Akron Canton & Youngstown

[1oldgoat]

As the person who started this thread, I would like to encourage folks to also check out the AC&Y Historical Society and their web site at: www.acyhs.org . They have a fine site with a lot of info (and have a good number of vintage photos). Their magazine that s informative and a joy to read. The ACYHS has a new format- it's free! However, they accept donations and I'll send mine in when my RR retirement check is posted on Monday. The ACYHS has a nicer site that some of the other HS sites for considerably larger carriers. Check it out and support this fine organization and the excellent job they do!

[1oldgoat]

Wow, I'm pleasantly surprised that this thread has been so well recieved just a few days after its inception.  Thanks to all who have contriuted.

Here's what I can add: Akron was the "Rubber Capitol of the World"  Goodyear, Firestone, BF Goodrich, General and Seiberling all had HQs and plants in or around Akron. The AC&Y was the favored route to get them rolling out of town due to the many connections previously listed.  Traffic headed east was generally handed over to the Erie, PRR and B&O (number of cars interchanged in that order).  The AC&Y main offices were also in Akron, so the officers of the AC&Y knew all the top people at the tire companies.  And the road gave their friends great service, hence the moniker "Ohio's Road of Service".  The reason N&W gave them the autonomy the other roads they swept up in the '64 merger was to preserve the feeling that it was a local "home" road.  A case of superb "branding" long before that word was coined.

As mentioned, ACY-DTI was a popular routing for tires headed for Detroit.  Both were Ohio (DT&I mostly so) small Class 1 carriers (back when the ICC threashold for a Class 1 was $1M in revenue annually.  Since both lines were large short-lines whith few branch lines, the tires were a large chunk of their traffic and protected it so.  As some of you know, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone (along with Thomas Edison) were close friends (even went camping together) so all Fords had Firestone tires, which went via the aforementioned routing.  By the way, tires were the reason the AC&Y purchased so many used 50 foot outside braced boxcars- most with double doors.  Tires were light but bulky so a car with just a 40ton capacity was good enough.  There were still plenty of these cars availble at low prices in the 50s.  AC&Y was big on second hand and leased cars - Mather boxcars, ex L&N off-side and N&W rib-side hoppers, and a good number of used 40' steel boxcars (ex NH,and others) through A.A. Morrison and US Railway Equipment. (These were the yellow 40 footers with the large red ACY).

The road also had a lot of "overhead" traffic.  I was a yard clerk for the E-L in Akron in '68-'69.  There werenot a few waybills for cars coming from points west of Chicago headed to the East Coast (a good amount of lumber from the Pacific Northwest).  I never figured out why the bigger roads would short haul this traffic when it could have gone further East on their road.  Someone told me it was because the AC&Y would hold cars while the shippers lined up buyers for the lading (again, a lot of lumber).  This is something the Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific also did. (Another interesting and under examined shortline, as well as one of the many "& Pacific" roads that never came close to the West Coast.)

The E-L did a lot of interchange with AC&Y- ususally 50-60 cars each day.  Aside from tires and mixed freight, there was a lot of limestone from Carey destined for stell mills mostly in Youngstown. Aside from FM H16-44s, H20-44s and Alco S-2s, they had one RS-1 (#102).  I never saw it myself, and it wasn't until the late 90s that I even saw a photo of it.

Good lord that's enough of my yammering.  Spread the word about this thread.  The more the merrier, and the more info we'll get!

Highball the gate!

OS

1oldgoat

[Anonymous]

Thanks 1OldGoat for starting this thread.  Most Outlanders like me only know the AC&Y from the fancy yellow boxcars with fire engine red lettering that were manufactured in the 60s, e.i. All Nation's O scale version and Athearn's HO model.  I trust this thread will produce some interesting information to educate me on a little road that provided yeoman service to its customers.  What's in a name?  AC&Y wasn't the only railroad that didn't serve its namesake towns or cities as we all know.  Perhaps the most abused name was "& Pacific".  It sounded good when the founders were trying to get financial support to start construction.

