Ashland Railway

Last updated
Ashland Railway
Overview
Headquarters Mansfield, Ohio
Reporting mark ASRY
LocaleNorth-Central Ohio
Dates of operation1986
Technical
Track gauge 4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Other
Website http://www.ashlandrailway.com

The Ashland Railway( reporting mark ASRY) is a Class III railroad shortline railroad based in Mansfield, Ohio and operating within North Central Ohio. [1] Since its inception in 1986, Ashland Railway has grown to provide service 24 hours a day 7 days a week along 55 miles of track to industries within Ashland, Huron, Richland and Wayne counties.

ASRY interchanges with the Norfolk Southern Railway in Mansfield, the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway in Plymouth, and CSX Transportation (CSXT) in Willard. The shortline operates on two separate segments that connect in Mansfield. One line runs northeast through Ashland to terminate in West Salem; the other northwest to Willard through Plymouth and Shelby.

Ashland's "original" main line, which began operations in 1986, was purchased from Conrail. This line's heritage goes back to the Erie Lackawanna Railway (EL) and was a segment in its Chicago - New York main line. After Conrail took control of the Erie Lackawanna, large segments of its trackage were deemed redundant. The portions east of West Salem and west of Mansfield were removed around 1984. Conrail retained ownership of the EL line between Mansfield and Ontario to service a GM plant. The crossing with Conrail's Ft. Wayne Line (former Pennsylvania Railroad) was removed, and spur tracks were built to interchange traffic on either side. The railway built a spur line to serve an industrial park in Ashland. [2]

The second portion of the Ashland Railway is the Willard to Mansfield section. This was operated by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as a line from the docks on Lake Erie through the city of Mt. Vernon to south-central Ohio,. Because of economic downturns in the 1980s, freight traffic declined drastically on this line and it was later reduced to a branch line between Willard and Mansfield. By 1990, the new CSX Transportation was ready to part with this line and sold it to the Ashland Railway. Before the purchase of this CSX line, the Ashland had been limited to only one interchange, with Conrail in Mansfield.

In the village of Plymouth, the line passed the former Plymouth Locomotive Works plant, shuttered since 1999.

In 1924, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway bought the Ashland Coal and Iron Railway, a separate company from the current one with a similar name. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad</span> Former U.S. Class 1 railroad

The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad, was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey, and by ferry with New York City, a distance of 395 miles (636 km). The railroad was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1853, and created primarily to provide a means of transport of anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Northeast Pennsylvania to large coal markets in New York City. The railroad gradually expanded both east and west, and eventually linked Buffalo with New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Branch</span> Railway line in New Jersey

The Northern Branch is a railroad line that runs from Jersey City to Northvale in northeastern New Jersey, and formerly extended further into New York State. The line was constructed in 1859 by the Northern Railroad of New Jersey to connect the New York and Erie Railroad's Piermont Branch terminus in Piermont, New York, directly to Erie's primary terminal in Jersey City, initially Exchange Place, later Pavonia Terminal. In 1870 the line was extended to Nyack, New York, and continued to provide passenger service until 1966. After the Erie's unsuccessful merger with the Lackawanna Railroad to form the Erie-Lackawanna, ownership of the line passed into the hands of Conrail upon its formation in 1976 from a number of bankrupt railroads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conrail</span> Former American Class I railroad (1976–1999)

Conrail, formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do business as an asset management and network services provider in three Shared Assets Areas that were excluded from the division of its operations during its acquisition by CSX Corporation and the Norfolk Southern Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad</span> Railroad in New York, United States

The Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad is a short line railroad that operates in Livingston County and Monroe County in New York, United States. The railroad interchanges with CSX at Genesee Junction in Chili, New York, the Rochester and Southern Railroad (RSR) at Genesee Junction and the RSR's Brooks Avenue Yard in Gates, New York, and with the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum at Industry, New York. Their primary freight consists of food products: grains and corn syrup. In 1997, the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad was selected as Short Line Railroad of the Year by industry trade journal Railway Age. The LAL is also the parent company for the Bath and Hammondsport Railroad, the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad and the Ontario Midland Railroad.

The Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway is a Class II regional railroad that provides freight service, mainly in the areas of Northern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. It took its name from the former Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway, most of which it bought from the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Stourbridge Line</span> Shortline railroad based in Honesdale, Pennsylvania

The Stourbridge Line is a shortline railroad that operates 25 miles (40 km) of former Erie Lackawanna Railroad trackage between Honesdale and Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, where it connects with Norfolk Southern Railway. The line was previously owned by the Lackawaxen-Honesdale Shippers Association and operated under contract by Robey Railroads. The operation was contracted to the Morristown & Erie Railway in January, 2009; service ended in 2011. Service was resumed by the Delaware, Lackawaxen & Stourbridge Railroad (DL&S) on May 9, 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wiregrass Central Railroad</span>

The Wiregrass Central Railroad is a shortline railroad operating 19.5 miles (31.4 km) of track from a CSX Transportation connection at Waterford, near Newton, to Enterprise, Alabama via the south side of Fort Novosel. The company was initially a subsidiary of Gulf and Ohio Railways and began operations in 1987 following the purchase of the Enterprise Subdivision branch line of CSX Transportation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delaware Otsego Corporation</span> American railway holding company

The Delaware Otsego Corporation (DO) is an American railway holding company, which owns the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway and the Central New York Railroad. It is headquartered in Cooperstown, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleveland railroad history</span>

Cleveland has been and continues to be deeply rooted in railroad history.

