A Little Railroad History
Dan Merkel, a long-time friend of mine, shares a common interest with me, namely railroads, both model and full sized. Dan is the author of Along the Right of Way in the Virtual Village on The Courier’s web page. If you are interested in railroading, it is a nice source of information and pictures.
The article that Dan posted this week quotes a column published many years ago by Mr. R.L. Hemminger. This excerpt is regarding Big Four which ran through Vanlue from Findlay to Carey:
On Dec. 29, 1931, an application was filed at Washington for authority to abandon the Big Four Railroad between Findlay and Vanlue, as well as the Belt Line connection between the Big Four and the Nickel Plate (originally the Lake Erie and Western, and now the Norfolk-Southern.) The application was filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission. “Public convenience and necessity no longer justifies operation of the lines,” said the petition.
THE OHIO PUBLIC UTILITIES Commission held a hearing at Columbus March 22 on the abandonment matter.
Both the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Ohio Public Utilities Commission granted the applications.
So the link to Findlay was removed, but the Carey connection remained in place until the mid 60′s. The railroad property from Buffalo Street east remained in limbo until a few years ago. Tom Walter purchased the old right of way from Buffalo all the way to the eastern end in Carey. He very graciously donated the portion from Buffalo to East Street to the Village.
Bob Wells
