Railroad Excursions
As long as there was passenger train service through Columbus there were train excursions; employee picnic specials, trips to sporting events and the Ohio State fair, and trips to conventions. The Columbus Dispatch and Ohio State Journal newspapers sponsored many train trips for their newsboys, often to Cleveland for sports events. When the coal miners shut down for their two week vacation each summer the PRR would run a trip to Cedar Point on the Sandusky Branch. The list of past rail excursions is endless.Starting around the time of the Second World War railfan groups began sponsoring rail excursions. The Central Ohio Railfans' Association (CORA) under the leadership of Nick Underwood was one of those sponsors. The National Association of Railway Business Women was another sponsor. In the 1960s the Ohio Railway Museum would sponsor trips as a way to raise money for the museum. The ORM excursions included trips to Cedar Point, Oglebay Park in Wheeling, WV and Detroit.
The C&O and B&O were especially willing to handle rail excursions. The C&O Hocking Valley line through southern Ohio was a favorite route.
Here is a sample of advertising material, train day handouts, and newspaper articles from some of those excursions.
1850-1940
| July 1874 | CCC&I, Columbus to Cleveland - Newspaper |
| Oct. 1933 | PRR, Chicago to Columbus - Flyer |
| Aug. 1937 | LT&P, Lancaster to Boys' Industrial School - Newspaper |
| May 1938 | NYC (T&OC) & C&O (HV), Columbus - Hobson. Newspaper |
| Aug. 1938 | NYC (Big Four), Columbus - Cleveland. Newspaper |
| Oct. 1938 | NYC (T&OC), Columbus - Mt. Perry and Philo. Newspaper |
1941-1950
| July 1947 | C&SOE Co., Columbus Streetcar lines - Flyer |
| June 1949 | N&W/OMP&L Co., Columbus - Obetz Jct. & Pickway Power Plant - Flyer |
| Circa 1950 | C&O, Columbus - Marion, Erie's diesel shops - Flyer |
1951-1960
| May 1951 | C&O, Columbus - Jackson, OH, Hocking Division - Flyer - Newspaper |
| Oct. 1951 | C&O, Columbus - Gallipolis, Hocking Division - Flyer - Video |
| May 1952 | N&W, Columbus - Portsmouth, Scioto Division - Newspaper w/photo. |
| June 1953 | C&O, Columbus - Athens, Children's Day Train Ride - Newspaper |
| Aug. 1953 | B&O, Columbus - Cedar Point - Newspaper |
| Oct. 1953 | B&O, Columbus - Zanesville - Flyer |
| Jan. 1955 | PRR, Columbus - Xenia, Cub Scout Special - Newspaper |
| Jan. 1955 | PRR, Columbus - Xenia, Children's Special - Newspaper |
| July 1955 | PRR, Dispatch Excursion to Cedar Point - Newspaper w/photo. |
| Oct. 1955 | C&O, Columbus - Gallipolis - Pomeroy, Fall Foliage Special - Newspaper |
| June 1956 | Columbus - Second Rail Industral Tour - Newspaper |
1961 & beyond
| Sept. 1964 | C&O, Columbus - Huntington, WV - Trip Handout - Video |
| Feb. 1965 | C&O, Columbus - White Sulphur Springs, WV (The Greenbrier) - Flyer |
| Oct. 1965 | C&O, Columbus - Pomeroy - Flyer & Trip Handout - Photos |
| June 1966 | C&O, Columbus - Pomeroy - Trip Handout - |
Two trips that did not come to Columbus but had significance for Columbus railfans are included below. A 1938 trip on the Ohio Public Service interurban line and a 1950 NMRA convention and Milwaukee Speedrail trip.
The 1938 trip on the Ohio Public Service interurban between Toledo and Marble Head using wooden interurban No. 21 was significant for Columbus railfans. After WW II the car would come to Columbus and be the seed for the Ohio Railway Museum.
In 1950 a reported forty Columbus railfans traveled to Milwaukee for the National Model Railroaders' Association convention which included a ride on the Milwaukee Rapid Transit & Speed Rail line. It was on that railfan trip that two interurban two car trains collided head on near Hales Corners, WI. One of the Columbus railfans, Harold Durflinger, was filming out the front window of one of the cars when the second car came into view. He jumped at the last minute. While injured he surely would have been killed if he had stayed with the car. We watched his 8mm film of that car coming into view, at ORM meetings, many times.
Victor Ketcham another ORM Member was admitted to the hospital with cuts and bruses. Future ORM member Clovis Butterworth then aged five, his brother and father just missed that doomed interurban car as he explains in his video.
This wreck precipitated the end of the Speed Rail Line. After the interurban line was abandoned the president, Jay Maeder, gave the ORM his Kansas City Birney streetcar No. 1545. The Burney was a fun car to operate, a real four wheel Toonerville Trolley.
| July 1938 | Ohio Public Service, Toledo - Marble Head - Flyer |
| Sept. 1950 | Milwaukee Speed Rail, Milwaukee - Hales Corners - Trip Handout - |