General Commentary on the Milepost Studies by Rick Tipton

General Commentary on the Milepost Studies By Rick Tipton

To prepare for PRRT&H Society's 2011 book, the Pennsylvania Railroad in Columbus Ohio, mileages and milepost lists were collected from a large number of Employee Timetables, creating a "longitudinal" history of this data for each of PRR's five lines into Columbus. Similar data was added from PRR's 1923 and 1945 CT1000 lists, and also from a limited number of other lists as available. The data (which is usually expressed in tenths of a mile) was input to a Microsoft Access database; this allowed studies involving various manipulations and comparisons.

I should point out that mileposts are not always a completely sincere reporting of distance ‐‐ for example, a station list in a PRR Employee Timetable may head a column with "Distance from Columbus", but that column in fact reports mileposts, not the current distance.

Why? ‐‐ because every man on the line knows its locations intimately by milepost number. Records are kept using this number, and bridges may be marked with it. If a location was at milepost so‐and‐so in the past, it is much safer and more convenient for all concerned if its milepost doesn't change.

In actuality, generations of rebuildings, wreck repairs, and even normal operations will shift track alignments, and the distance between old mileposts doesn't stay at 5280 feet ‐‐ the accumulated "creep" of actual distance between mileposts can be seen in engineering track charts.. If mileposts had to reflect current actual distance, they'd have to be continually reset ‐‐ creating chaos and likely contributing to accidents. Thus, in most cases smart management lets mileposts "stay put". The few historic exceptions to this rule will be pointed out (below) in discussion of the specific tables.

Mileposts depart most from actual mileage when a line is rebuilt. For example, the Panhandle Division (see Section One below) had tunnels daylighted and bypassed, plus curves and grades eased, in major construction between 1943 and 1950. But even so the mileposts west to Columbus stayed at their 1923 numbers. Another clear example is the Sandusky line's bypass around Delaware Ohio. At Delaware, the Sandusky Short Line was originally built right up the east bank of the Olentangy River, but took heavy damage in the 1913 flood. Relocation raised the line onto higher ground east of downtown Delaware, but mileposts north and south of the project did not change ‐‐ instead, one "mile" in the new alignment shrank to 4400 feet.

On the other hand, the milepost of an individual named location CAN change. Some reasons for a milepost to "crawl" from one station list to the next can include:

1. A tower closes, and the milepost shifts to the location (or former location) of the nearby passenger station.

2. A siding is lengthened, or a tower's track arrangement is remodeled, shifting a key switch to a new "milepost".

3. Multiple locations are closed, and are replaced by a new control point (manned tower) in the vicinity. 1

In the tables below, you will see the "station" names listed in order on the left. Some effort has been made here to represent separate mileposts of towers and stations; this is difficult because most station lists included do not discriminate between the two entities. If the telegraphic call letters of a tower or station are known, they are included here.

Each table is made up of columns titled with MP and a year, each with the mileposts of a different source. In most of these cases, the mileposts are "as input" from that source. However (as noted in the sections below), some milepost lists can start from some other location; in those cases an accompanying "normalized" table will show these MP's AFTER the adding or subtracting of miles to make the data comparable. Normalized milepost series will be headed by "Calc" or "Recast" and a date, reflecting their recalculation.

The key (in fact, the sort key) for each table is its "PMP", or Presumed Mile Post. This is a number I have assigned to each location, estimating where it would be on the 1964‐1967 railroad. This is obviously easy for places still named in late ETT's, but for long‐gone locations it is more of a judgment call. Those who have access to old issues of The Keystone may notice that Jim Lynch's articles by division list mileposts in 1942; my late‐PRR PMP will in some cases show a different number, reflecting 1964‐1967 designations.

Those comparing these tables with the Columbus book will quickly see that, because we had a wealth of information and photographs in the Columbus area, the book was pruned to cover essentially only the Columbus terminal area. However, we collected much outside that area, and expect to create one or more articles on each of these five PRR lines, to appear in future issues of PRRT&HS' quarterly The Keystone. Thus, if you have questions, comments, or data you believe should be added here, please contact me at [email protected]. I will be routing my future questions and further discussion on these lines onto [email protected] in preparation for those projected articles.

