B&O Cincinnati Terminal - A Rail Tale

[BaltACD]

Told by the players that were in the 'game' on many levels.

http://retiredcsx.com/rails-tails.html

 

About 3/4 of the names mentioned I either worked for, knew personally or was in their reporting chain in one position or another.

[Electroliner 1935]

BaltACD

Told by the players that were in the 'game' on many levels.

http://retiredcsx.com/rails-tails.html 

Balt. Thanks for the link. As a railfan, I grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from U of C. with an EE degree in '61, I watched the rail network with much interest. Loved watching the action at Winton Place where over 23 passenger trains each way appeared on 5-10 minute headways. B&O to/from Pittsburg, Detroit, and Washington DC; PRR to/from Chicago & Pittsburg, NYC to/from Cleveland and Detroit, plus N&W to/from Norfolk. Every type of motive power from B&Os streamlind Pacifics, NYC Shark Noses, N&W J's to PRR FM's and T-1s. I rode every B&O passenger route out of Cincinnati except the route through Columbus. 

I remember the B&O's Cincinnatian and what a great operation to watch it's back-up move after leaving Winton Place en route to Detroit. It was a precise and smooth move. It would run East to NA tower (Ivorydale) and stop as it cleared the plant, NA operator would line the crossover and diverging route to the CH&D, conductor in the obervation car would signal three short on the comunications air, and back we'd go, down the ramp, cross Spring Grove ave, and aproach the switchman at Spring Grove, on the CH&D, another three toots on the com line as we got the come ahead signal from him and the train stopped as we cleared the switch, reversed and off we'd go toward Hamlton. As smooth and quick as possible. Thats all been replaced with a new double track overpass, the old CH&D through the Spring Grove Cemetery has been lifted as part of the Queensgate project. Winton Place station is gone as are the grade crossings on either side (Clifton Ave and Mitchell Ave.) Now Amtrak's Cardinal takes longer to get from Hamilton to Union Station than the Cincinnatian did with out a back up move. B&O east of Ivorydale is no longer. NS starts North of Winton Place on former NYC route. NA tower remains as a gutted brick shell. 

Queensgate happened after I left Cincinnati for Chicago. And the reference to Spring Grove cemetery was spot on. When Cincinnati still had streetcars, the route 47 Winton Place car used to run up Winton Rd along the East Wall of the cemetery and crossed the CH&D tracks. 

And in 1964, my utility employer built a new coal fired generating plant that had PDP processors which used paper punch tape for feeding instructions into it. This created boxes of little dots and one Easter, the Engineers who cared for these computers mailed envelopes with plastic easter eggs to many of their fellow engineers who unsuspecting opened them only to have a cloud of black paper dots fall out. So some of the stories of the Quensgate computer installation and its teething experiences was welcome. 

As I hear from CRRC members, Queensgate is clogged with trains being held out on the shared tracks with the NS and blocking NS trains. 

Lets hope CSX survives EHH. 

[JoeKoh]

Csx isn't running very well at all.Friend had a train depart Willard yesterday.Was told to tie down at Hicksville Ohio.(milepost 108) There are plenty of hours spent moving crews from train to terminal and such.How is this cost effective???

stay safe

joe

[mudchicken]

Thanks for the link Balt. Like Electroliner, Cincinnati was home (and we grew up, years apart, almost in the same neighborhood where the railroads never entered)...My dad spent most of his career at P&G - Ivorydale and that part of industrial Cincinnati was fascinating to watch along with everywhere else in the Mill Creek Valley along Spring Grove Ave. mentioned in these stories...

[Gramp]

I've always wondered why Trains hasn't focused an extensive article on Cincinnati's railroading in its heydey (aside from the passenger terminal).  It's seemed that it was marvelously complex.  

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Gramp

I've always wondered why Trains hasn't focused an extensive article on Cincinnati's railroading in its heydey (aside from the passenger terminal).  It's seemed that it was marvelously complex.  

 

There was an article in a TRAINS all-diesel issue titled "Those Cincinnati Curiosities".  It covered the various minority builder locomotives (especially Baldwin and Lima-Hamilton) that inhabited Cincinnati in the mid-1960's.