Towns and Nature: Heath, OH: Heath (FN) Tower: Pennsy+B&O vs. NYC/Toledo & Ohio Central

Thursday, January 4, 2024

Heath, OH: Heath (FN) Tower: Pennsy+B&O vs. NYC/Toledo & Ohio Central

(Satellite, TOC continued North and the tower was in the soiuthwest quadrant of the crossing.)

Mark Hinsdale posted

"Columbus & Newark (C&N) Division"

Poring over Stanley Short's beautiful photo of the Conrail (CR) eastbound coal train at Mifflin, Pennsylvania inspired me to share a CR photo of my own, from the same era. I love images of towers and trains, so here is another coal train, also heading east, passing the interlocking tower at Heath, Ohio, west of Newark. The Pennsylvania (PRR) and Baltimore & Ohio (B&O)) Railroads shared a jointly owned right of way between Columbus and Newark that consolidated traffic from both routes over a once busy, two and three tracked line dotted with towers to control movements. PRR always had the lions' share of trains, but, at least into the late 1960's, B&O contributed a respectable amount of traffic to the mix. Conrail, as successor to Penn Central and PRR, continued to operate substantial volumes over the C&N until its program to downgrade its former PRR Pittsburgh-Columbus-Indianapolis main line in favor of alternate routings effectively left the route devoid of most trains. Today, only a single remaining track is required to handle the handful of current owner Ohio Central's trains that still traverse the line. July, 1978 Photo by Mark Hinsdale

Mark Hinsdale shared

Dennis DeBrule commented on Mark's share
I'm glad you liked towers as well as trains. You captured some signalling pipelines. The north/south route was the Toledo and Ohio Central. 1961
Newark Quad @ 24,000