Narrow guage railroad know as the Bent, Zigzag and Crooked (BZC - Bellaire, Zanesville, Cincinnatti) and later as the OR&W (Ohio River and western). It closed around 1931. There is a book about it, Bent Zigzag and Crooked which is a collection of news articles thruout it's history.
I lived near one of the tunnels, and used to walk thru it up until around 2004. The ends have now caved in and closed it off. My mom rode the last train when it closed.
The 2 locomotives are on west side of Rt 800 about 2 miles north, right at sunfish creek.
There is a railroad car on Rt 26, south of jerusalem ohio.
I have several old pictures of the railroad, and the book mentioned above.
I know that two cars existed at least into 2010. One is Caboose #33. The other was a combine. Both were located on Ohio 78 East of Caldwell. #33 sat on pedestals to keep it off of the ground. The combine sat at ground level and was used for storage.
Anyway you look at it, hasn't this turned into an interesting topic?
ACY The two abandoned saddle tank locomotives never had anything to do with the Ohio River & Western. They were moved there long after the OR&W had been abandoned. The narrow gauge railroad was built as the Bellaire Zanesville & Cincinnati, although its birth was complicated and other names were involved. It ran from Bellaire, Ohio, on the Ohio River, to Zanesville via Woodsfield and Caldwell. Headquarters was in Woodsfield. There were some plans to convert to standard gauge, and a few miles eastward from Zanesville were eventually dual gauged, but that plan never went any farther. PRR took control early in the 20th Century; and in the early 1920's, the passenger cars were painted Tuscan with Pennsylvania lettering. Locomotives were also lettered PRR and given PRR numbers in the 9660 to 9673 series around the same time. The line was abandoned west of Woodsfield in 1928, and the rest of the line closed with a special train on Memorial Day, 1932. It was Ohio's last narrow gauge common carrier, and was documented by Bob Richardson in a Trains Magazine article in the late 1940's or early 1950's. OR&W had three tunnels and an incredible number of timber trestles. The one at Key, Ohio, was famous for spanning a dry depression on a hillside, and having a reverse (S) curve. Motive power consisted mostly of 4-4-0's and 2-6-0's, with one 2-8-0 (built for Rio Grande but sold to East Broad Top and re-sold to OR&W) and at least one ex E.B.T. 4-6-0. Some coal and natural gas were found in the area and were shipped on the line, but there were no traffic sources that were truly lucrative in the long run. A couple passenger cars exist in various degrees of decay. At least one, number 5, is said to be in Woodsfield awaiting a preservation plan. I don't know the state of those plans. That car was built as a coach by Jackson & Sharp, and it was OR&W's most luxurious car, with large windows and a smoking room at one end. HO models of coach 5 and similar non-smoker cars was offered in brass many years ago. The importer may have been NWSL (?). There are places where you can see the right of way if you know where to look, but those vestiges are fading fast. I believe a couple stations may exist. The only book is Hidden Treasures, by Edward Cass. I think it was self-published, and hard to find nowadays. Tom
The two abandoned saddle tank locomotives never had anything to do with the Ohio River & Western. They were moved there long after the OR&W had been abandoned.
The narrow gauge railroad was built as the Bellaire Zanesville & Cincinnati, although its birth was complicated and other names were involved. It ran from Bellaire, Ohio, on the Ohio River, to Zanesville via Woodsfield and Caldwell. Headquarters was in Woodsfield. There were some plans to convert to standard gauge, and a few miles eastward from Zanesville were eventually dual gauged, but that plan never went any farther. PRR took control early in the 20th Century; and in the early 1920's, the passenger cars were painted Tuscan with Pennsylvania lettering. Locomotives were also lettered PRR and given PRR numbers in the 9660 to 9673 series around the same time. The line was abandoned west of Woodsfield in 1928, and the rest of the line closed with a special train on Memorial Day, 1932. It was Ohio's last narrow gauge common carrier, and was documented by Bob Richardson in a Trains Magazine article in the late 1940's or early 1950's.
OR&W had three tunnels and an incredible number of timber trestles. The one at Key, Ohio, was famous for spanning a dry depression on a hillside, and having a reverse (S) curve. Motive power consisted mostly of 4-4-0's and 2-6-0's, with one 2-8-0 (built for Rio Grande but sold to East Broad Top and re-sold to OR&W) and at least one ex E.B.T. 4-6-0.
Some coal and natural gas were found in the area and were shipped on the line, but there were no traffic sources that were truly lucrative in the long run.
