PRR Milepost Study

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Introduction


Section One - Mileposts Pittsburgh to Columbus

  • Section One Commentary.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 - Mileposts Pittsburgh to Xenia (and Cincinnati)

  • Section Two Commentary.
  • 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).
  • 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
  • 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 - Mileposts Columbus-Bradford-Richmond-Indianapolis


Section Four - Mileposts Akron Branch, Hudson to Columbus

  • Section Four Commentary.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 - Mileposts Columbus to Sandusky