(erielack) Re: EL in Railfan and Railroad

["Paul Brezicki" <doctorpb_@_bellsouth.net>]

Thanks, Steve, I figured you'd chime in at some point. That's quite an 
Ashland Turn, 99 cars. Considering the FB-4 consist, it appears that roughly 
half the Turn was Hardings. Interesting also that the train was essentially 
empty parts cars. IIRC, the inbound materials for Fisher Body were trucked 
in from foundries nearby at Lordstown and Cleveland. I recall a study you 
sent me a while back, conducted by EL in the mid-60's, considering the 
potential for diversion of FB traffic from Cleveland being diverted to rail. 
It concluded that rail service was too slow and unreliable over such a short 
haul, not to mention the poor equipment utilization. One wonders if a 
dedicated short, reduced crew, interdivisional train similar in concept to 
Reading's "Bee-Line Service" might have succeeded here.

There were quite a few customers at Ashland. It appears that activity on the 
Kent Sub was concentrated in two portions, between Harding and Ashland 
(including Mansfield), then further east between Creston (W&LE interchange) 
and Kent, and few customers in the roughly 20 miles between Ashland and 
Creston. So a turn terminating at Ashland makes sense to me now.

According to my SPV atlas, the LA&S (Lorain, Ashland & Southern) was a PRR 
affiliate, and evidently was abandoned long before the EL years. So I 
presume Erie picked up some LA&S trackage and customers in the Ashland area 
when this occurred.

Paul B


From: "Stephen Twarogowski" <stwarogowski_@_windstream.net>
Subject: (erielack) Re: EL in Railfan and Railroad

Industry in Ashland included the following (from the Central Territory firms 
list):

      Ashland City Farm Bureau Ashland OH EL Grain
      Ashland Equity Exchange Ashland OH EL Grain
      Budd Co. Ashland OH EL Railcars
      Eagle Rubber CO. Ashland OH EL Rubber Goods
      F.E. Myers Ashland OH EL Pumps and Sprayers
      Faultless Rubber Co. Ashland OH EL Rubber Goods
      Garber Publishing Ashland OH EL Printers
      General Latex & Chemical Ashland OH EL Liquid Latex
      Hess and Clark Ashland OH EL Animal Feed
      National Latex Products Ashland OH EL Rubber Goods
      U Brand Co. Ashland OH EL Pipe Fittings


Picking a Sunday out of my January 1972 Marion Trainsheets it shows the 
Ashland Turn on Sunday, Jan 16, 1972 as being ordered at 1700 and departing 
Marion at 1900.  10 loads, 89 empties with RS3's 1005, 1037, 1026, 1008, 
1021.  The 1026 and 1008 were left at Harding; 1037 was left at Mansfield; 
the 1005 was left at Ashland.  The following day FB-4 was ordered at 1600 
and departed Marion at 2100 with C424 2406 and 1 load, 52 empties.  It 
arrived OD at 2245.  FB-5 made the return trip departing OD at 0035 with 43 
loads and 8 empties; 29/8 for Marion, 14/0 for the C&O.  Looking at a few 
days worth of FB-4/FB-5 it looks like C209 was its assigned caboose. 
Conductor McAdow and engineer Schmitt.

Steve


From: krinmich_@_aol.com
Subject: (erielack) Re: EL in Railfan and Railroad

Paul

The last crew at Harding was done on Saturday morning.? Sometime on 
Friday/Saturday whatever westbound with a divisional crew that came along 
and could work without delaying anybody would gather up the engines.? Could 
be MC-3, 93, 95, 89, 61 whatever - any Marion hump train.? Might not be the 
same train for all the engines because there was a timetable limit on how 
many engines you could have together.? Ashland had a lot of little places.? 
There was some kind of foundry and a lot of stuff along the old LA&S south.? 
Biggest place was probably Eagle Rubber (I think that's the name).? They did 
a lot of business but no tonnage because it was a lot of rubber toy 
products.? Eagle Rubber still was using a lot of the old 40 ft box cars just 
because of?their product with low tonnage.? I nerver worked as an agent 
there so I couldn't tell you all the places.? Ashland was the end of the 
turn because we had to get the serviced engine back there in time for Monday 
morning.? There wouldn't!
  be anything to pick up coming back unless for some reason the Marions from 
Friday had gotten missed at Ashland or Mansfield or maybe there was still a 
WB of all Marions still sitting at Martel WB siding that had been set off 
because Yard C was filled up.? You couldn't pick up anything off the PRR at 
Mansfield because that would be a yard move and I don't really think it 
would be a wise idea to have rord power going into the sidetracks at 
Mansfield to pick up.? If there was anything, there wouldn't be anyone there 
to tell us it was ready.? Anything that got picked up on Sunday night was 
because it had not been picked up since?it was ready on Friday or the 
aforementioned Marions not moved because Yard C was full.? Usually by Sunday 
night we had cleaned up what we had set off on Wednesday through Friday 
that?had been?held out of Marion WB Yard.

Keith
 


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