Section One Commentary, Mileposts Pittsburgh to Columbus

Since the "Panhandle" was built from Pittsburgh west, it is not surprising that all historic lists of mileposts and mileages run from Pittsburgh Union Station west. The zero milepost was on the south side of the station, near "PH" tower.

In the distant past (i.e., 1850's to 1880's), it is almost certain that Columbus was more than 190.7 (or 190.9) miles from Pittsburgh; the famous "ten tunnels" of the Panhandle were artifacts of a late 19th Century building program creating (at that time) double‐track bores. From an earlier time, I've seen mention on a map of an earlier "Tunnel 13" somewhere in the middle of the hilly part of Ohio. Additionally, there is good evidence that before Tunnel Five at Gould's Hollow was built, the line (single track?) wound torturously around the outside of that hill following a creek. But 19th‐Century ETT's are lacking to demonstrate the resetting of the line's mileposts. At least PRR's 1968 track chart shows us where the 10 tunnels were located.

Prior to system consolidation, Lines West operated its Pittsburgh‐Columbus segment as its "Pittsburgh Division, PCC&StL Ry". However, once these lines came under direct PRR operation, there could not be two Pittsburgh Divisions, and so the line to Columbus was renamed the Panhandle Division, formally using its longtime nickname.

The tables below for this trackage start in 1901, and from that time "mileage creep" between Pittsburgh and Newark is very modest.

Because of the large number of employee timetables used, we present three tables :

1. MP PH Pittsburgh‐Newark 1901‐1942. All data is from PRR Employee Timetables except 1923 CT1000 and a retyped list of 1923 "block stations and Towers". Note that Newark (the PRR station there to be exact) is 157.8 "miles" from Pittsburgh from at least 1920 to 1942.

2. MP PH Pittsburgh‐Newark 1942‐1967. All data from PRR Employee Timetables . Again, Newark Ohio's Penn station remains at milepost 157.8 from Pittsburgh throughout.

3. MP PH on C&N_ Newark to Columbus (selected dates). These 33 miles combine data from PRR Employee Timetables with B&O timetables of their "Columbus & Newark Division" from 1920, 1939, 1942, 1951, 1954, 1962, 1967, and 1968. Since the B&O numbers start with Newark as zero, the "calc" numbers are restated to compare with the PRR mileposts from Pittsburgh. Mileposts from the different sources, though normalized, do not line up perfectly for us ‐‐ and I do not at this time have a good explanation of this. There were probably small line relocations over time on the C&N, especially at the approaches to Columbus Union Station.

Section Two Commentary, Mileposts Columbus to Xenia (and Cincinnati)

PRR's line from Xenia to Cincinnati was originally the Little Miami Railroad, and it's almost certain that its original mileposts counted up from an early terminal (Pendleton?) in Cincinnati. When the Columbus & Xenia was built, it likely counted mileposts from Xenia, from whence it was built. Since the C&X was a daughter enterprise of the Little Miami, it's even plausible those C&X mileposts also counted up from some "Cincinnati zero". However, the various Little Miami lines were leased to PRR interests since 1869, and the mileposts found for this study uniformly counted up from Columbus through Xenia to Cincinnati. A source mentions that the C&X's zero milepost was at the west end of Depot Track 1. This is probably the meeting point of three PRR lines ‐‐ MP 190.7 of the Panhandle Division from Pittsburgh (see Section One), MP 0.0 on the C&X (this section), and MP 0.0 on the CC&IC or Bradford line (see Section Three below).

It's clear the C&X got plenty of reconstruction ‐‐ built as a single track circa 1847‐1850, it was double‐ tracked with big, grade‐reducing earthmoving by the early 20th Century. Many of the original stations were replaced with Lines‐West‐Standard frame stations (circa 1880s‐1890s?), with masonry ones (1890s‐1905?) or with modest brick ones circa 1912, but essentially on the same sites. Of course, many 3

of the smaller manned towers disappeared with the 1927 re‐signaling project or other electromechanical improvements; another wave of refits and remotings came in early WWII (circa 1942).

