Trackside Vol 2

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Railroad Photos Volume 2


Greenville, OH Abandoned track of the Cincinnati Northern Railroad winds through the woods south of Greenville’s business district. The city’s former passenger depot can be seen in the distance past the steel girder bridge.


Cincinnati, OH A Northfolk Southern freight train rumbles through the Cincinnati suburb of Elmwood Place in the late afternoon. It’s heading south toward the city’s main NS yard about ten minutes ahead. Elmwood Place is an old working class neighborhood. A large Catholic church sits on main street just a block from this spot, and old factories cluster around the tracks on the south end of the community.

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Left: As the afternoon freight goes by, an NS yard engine idles on a siding next to the main line tracks. A small NS yard is nearby that serves local businesses.

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Ansonia, OH A CSX employee works to free a switch from ice and snow on a cold January day while a pair of diesel engines wait. The switches here connect to a small transfer yard where cars are shunted aside for local businesses. Ansonia is a small, one traffic light village near the Indiana border in western Ohio. A busy CSX line that connects Cleveland and Indianapolis runs through the village.

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Although a small village, Ansonia once had a train depot that offered the surrounding area both passenger and freight service. This was part of the “Big Four Route” of the New York Central Railroad. It connected four cities Cleveland, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. In the 1950’s nine passenger trains rolled through here every day. Today, the depot is slowly falling apart from age and neglect along the tracks that are now part of the CSX system. 6

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Union City, IN Union City actually straddles the Ohio/Indiana state line. The east end of the city is in Ohio, the west end is in Indiana. Just inside the Indiana border CSX has a small facility that includes an office/tower and maintenance shed. At one time the tower controlled a track junction between the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads that met here.

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One block west of t he CSX facility stands an old passenger depot. This building was built in 1893 for the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was originally located in Piqua, OH. In 1912 the PRR moved the station to Union City. It was originally a wood frame structure. The brick facade was added after the 1912 move. Today the building serves as a local museum and Art Society center.

A CSX freight train rushes past the old depot on its way to Indianapolis.

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Photo by Diane Liebrandt

Plant City, FL While I was taking photos of trains and railroad structures in snow and single-digit temperatures, my wife was visiting her parents in central Florida. She took this photo of an Amtrak passanger train going past the old Union Depot in downtown Plant City, FL. The Union Depot was built jointly by the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Coast Line railroads, and was completed in 1909. It served as both a passenger station and freight depot. At one time it was one of the busiest depots in all of Florida. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. (The depot is a multi-building structure. There is much more to the depot than seen in this photo). 10

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Greenville, OH The old Greenville depot sits off the beaten path near the downtown district. You have to take a narrow dead end road down into a hollow to find it. I have driven nearby many times, but had to get directions to find the depot. The age of the depot isn’t known, but it is believed to have been built in the late 1800’s. It was operated by the Cincinnati Northern Railroad (later part of the New York Central Railroad). Passenger service ended in the 1930s.

The name “Greenville” can still be read on the weathered sign on the southern end of the depot.

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Cincinnati, OH A CSX freight train runs northward along Spring Grove Avenue in the Cincinnati suburb of Clifton. The train left CSX’s huge Queensgate Yard a few minutes earlier. Queensgate is one of the largest classification yards in the entire U.S. It is seven miles long, with over 70 miles of track contained inside the yard.

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A diesel engine switches chemical tank cars at the Proctor & Gamble facility on Spring Grove Avenue in the suburb of Winton Place.

A switch is being thrown in the P&G yard as a crew moves tank cars

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The yard worker who threw the switch rides the rear car as the group of cars is backed into another track in the P&G yard

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A CSX engine spots some chemical tank cars in another part of the P&G chemical plant

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Dayton, OH Two cabooses in old Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) colors sit in the CSX yard off of Wagoner Ford Road in north Dayton.

Another caboose sits idle in the Northfolk Sothern yard in Moraine in November, 2008. This caboose is in old Conrail colors.

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Another caboose, this one in fading Norfolk Southern colors, sits idle in the same NS yard in Moraine.

This Conrail caboose sits in disrepair along the old Pennsylvania Railroad right-of-way in Germantown, OH. This caboose was originally built and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The caboose was repainted sometime after Conrail absorbed the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968.

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Battle Creek, MI A group of Canadian National Railroad (CN) diesel engines sit in the CN yard on the west end of Battle Creek, MI. This is a former Grand Trunk yard and repair/ maintenance facility. While railroad equipment can still occasionally be seen in Grand Trunk colors, the CN dominates the yard now. 18

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Grand Trunk engine 4600 sits in another part of the CN yard in Battle Creek.

Illinois Central engine 6063 was also seen at the CN yard in Battle Creek.

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Cincinnati, OH A CSX local train approaches the northern Cincinnati suburb of Glendale. This late afternoon local consisted of two engines and two cars. The cars were being dropped off at a nearby business.

Glendale’s old depot still exists, and today serves as a local museum. The depot was built in 1880 by the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad. The CH&D was purchased by the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad in 1917.

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A CSX freight train runs north through Glendale at sunset, January, 2008.

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About me: I am a graphic artist and avid train enthusiast. My grandfather retired from the Pennsylvania Railroad, and my great-grandfather worked for the C&O. I grew up hearing stories of life working on the railroads, and I also grew up in cities that had busy railroad action. It’s pretty easy to see where my interest in railroads came from! Geoff Liebrandt

My grandfather, Harry Liebrandt. He worked on the Buckeye Region of the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1924 to his retirement in 1966. He worked as a welder/track repairman.

Harry Edward Liebrandt 1901-1992


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