I have a few questions about the NS Main through Bedford Ohio.
1. Dose anybody know where each Milepost and Control Point is at on the NS Mainline to goes from Cleveland to Ravenna going through Bedford? Example, Like MP110 is in downtown Bedford. That's the only Milepost and CP I know along this stretch of line. Also if this makes more sense, where is MP109 and 108 and so on, and which direction is this going, North or South? I hope people understand what I'm saying.
2. Dose anybody know what times trains come through Bedford on both the NS and W&LE?
3. How many trains can come through in an hour on a busy day?
That's really it. If you want to add something about this area, go right ahead.
Also is each Milepost separated a mile apart?
This probably won't answer any of you're questions, and I wish I had something smater to say. I am on Google Earth right now and it looks like a nice little town. It appears to have a small-medium sized intermodal yard. It has a spurr that splits off and goes SW. I am a NS fan myself, so I wish I culd help you more.
Best of luck,
Justin
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Bedford is, indeed, a nice looking town with a railroad history going back to the early 1850's when the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad opened between its eponymous cities. Generally speaking, the mileposts (yup, one per mile) are numbered by miles from Rochester, Pennsylvania. So, if MP 110 is in downtown Bedford, then mileposts west of that point (or, toward downtown Cleveland) ascend in number; mileposts east of Bedford have correspondingly lower numbers. Incidentally, before the 1959 demolition of the old Pennsylvania RR depot on Cleveland's lakefront, the PRR said Bedford was 14 miles east of Cleveland. By 1965, with the PRR using the old Euclid Avenue station for Cleveland, Bedford is shown as 10.6 miles east.
The Cleveland & Pittsburgh (later part of the PRR) joined the Pan Handle Route (another PRR line) at Rochester, Pennsylvania for its route to downtown Pittsburgh and points east, and that's why mileposts are numbered from there to Cleveland and not, say,from downtown Pittsburgh. The Beaver River enters the Ohio River at Rochester and so the C&P, after following the Beaver, turns east to follow the Ohio, using the Pan Handle's tracks.
Kent, Ohio, where I live, is southeast of Bedford on the Wheeling & Lake Erie at MP 32 (measured from the northern end of that road in Cleveland's downtown). We see about two trains a day in Kent on the Wheeling; perhaps there are more in Bedford, but I doubt it. The NS line in Bedford (old C&P, then PRR) was cited in the April 3 or 4 Cleveland Plain Dealer as hosting 76 trains a day (the statistic was trains crossing Twinsburg Road about 6 miles east of Bedford).
Bedford has the original 1851 (I think) stone arch C&P viaduct across Tinker's Creek; it's a wonderful example of pre-Civil War railroad engineering. Bedford also has a fine, original depot on the W&LE right in its picturesque downtown.
If we go back before 1932, Bedford also hosted the busy mainline of the interurban Northern Ohio Traction and Light Company. Can you imagine how busy a place it must have been? And with at least 76 or 78 trains a day, it still is.
There you have it. Well explained!
bubbajustin This probably won't answer any of you're questions, and I wish I had something smater to say. I am on Google Earth right now and it looks like a nice little town. It appears to have a small-medium sized intermodal yard. It has a spurr that splits off and goes SW. I am a NS fan myself, so I wish I culd help you more. Best of luck, Justin
Thanks and also thanks NKP guy for all that history about Bedford Trains, also now I know how many trains a day go through there. I Printed three maps out of this line from Cleveland to like past Macedonia. I figured that MP104 is in Macedonia and on where the main crosses Route 20 that's MP120. Also, punch up Conrailforever and CSXno601 on YouTube. They have great video of NS trains going through Bedford.
Good video Rich. You had great shots from I480 by The Plain Dealer Plant.
Youre welcome! I'm just glad that youre question was answered! I thought that Bedford was closer to Indiana but I must be thinking of Bedford IN.
To expand a bit on something NKP_guy mentioned - mileposts can be confusing. Many "Milepost Zero's" no longer exist, the tracks having long since been removed.
On the Adirondack, we start our trips from Utica on the old Utica & Black River, with MP0 in Utica. The mileposts along that line have a "U" prefix, for Utica, and despite a 14 mile break where the tracks were removed in 1964, continue for the 80 miles to Philadelphia (NY).
At milepost U22.7, however, we leave the MA&N (nee U&BR, RW&O, NYC, PC, CR) to enter the tracks of what was originally the Mohawk and Malone, which ran from Herkimer, not Utica, up through the Adirondacks to Malone and points beyond. The mileage on that line is still measured from Herkimer, despite the fact that the tracks between Herkimer and Snow Junction, where we leave the MA&N, have been gone for a century or more.
Thus we jump from MP U22.7 to MP H29.4 all at once.
Re: Mileposts - They are generally a mile, but could vary a tad if something got in the way. There are often spots on a railroad where a mile has been carefully measured and marked. For our purposes, however, yep - they're a mile.
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I forgot to add one thing to my post. Is the frequency for the NS main through Bedford 161.070?
Yes, I just checked the Amtrak frequencies and I see that they use 161.070 from Rochester to Berea (so, right through Bedford); doubtless the NS uses others, especially. near "Motor Yard" and the container loading yard.
As for the Wheeling, my experience is that you'll grow a long beard before you hear anything from them on your scanner, especially near Bedford.
Thanks for the nice comments. This is, indeed, a great site and forum where everybody is an expert at something.
Thanks. I figured it might be that because Alstom an account on Trains Forums told me this NS main uses 161.070 through Ravenna so I wasn't that sure if it went all the way up to Bedford or not. Now I know it does. Thanks.
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