are the "Cloverleaf" depots different designs than other NKP depots?

What is the proper color scheme for the depot(s)? Grey, Red, Tan, etc?

If you would like me to post pictures of the exterior and interior...just ask!!

[nycrick]

You can find some info about the Cloverleaf in the fall 2000 issue of TRAINS CLASSIC magazine. Also check the web site for the Toledo, Lake Erie & Western RR at www.tlew.org.

Hope this helps.

[MR77100]

How much of that trackage still exists in Maumee? I know the Wabash line from Defiance, the Wabash main from Chicago, and the Cloverleaf all came together.

[nycrick]

None of the NKP still exsists in Maumee; all that's left is the Wabash half of the route from the LSR at the Maumee River to the city of Maumee. This line is still in use for the Anderson's Grain Elevator, a Ford stamping plant and some smaller shipper/recievers. At the Wabash yard a giant S-curve connects this line to whats left of the NKP at about MP 10 to serve a Johns-Manville plant in Waterville. From MP 14 to MP 25, at Grand Rapids, the line is used by the Blue Bird (TLE+W) tourist train.

[MSchwiebert]

There is also a small remnant of the Clover Leaf in place (but out of service) near the Toledo Zoo. This was the track that the short lived Toledo Central tourist operation ran on.
In Maumee itself, the NKP & Wabash trackage was consolidated to facilitate the extension of the Anthony Wayne Trail & I-475. This would have been done after the 1964 NKP/WAB/N&W merger.

[MP297W]

Maybe one of you folks might know where I can see/buy a detailed map of the area with tracks along the trail down to the Toledo Zoo and previous to the zoo being built, all the way down to OLPH and McAuley/Toledo Christian school/Water treatment plant/AKA Filter Hill?


There are still rails under both of those school lots, we found them, and dug some of them up when a friend got a higher end metal detector for Xmas about 1968 or so, and it thawed out. We found buried tracks all over, intact, with ties and a couple of switches too. I've looked up some similar to the maps mentioned below, but tiny maps at the library, and they are too small to really be much use.

A friend of mine had very fragile maps that he found in his basement, the first before the trail was built and the canal was still there, then about the time the trail was being constructed, then another one with the trail completed. Each had track and street maps and covered the area between Western Ave/the river,TTRR along the south, and Reynolds Rd. There were tons of notes on them and they were very well done, and huge, about 3'x6'.

The Wabash, NKP, Canada Southern, TTRR, and I think another RR, all have trackage on the map, drawn down to the smallest siding..



They were in very bad shape due to age, especially the oldest two, so I only got look at them once and we were always going to take them to a place that was going to copy them and have 2 copies of each made and split the cost, but we never got around to it, and he died suddenly. By the time I remembered to ask his wife about the maps, she had sold the house, and "thrown that old junk out". Jeez!! She tossed a ton of train books and some other stuff worth several thousand dollars! I did find a service manual for EMD F3-5's in a trashbag. It's in really good shape, and stinks of diesel!

The lesson learned here is don't "do it later, or someday", do it now...

[matt]

I used to run Cross Country meets at OLPH (now Toledo Christian) as a kid and it seems to me that we always ran past a dead end spur with grain or chemical hoppers parked on it. This was about 1990.

Does anyone know if there was any rail activity at this exact spot as late as 1990? Even if these cars were just being stored here?

If not, I'm probably thinking of someplace else.
Thanks.

[WNYRailfan]

Another NKP question...where was the airline junction and tower?

Why was it called the air line?
It was not as if the trains flew in the air nor was the line elevated.

[nycrick]

Airline Jct. is the yard where the Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland & Norwalk divisions of the LS&MS came together; it extends, roughly, from MP289 to MP293. It was called Airline because it was the fastest connection between New York-Chicago and Detroit to the north. Check out the picture at: drewsager.tripod.com/sitebuilderscontent/sitebuilderspictures/airline1956.jpg

[nycrick]

Also Airline's pedigree is LS&MS, NYC, CR & NS not NKP.

[WNYRailfan]

Well that clarifies the confusion...I always have trouble keeping the NKP and the LS&MS clear in my head. The tracks parallel each other for so many miles that I must have gotten lost on the map and thought that the LS&MS was the NKP.

[nycrick]

For help in getting around Toledo I would suggest the GRAPHIC STREET GUIDE of GREATER TOLEDO map book. You can find the popular, and some not so popular, train watching spots in town. You should be able to find it at just about any news stand.