CSXT New Castle Subdivision Territory

The NC SD has many flavors from which to choose: Mainline or short line. Balls-out flatland hustle or slow uphill grinding. Straight tangents with easy access or curvy, hilly and scenic but hard-to-follow river running. B&O Color Position signals, P&LE style tri colors, or modern tri color stacks. Grade crossings with other railroads as well as grade seprated crossings. Junctions with other CSX subdivisions as well as Ohio short lines. And the fleets. One of the very few single track portions of the critical CSX mainline from Philadelphia to Chicago exists on the New Castle SD, which is an ABS, DTC railroad from New Castle to Greenwich (not CTC, which means that the New Castle SD is really two single track mains running parallel to each other, not a true double track main).

Because of this single track portion on the NC SD, New Castle and Willard send their trains toward Akron in fleets, so to speak. The hopeful railfan is banking on the presumption that one fleet will clear the single track just as the fleet from the opposite direction arrives at the single track. We are told that there is no rhyme or reason to when they send trains out..."It's when the trains show up"...this is what the real deal is supposed to be.

Naturally, trains back up on either side of the single track when the flow isn't consistent with reality.

The B&O Color Position Signals (which had been removed from the recently rebuilt Willard and Garrett SDs) still exist on the ABS DTC New Castle SD, although their days appear to be numbered.

The western end of the New Castle Subdivision is now at Greenwich, Ohio, about 10 miles from the former western end at Willard. We are including Willard in this overview because it was the traditional eastern terminal of the NC SD in the Diesel era, and because the stretch between Greenwich and Willard now stands as one of the busiest on the whole of CSX.

Greenwich, which is just 10 miles east of Willard, used to be but a simple crossing and junction at the western end of the New Castle Subdivision, But train volume and tempo between the two have changed to such a degree that it is now the busiest section of track on all of CSX. This is because Greenwich is now the heart of the post-Conrail CSX system, where traffic from New York and New England off of the old New York Central Big four route turns west toward Chicago, joining the CSX traffic from Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the Mid-Atlantic region. So while the psychological and historical end of the NC SD is Willard, for very good reasons it now ends at Greenwich itself. The portion between Greenwich and Willard is now part of the Willard Terminal SD. Willard appears to be placed in a bowl, Trains departing Willard have to contend with rather stiff grades in both directions, peaking at Attica Jct to the west and Broughtonvlle to the east.

To understand the territory and contemporary operations of the New Castle SD, we must first take a quick look at the industrial history of Eastern Ohio. The two principle industrial centers of Eastern Ohio were, and remain, Youngstown and Akron.

YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown was but a small hamlet in the early 19th century. An iron furnace was built there after deposits of iron ore were discovered nearby. Soon came the discovery of local mineral resources that are important in iron and steel production, particulary local coal and limestone deposits. The region between Cleveland and Pittsburgh was close to coal, iron ore, and limestone sources while comfortably far enough from the Mason and Dixon line during the Civil War in 1861-65. For these reasons it quickly grew into an important iron (and then steel) production and manufacturing center for the Union.

After the war, Youngstown became a significant generator of industrial traffic located just 66 miles northwest of steel giant Pittsburgh. It grew to be the third largest steel center in the US. In addition to the fabrication of iron and steel, Youngstown specialized in the manufacture of steel-making machinery. Other products manufactured here were rubber goods, electrical gear, aluminum products, office furniture, automotive parts, structural steel, railroad equipment, and machine tools. Among the larger companies located in Youngstown were Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co., Republic Steel Corp., Youngstown Foundry & Machine Co., and United Engineering & Foundry Co.

By 1950, Youngstown had a population of 170,000 and was served by the B&O as well as the Erie, P&LE (NYC), PRR, and the Youngstown & Southern. The area was also served by two switching lines, the Youngstown & Northern and the Lake Erie & Eastern (the latter was owned by the P&LE and the NYC). The B&O had connections to each of these railroads and served most of the industries in Youngstown.

The demise of the US steel industry in the 1970's was particularly devastating to the economic base of the Youngstown area, and the inevitable retrenching by the area railroads was quite dramatic. Today's New Castle Subdvision is the major player in town, with NS's ex-PRR trackage (the Youngstown Line) providing a link to the Lake Erie port town of Ashtabula. CSXT is the major rail service provider to the nearby General Motors Lordstown Assembly plant.

AKRON
Akron was once the principle town in the Western Reserve and was built at the Portage Summit, the highest point between Cleveland and Portsmouth on the Ohio & Erie Canal (which was completed in 1835). Akron's beginnings as a canal town lent itself to railroad construction along the many rivers in the vicinity.

This access to rail transportation led Harvy Firestone to place his rubber manufacturing plant here in 1900, whereupon his company started producing tires by 1905 for his friend Henry Ford and his fledgling automobile company in Michigan. His established competitors, BF Goodrich and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, had set up shop in Akron back in the 1870's. They had begun a 100 year tradition of rubber and tire manufacturing, making Akron the rubber capitol of the world.

Akron had a population of 274,000 by 1950, but her unhappy fate at the hands of the Global Economy mirrors that of Youngstown. While much local traffic remains, the glory days of local industry are long gone. CSXT is the largest railroad presence in town, but through and local work is shared with the Wheeling & Lake Erie, and local work is shared with the ABB and Ohio Central RR. All of this is squeezed into a relatively small area, with CSXT wedged into a tight river valley. The Akron area thus provides some of the most interesting operations on the New Castle Subdivision.

CSX train S343-04 (Cumberland-Willard) threads his way westward through the Little Cuyahoga River Valley at AY Tower in Akron, Ohio on Sunday May 5th 2002. This 15 mph speed limit, itself just 4 miles east of the single track segment between Lambert and Warwick, is indicative of the tight confines through here. This permanent slow speed limit enhances Akron's reputation as a bottleneck on this portion of the New Castle Subdivision.


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