Incidentally, long exposure to the Little Miami track between Xenia and Cincinnati has convinced me that, apart from getting replacement steel bridges, the line's mostly‐single track following the Little Miami River was aligned as much like its original 1843‐1846 construction as any PRR line anywhere ‐‐ which again allowed retention of the mileposts already in place in 1903.

The data for this trackage starts with a 1903 Lines West document (lacking tenths of a mile), and captures employee timetables from 1923 on. Early on, this whole line is in the Cincinnati Division; then circa 1930 the Columbus Division has the C&X to Xenia; after 1955 the whole line is in first Buckeye Region and then in Columbus Division. Most mileposts are unchanged from 1926 all the way to the end of the Pennsy.

We present three tables :

1. MP C&X Columbus‐Xenia‐Cincinnati (including pre‐1933). This is the passenger main line to the PRR/PC&StL 1883 Pearl Street station at the foot of the Newport & Cincinnati (now L&N) bridge across the Ohio. PRR used this station, on the river at the eastern edge of downtown Cincinnati, until Cincinnati Union Terminal (CUT) opened in 1933. One misnomer appears in this table due to the way I constructed the database ‐‐ the routing (and mileposts shown) from Red Bank to CUT is an anachronism (but appears correctly in the next table).

2. MP C&X Columbus‐Xenia‐Cincinnati (post‐1933). This is the passenger main line once Cincinnati Union Terminal opened. Note the small change at Xenia in 1943 ‐‐ suggests that GREENE tower might have seen some track rearrangement during WWII. The building itself was built as an 1895‐standard Lines West frame tower, so we know this was not a case of structure replacement. Just east of GREENE, the XENIA operator (GW) moved out of the circa‐1855 Xenia passenger station building and into the building we knew as XENIA tower, so this may explain GW getting one tenth of a mile closer to Columbus by 1948

3. MP C&X Cincinnati commuter district (pre‐1933 CUT). Operating from an outlying engine terminal at Loveland, over 23 miles of track tapping suburbs and outlying towns up the Little Miami River, once fed commuters into industrial and office jobs downtown. Having its own "PMP", this table lets us look at this commuter function, which was killed by automobiles and buses in all but the largest cities by the late 20's or early 30's. Odds are, most Cincinnatians don't know they once had commuter trains on most of the rail lines into center city.

Section Three Commentary, Mileposts Columbus‐Bradford‐Richmond‐Indianapolis

PRR's line from Columbus to Bradford branched and went to both Chicago and Indianapolis. We'll concern ourselves with the Indianapolis route here.

Mileposts west of Columbus and to Indy have changed little since 1906's "Indianapolis Division" ETT. The zero milepost has always been at Columbus Union Depot, and over the years we see a consistent mileage counting up to the junction at Bradford, continuing southwest on the single track to New Paris, through Richmond, and then on double track across eastern Indiana to Indianapolis Union Station, always close to 187.9 miles. On the other hand, most of the double track in this line was already laid and grade‐reduced by 1906.

A curiosity included in most of these timetables is the mileage "east" of Columbus that was Akron Division and Toledo Division trackage, but was administered as part of Columbus Division so that the Columbus terminal area was not under split management. The "negative" miles shown represent main lines of this terminal trackage extending out to the respective division posts.

Of course, not shown on this "station list" is the main line extending beyond Bradford toward Chicago (the onetime Logansport Division). Those mileposts from Columbus continued beyond Bradford's 83.1 and reached Chicago Union Station at MP 314.1.

Also not shown on this "passenger‐oriented" list is the freight line diverging on the east side of Indy at THORNE tower (MP 180.8) to reach Hawthorne Yard.