The Sarnia Subdivision is a railroad line owned by the Lake Erie and Detroit River Railway and operated by CSX Transportation in the Canadian province of Ontario. The line runs from Chatham north to Sarnia along a former Pere Marquette Railway line. From its north end, CSX has trackage rights west over the Canadian National Railway's Strathroy Subdivision and the Grand Trunk Western Railroad's Flint Subdivision to the CSX Port Huron Subdivision near Port Huron, Michigan, and the Saginaw Subdivision in Flint.

The Fort Wayne Line and Fort Wayne Secondary is a rail line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad (CFE), and CSX Transportation in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. The line runs from Pittsburgh, west via Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Gary, Indiana, along what was once the Pennsylvania Railroad's Pittsburgh to Chicago main line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Railroad of Indiana</span> Class III railroad

The Central Railroad Company of Indiana is a Class III short-line railroad that owns 92 miles (148 km) of track between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Shelbyville, Indiana, with trackage rights on CSX to Indianapolis, Indiana. CIND interchanges with CSX, Indiana & Ohio Railway, and Norfolk Southern in Cincinnati, and in North Bend, Ohio, with CSX; an Indiana & Ohio branchline splits from the CIND line at Valley Junction, a railroad location near Hooven, Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indiana Northeastern Railroad</span> Railway line in the United States of America

The Indiana Northeastern Railroad is a Class III short line freight railroad operating on nearly 130 miles (210 km) in southern lower Michigan, northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio. The Indiana Northeastern Railroad Company began operations in December 1992 and is an independent privately owned company. As of 2017 the railroad hauled more than 7,000 carloads per year. Commodities moved by the railroad include corn, soybeans, wheat and flour. It also handles plastics, fiberboard, aluminum, copper, coal, perlite, stone, lumber, glass, rendering products, as well as agricultural fertilizers and chemicals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad</span> Short line railroad

The Chicago, Ft. Wayne & Eastern Railroad is a short line railroad offering service from Tolleston, Indiana to Crestline, Ohio, United States over the former Fort Wayne Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It began operations in 2004 as a division of the Central Railroad of Indianapolis (CERA), under the overall corporate ownership of RailAmerica. CFE operates 273 miles (439 km) of rail leased from CSX.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central New York Railroad</span> Railway line in the United States

The Central New York Railroad is a shortline railroad operating local freight service along ex-Southern Tier Line trackage in New York and Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Youngstown Belt Railroad</span> Railway line in Ohio

The Youngstown Belt Railroad is a part of the Ohio Central Railroad System, which was bought by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in 2008, serving the area northwest of Youngstown, Ohio. It began operations in 1997, mainly on ex-Erie Railroad trackage owned by the affiliated Warren and Trumbull Railroad (W&T), which acquired the "Lordstown Cluster" from Conrail in 1996. It also leases a short ex-Baltimore and Ohio Railroad segment from CSX Transportation, formerly operated by the W&T.

The following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.

The Carrothers Secondary—named for an unincorporated village through which it once passed—is a railway line that is currently owned by CSX Transportation. This line, constructed in the early 1870s, was formerly a portion of the Pennsylvania Railroad's branch line from the company's Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway main line to Toledo, Ohio; and, several decades later, Detroit, Michigan. Today the line consists of approximately 20 miles (32 km) of track from Toledo to Woodville. Woodville to Tiffin is owned by the Sandusky-Seneca-Tiffin Port Authority—which is 21 miles (34 km) long—is operated by the Northern Ohio and Western Railway. The Toledo to Woodville line was one of the Conrail lines that was originally transferred to CSX circa 1999. PRR abandoned the Carrothers–Mansfield segment in 1959; Conrail abandoned the Tiffin–Carrothers segment in 1984; the SST Port Authority purchased the Woodville to Tiffin line from Conrail circa 1990 and contracted the Indiana Hi-Rail Corp to operate it up until the IHRC bankruptcy.

The Saginaw Subdivision is a railroad line in the U.S. state of Michigan. The line runs 105 miles from Toledo, Ohio, to Saginaw, Michigan. CSX owns the line although since 2006, the section from Mt. Morris to Saginaw has been leased to the Lake State Railway but is still occasionally used by CSX. The Plymouth to Mt. Morris line was also leased to LSRC starting in March 2019.

References

  1. Harding, Michael D. "Short line: Ashland railway". Trains . No. February 2021. Kalmbach. pp. 46–47.
  2. Minnear, Travis (November 25, 2008). "Rail spur will link to business park / Site preparation work underway near Faultless Drive". Times-Gazette. Ashland, Ohio. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
  3. "BUY THE ASHLAND RAILWAY.; Van Sweringens to Add It to Chesapeake & Ohio". New York Times. April 2, 1924. p. 30. Retrieved January 6, 2010.

Official website