Working at the Ohio Railway Museum in the 1950's you couldn't help but be steeped in the lore of the CD&M.  For starters our ORM secretary was Virgil Eberly.  Virgil, a civil engineer, was in his seventies in the 1950's.  In the 1920's he worked on the construction of the CD&M's 6.5 mile Worthington cutoff.  Thirty years later he was back surveying the cutoff all over again, this time to locate the tracks for the ORM which was built on part of the old CD&M cutoff. 

     Then there was Bob Zimmer whose father was a motorman on the CD&M until a tragic accident caused him to give up the motorman's job.  He, like railroaders everywhere knew the dangers of railroading.  They don't easily get over the loss of life no matter who's fault it might have been.

        Bob taught, us through his stories, that Clyde Ruder was the premier motorman and much respected by his fellow employees.  That Kingman hill south of Stratford was always a problem for their freight trains as was the Arcadia Avenue grade on Columbus' north side.  He told us about the spidery trestle over Glenmary ravine.  Some motorman crept over the trestle, others never slowed down.

        And then there was George Silcott who remembered seeing the "Red Bird" flying past his dad's Worthington coal office when he was very young.  Through the museum he helped recreate that long ago image.  All-in-all the CD&M was our special interurban line.

        Here on the columbusrailroads.com website will be the repository of all things CD&M.

Glenmary Trestle just north of Worthington.  This trestle carried interurbans for thirty years without a problem.  It is a good thing no lighted cigars were pitched out an open window.  The fence in the foreground is for Route 23 which was a two lane road in the early twentieth century when this photo was taken.  From the DAK Collection.

Parlor car #501, the "Red Bird", stopped for passengers in Delaware, Ohio on its way to Columbus.  Clyde Ruder is the motorman.  The CD&M had two of these cars, 500 and 501.  They were considered some of the finest interurbans ever built.  The front of the car had a smoker with the remainder a parlor section with individual swivel seats.  The passengers had a great view through those big windows.  From the Dave Bunge Collection.