Sources of the data in hand include: from PL Indianapolis Division ETT #12, May 27, 1906 (a "bedsheet") from 1923 CT1000, Columbus Division

from Columbus Division ETT #10, Sept. 29, 1929 from Columbus Division ETT #26, Sept 26, 1937 from Columbus Division ETT#1, Sept 28, 1941 from Columbus Division ETT #4, Nov 14, 1943 from 1945 CT1000 Columbus Div from Columbus Division ETT 5, June 24, 1945 from Columbus Division ETT 6, April 28, 1946 from Columbus Division ETT 10, April 10. 1948 from Columbus Division ETT 16, April 29, 1951 5

from Buckeye Region ETT 1, 1956 from Buckeye Region ETT #7, October 25, 1959 from Western Region ETT #1, 1964 from Western Region ETT#5, Oct 30, 1966

However, because the mileposts listed change very little, we present one table here to cover all periods:

1. MP CC&IC Columbus‐Indianapolis ( selected dates).

Section Four Commentary, Mileposts Akron Branch, Hudson to Columbus

To reach the Cleveland area from Columbus, the PRR used its Akron Branch Columbus‐Mount Vernon‐ Orrville‐Akron to the wye at Hudson, and went the rest of the way on PRR's Cleveland & Pittsburgh. The C&P was a well‐engineered double track artery, but the Akron Branch was single track and wandered over and around the hills of eastern Ohio. Historically the Akron line had been the Cleveland Akron & Columbus, and then the Cleveland Akron & Cincinnati, so it's often labeled the "CA&C".

A number of Cleveland railroads once ran their passenger service out of Cleveland Union Depot, situated north of downtown and downhill near the lake shore. However, the NYC and others left this antique facility when the modern Cleveland Union Terminal (also called the Terminal Tower) opened on property that WAS downtown. But PRR passenger trains (to Columbus, to Akron, or to Pittsburgh) continued to use the ancient Union Depot on the lakefront until the 1950's. Finally, PRR quit running passengers up and down the hill above the lakefront, and after abandoning downtown passenger service, "Cleveland" in a PRR public timetable meant Euclid Avenue (also referred to as 55th Street Station). Euclid Avenue was in the midst of a better neighborhood (and was a long way east from the attractions of the Terminal Tower). It was also much closer to the roundhouse forces at Kinsman Road. So from the Fifties on, milepost historians must remember that this is a different "Cleveland" at a different milepost.

Operationally, the C&P's mileposts were numbered from Pittsburgh, so we are basically interested in the mileposts running "west" from a zero at Hudson, mileposts on the Akron Branch.

We present three tables :

1. MP CA&C Cleveland to Columbus inputs. This shows that most ETT Station Lists start at Hudson as 0.0, and go upward to MP 144.0 at Columbus. However, some inputs start at Cleveland instead of Hudson. Two even go the other way ‐‐ the 1920 and 1922 Akron Division ETTs) list mileposts from a Columbus 0.0, and the 1922 ETT even continues beyond Hudson to Cleveland Union Depot at 168.9.

You'll notice that since in later years the Akron line was typically split between two divisions, I do not have one end or the other for some years.

2. MP CA&C Cleveland to Hudson and Orrville (selected dates). Crossing the Fort Wayne at Orrville, the Akron line's once‐ heavily industrialized north end eventually became part of the Cleveland Division, later Lake Region and (after 1964)Lake Division. Since employee timetables placed MP 0.0 at Hudson, all the different inputs have been compared to that standard. I'm not sure how significant it is, but notice that Orrville's yard is about 37 miles from Hudson, or 62 rail miles from Cleveland Union Depot.

3. MP CA&C Orrville to Columbus (selected dates). South and west of Orrville, the Akron line was mostly out in the country; some of the neighbors were Amish. The area around Baddow Pass was actually hard mountain railroading, with pushers, tunnels, bridges, wrecks, and a high cost of operation. The roughly 100 miles from Orrville to Columbus became part of Columbus Division/Buckeye Region/Buckeye Division (at one time, about 100 miles was considered a days' work for freight train crews).