A couple passenger cars exist in various degrees of decay. At least one, number 5, is said to be in Woodsfield awaiting a preservation plan. I don't know the state of those plans. That car was built as a coach by Jackson & Sharp, and it was OR&W's most luxurious car, with large windows and a smoking room at one end. HO models of coach 5 and similar non-smoker cars was offered in brass many years ago. The importer may have been NWSL (?).
There are places where you can see the right of way if you know where to look, but those vestiges are fading fast. I believe a couple stations may exist.
The only book is Hidden Treasures, by Edward Cass. I think it was self-published, and hard to find nowadays.
Tom
Interesting how 2 abandoned locos lead to the discovery of a railroad that's been gone for 85 years! Time to get onto wikimapia and see what may remain.
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
Deggesty Norm48327 Google Earth does show a railroad st on the southeast side of town. Further searching on the web has proven fruitless. My goodness! All you have to do is look in the June, 1916, issue of the Guide! Page 507 shows the Ohio River and Western Railway Co., which ran from Bellair to Zanesville (headquarters were in Pittsburgh). There were two daily, except Sunday, trains that ran all the way, and two Sunday only trains that ran betweenWoodsfield and Zanesville. The January, 1930, issue shows that it was 3' and had been absorbed into the PRR, and had a mixed daily, except Sunday, from Bellair to Woodsfield and back.
Norm48327 Google Earth does show a railroad st on the southeast side of town. Further searching on the web has proven fruitless.
Google Earth does show a railroad st on the southeast side of town. Further searching on the web has proven fruitless.
My goodness! All you have to do is look in the June, 1916, issue of the Guide!
Page 507 shows the Ohio River and Western Railway Co., which ran from Bellair to Zanesville (headquarters were in Pittsburgh). There were two daily, except Sunday, trains that ran all the way, and two Sunday only trains that ran betweenWoodsfield and Zanesville.
The January, 1930, issue shows that it was 3' and had been absorbed into the PRR, and had a mixed daily, except Sunday, from Bellair to Woodsfield and back.
That's a long way back.
K4sPRR Those locomotives are Porter 0-4-0T that were owned by the Wheeling Steel Corporation. They were numbered 3002 (blt 1926) and 3003 (Blt 1927), both are located off Rt 800 about two miles from Woodsfield.
Those locomotives are Porter 0-4-0T that were owned by the Wheeling Steel Corporation. They were numbered 3002 (blt 1926) and 3003 (Blt 1927), both are located off Rt 800 about two miles from Woodsfield.
K4 ye.S that should be them. Interesting that they aren't even connected to the railroad that went through town.
Was there anything else behind the fence that may have shown evidence of occupation at one time, like a house, warehouse, or business facilities of any kind?
Wiiiiiild guess here. I wonder if the property owner, past or present, purchased the locomotives with an eye on restoration and operation, or because he was just a railfan who could afford to indulge himself?
In that vein, I remember reading an article in "Air Classics" magazine years ago of an aircraft collection in Canada, quite an impressive one, where the owner purchased a group of World War Two RCAF aircraft at scrap prices, brought them to his farm, and just left them there, rebuffing purchase offers on all of them until the day he died. He'd never served in the Canadian Forces, possibly their version of a "4-F," and was possibly soothing his frustration at the same by getting those planes.
Wonder if that's the case here with those locomotives, i.e bought by a railroader "wanna-be" who kept them a little too long?
PS: I just saw Deggesty's post, looks like he got his in before I did. Those two locomotives could just be very special survivors of a long dead 'road!
Johnny
Norm
Can you give a better discription of the location? Rt 78 or 800 (or???)? How far from town? Left or right side of the street.
Looking on Google Earth, I don't see any evidence of old ROWs... just a few fire-breaks, but nothing I would construe as a ROW. So if there was a RR there it was a LONG time ago. Was there any mining or logging in the area that might have used locos to haul stuff just locally?
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
A couple years ago the wife and I took a trip to southern Ohio. On the way back we came through Woodsfield. As we were heading north out of town I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a steam loco in the brush.
A quick U turn and pulled to the side of the road and found not one but 2 locos. Obviously long abandoned and missing parts. Being covered in brush and behind a gate marked no tresspassing made ID difficult but the closer unit appeared to be an 0-6-0.
Trouble is I can't think of any railroad that would have been close to the area and figure these must have been trabsported there, but why?
Any ideas? We will be heading back to the area this summer and we would like to contact the owner to get a closer look.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.