Conrail (former PC) Coal Dock @ Ashtabula Harbor

This 1991 December shot is of the conveyor bridge over the Ashtabula River, Ashtabula, OH.  Built by the Penn Central in 1969, it is apart of the Ashtabula Coal Dock facility operating on both sides of the river.  Coal is brought to the east side of the river by hopper cars (see on right side of picture across the river), dumped onto the conveyor belt and moved across the river and stored in huge piles to await arriving coal boats that load on the west side of the river.  Because the PRR (then PC) also owned and operated an older coal dock in Sandusky, OH, the ICC ordered the PRR to sell it if they wanted to build and use the Ashtabula dock (this avoided the PRR having a monopoly of the coal business on Lake Erie).  The Pennsy sold it to the N&W RR and PRR trackage serving it from Portsmouth, OH, through Chillicothe, Columbus, Marion and north to Sandusky.  Today both the Ashtabula dock and the Sandusky dock are very busy moving coal to the electric power plants on both  sides of the Great Lakes.

P.S.  The piles across the river are iron ore dropped there from lake freighters using self-unloading conveyor belts.  This ore is shipped by rail to steel mills in Youngstown and Pittsburgh (Conway Yard).  Hauling coal to the lake by rail, and transporting iron ore to steel mills south of the lake, has been the heart of Ashtabula rail traffic throughout its railroad history.

PRR Flatcar -- Marion, OH

This PRR flatcar was photographed as it passed AC Tower and Union Station in Marion,OH on 06/22/91.  It was apart of an east bound Conrail mixed freight.

West Street and SB former PC Main to Youngstown

On 02/24/06 I shot this picture showing the south bound tracks of the former New York Central(NYC) leading from Ashtabula Harbor to Carson Yard and to the P&LE yard in Youngstown, OH.  To the right in the foreground was where OD Tower (which controlled this crossing)  was located and immediately to the right.  Also, paralleling these tracks were those of the PY&A (Pittsburgh, Youngstown & Ashtabula) the Pennsy branch line in Ashtabula (now gone).  In the back ground and to the left of the tracks are (from left to right) what is left of the PRR round house (by yellow tractor arm)  and to its right the former PRR  Ashtabula yard office.

PC Covered hopper

On 02/25/08 I found a former Penn Central covered hopper parked on a siding at a grain elevator in Kileville, OH.  A weathered, real old-timer.

Horseshoe Curve, PA

An ex Conrail SD40-2 (CR3341) and NS3343 work their way slowly around the rim of perhaps the landmark of the Pennsylvania RR.  I photographed this on 10/22/06.  The "Curve" was built and placed in operation by the PRR in 1854 so that the railroad could cross the summit of the Alleghney Mountains and link Philadelphia with Pittsburgh and there by allowing the railroad to expand transportation business to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and the western states including Ohio, St. Louis and Chicago.  This single piece of railroad construction has been viewed by historians as the greatest factor that allowed the Pennsylvania Rail Road to grow later in the 

19th century into the largest, most profitable railroad in the United States and the World!

NYC/PC Depot today...

Located just east of the West Yard (see in lower left side of pic.) on the old NYC Water Level Route, "the Depot" has been a fixture in Ashtabula from back in the late 19th century.  It was the station from which Ashtabulan's made trips all over the country for years and years.  My first railroad passenger train trip was from  this depot to Cedar Point amusement park in 1950 with my grandparents.  Today the depot is used by CSX as a maintenance building. 

The "West Yard" a recent look...

On 02/24/06 I shot a westward looking picture of the old NYC/PC now CSX West Yard in Ashtabula, OH.  Built on the New York Central's "Water Level Route" (New York City via the Hudson River, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland to Chicago), the West Yard was Ashtabula's rail link to the world.  It has changed much since the days when I worked there in 1968 and 1969.  Its smaller now and the Main Line, which was four tracks into the 1990's is now down to two (see right side of the picture).

PC (exPRR?) hopper

On a cold, snow covered day in Ashtabula,OH on 12/27/90, I shot a former Penn-Central hopper on its way to the Ashtabula Harbor coal docks. PC HT 482003 was either an original PC car or

had its origins with the PRR or NYC.  The PC went out of business in the early 1970's,  so I'm sure that this car had a little rust on it when photographed.

PRR flatcar

PRR flatcar FM469381, a true railroad "dinosaur", was found and photographed by author on a siding on former Conrail East-West main at Ridgeway, OH CP124, on 05/26/91.  It may not look like much but considering the fact that it was probably manufactured and put into service no later than 1966, this car had some age on it!

ex-PRR N5C

CR Cab 23079 was an ex-PRR "cabin car" (caboose to the rest of you) that I photographed at Marion Union Station and AC Tower (when it was on the north side of the tracks), Marion, Ohio in 1991.