Section Five Commentary, Mileposts Columbus to Sandusky

The last PRR line to enter Columbus, the Columbus & Sandusky Short Line (SSL ), was built in 1893, apparently one of the boom years in rail construction. Leading to Lake Erie at Sandusky, it quickly developed a seasonal coal traffic northbound, but unlike most mineral roads, had little iron ore traffic southbound. At first, it operated in concert with coal‐originating Columbus Shawnee & Hocking; in fact the public timetables were issued together as the "Columbus Sandusky & Hocking". But circa 1902,when it was acquired by Pennsy interests, the SSL became the outlet to the lake for N&W coal.

The SSL was once the "Sandusky Division", but by 1923 was part of the Toledo Division.

Milepost history, taken from public and employee timetables, throws us some curves. An 1899 public timetable (copied from the October 1899 Rand McNally Official Railroad Guide) has zero miles at the Sandusky (station) end, whereas the June 2, 1901 CS&H public timetable shows mileages (no tenths) going both ways. However, the CS&H Employee Timetable (#15, Sept 29, 1901) shows the railroad's mileposts starting at Columbus. PRR's 1923 CT1000 (newly including the sidings, stations, and towers of Lines West divisions after system consolidation) puts its zero in Sandusky where the line connects to the B&O (this is 0.6 mile east of the Big Four station used by the SSL), but Toledo Division's ETT #5, June 10, 1923, puts the zero post at Columbus. Then CUD remains MP 0.0 until at least 1936, but 1942 and 1945 ETT's put 0.0 at Big Four's Sandusky station, and then (with passenger service long gone) 1947 and 1950 ETT's moved the zero out to Bayside tower. By 1954 mileposts once again count from the south end, but the station lists in 1954, 1956, and 1964 omit the zero milepost and simply show numbering from FIELDS (MP 2.1 in Grogan Yard) north.

Sold to the Norfolk & Western, the Sandusky line station list disappears from PRR ETT's after 1964, moving to N&W ETT's for the years following. It's striking that in Norfolk Southern's 1999 timetable, after the line has gone through heavy modernization and upgrading, most of the points are still listed at the same mileposts. FIELDS is still MP 2.1, and the list goes up to MP 109.3 (short of Bay Junction and NYC's Lake Shore and Michigan Southern main). 109.3 is labeled "Sandusky" but is probably where the SSL meets the Nickel Plate.

Most mileposts in the middle of the railroad were very stable (after normalization, see "recast" numbers). But both ends of the line show the results of expansion of yards and facilities every few years, with 1916 and 1927‐30 campaigns being the biggest.

At the Columbus end, SSL trains followed three different routes out of Columbus Union Depot as Grogan Yard grew. The 1901, 1923, and 1926 ETT's show the line's "zero point" as CUD, measured up Big Four trackage rights and around the EAST side of the State Fairgrounds. Post‐1930, the main routed through Grogan Yard (east to west) and then up the WEST side of the State Fairgrounds, but with the lowest mileposts redesignated. The countdown from about milepost 4 put MP 2.1 at FIELDS in Grogan Yard, and the 0.0 falls somewhere along the "joint track" on the north side of Yard B.

I've mentioned the line relocation at Delaware; its distance reduction was not reflected in mileposts on either end of the project.

The north end of the railroad again reflected changes over the years. Bayside "tower" kept moving south as the yard at Sandusky got longer and longer. The line's "north end" was cut back from its B&O connection in the town of Sandusky to the Big Four station that PRR passenger stations used (until 1931), and finally N&W or NS quit recognizing the main line north of the former Nickel Plate's Buffalo‐ to‐Chicago main.

Three tables will illustrate this data:

1. MP SSL Columbus to Sandusky inputs ‐ shows the raw numbers as they appear in their sources.

2. MP SSL Columbus‐Sandusky (late ETTs) with normalized mileposts ‐ shows stability of PRR mileposts since 1936. 1936 to 1950 numbers are recast ("normalized") for comparison with mileposts beginning in Columbus. 1956 Columbus Div ETT only shows Columbus‐end numbers.

3. MP SSL Columbus‐Sandusky (early ETTs), with normalized mileposts ‐ the 1899 passenger timetable, 1923 CT1000 distances, and ETT's 1930 and 1936 are recast for comparison with mileposts beginning in Columbus.