Subject: Re: (erielack) Marion and environs(2)

[Gordon Davids <g.davids_@_verizon.net>]

Recollections from my time as Asst. Track Supervisor at Kenton in the 
NYC, 1965-66:

EL served International Car Co., and NYC did not. There was no 
connecting track between the T&OC and EL at KN. The connection was with 
the Big 4 at HN.

The north west connection at Ridgeway was installed by NYC in 1965, at 
the same time TCS was installed on the T&OC Western between Ridgeway and 
Stanley, and the Big 4 Sandusky Branch was retired between a point south 
of HN and Belle Center.

I believe HN survived as an open office on the EL until 1976.

SANDS was the Big 4 / NYC name for HN. Its office call on the NYC was 
also HN. The Big 4 line that crossed at HN was the Sandusky Branch, 
locally called “The Sheepskin.” In 1966, the Sandusky Branch still 
crossed the EL at HN to serve an industry south of there. I don’t 
remember what the industry was, but I do know that the NYC kept a Big 4 
yard crew at Kenton for all that local work.

Sometime in the early 20th Century, the NYC consolidated the Big 4 and 
T&OC operations so that Big 4 trains operated from Toledo on the T&OC 
Eastern Division to Berwick, then over the Sheepskin through Kenton to 
Bellefontaine, thence to Indianapolis and Cincinnati. That arrangement 
continued until 1965, when the whole operation was rerouted to the T&OC 
Western Subdivision through Findlay, down to Ridgeway and onto the 
B-Line to Bellefontaine.

Now, remember, this recollection is 39 years old. I yield to the 
expertise of anyone with more recent or better documented information.

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