But PLEASE don't start listing the names of your favorite hometown lines here and let us all try to keep this thread as AC&Y as possible.  Yes, I'm guilty as charged too on the Midland Continental thread!  Tar & Feather me if you must but please don't make me eat crow!  Exceptions of course are if foreign locomotives or equipment was operated on the AC&Y or purchased outright by the line.  I'm sure all will agree that this must be mentioned here for obvious reasons.

 

[K4sPRR]

It was due to the connections with so many other major rail lines that ACY mentioned, the road maintained quite a profitable existance interchanging merchandise.

[ACY Tom]

I didn't realize until now that this thread had actually started. I'm about a day behind the times. You're right about the nature of the small towns the AC&Y served. They were mostly agricultural and they did contribute some traffic, but if service to these towns had been the road's principal livelihood, it never would have survived. Before 1920, the track was the Northern Ohio, owned by the Lake Erie & Western, which was in turn controlled by the NYC, which didn't really want anything to do with it. The AC&Y at that time was a 7+ mile switching road in Akron that connected Goodyear with the B&O, PRR, Erie, W&LE, and the inconsequential N.O. The NYC sold the LE&W to NKP, but nobody seemed to want the N.O. The AC&Y realized that the N.O. intersected every major trunk line in Ohio. The only large RR's it missed were the N&W, the Wabash, and the B&LE. So the AC&Y leased, and later purchased, the N.O. and began a gradual process of improvement. This began at the east end (Akron and Mogadore) and gradually worked west to Delphos. The track improvements allowed purchase of new and larger locomotives, and by WWII the standard road power consisted of modern copies of light USRA 2-8-2's, supplemented by 2-8-0's. Six 0-8-0's, essentially copies of the USRA design, worked Brittain Yard in East Akron. Improvement of the AC&Y permitted Goodyear and other Akron-based manufacturers to access the entire scope of the national RR system without being limited to one or two local connections. From east to west, the road connected with W&LE at Mogadore; Erie, PRR, and B&O in Akron; B&O in Medina, W&LE in Spencer (direct access to Toledo); Big 4 in New London (access to Cleveland and points east on the NYC System, plus access to Columbus, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, St. Louis & points SE); B&O at Plymouth; PRR at New Washington (direct access to Toledo); PRR at Chatfield; T&OC (NYC System) at Sycamore; C&O and Big 4 at Carey; T&OC at Arlington; NKP (LE&W) at Bluffton (a direct shot to St. Louis & Southwestern connections; B&O at Columbus Grove; DT&I at Columbus Grove (preferred route for tires & wheel rims from Akron to Detroit); NKP again at Delphos (another good routing to St. Louis); and, lastly, a rather minor interchange with PRR at Delphos. In its earliest years the AC&Y was projected to serve all the towns in its name; but this plan was dropped when analysis indicated that such expansion would not be financially beneficial. AC&Y relied on connections with other, established RR's to serve these communities. I don't want to go on too long, but I'll just point out 2 very telling elements of AC&Y's expedited service. First was well casings from Youngstown Sheet & Tube to Southwestern oil fields. This traffic came from Youngstown on B&O or Erie, ran AC&Y to Bluffton or Delphos, then NKP to St. Louis where it was forwarded by Southwestern RR's. Another was traffic that came from the East on W&LE, interchanged to AC&Y at Spencer, then dropped at Bluffton to be sent west to St. Louis on NKP. This saved time by bypassing the NKP's Bellevue yard. OK. I'm done for now. Thanks.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

The only "Road of Service" with which I'm familiar was the North Shore Line.

If I read correctly many years ago, AC&Y did not serve any sizable towns in Ohio that weren't already served by another road.  I would think that a situation like that would have left AC&Y teetering at the edge of bankruptcy for most of its existence.

[1oldgoat]

It's time for a thread dedicated to "Ohio's Road of Service"