Photo Set 6

Penn Central GP9 No. 7226 (ex-PRR 7226) at the New Lexington, Ohio depot and block station.  This junction was MP 38 on the PC Zanesville Secondary Track, previously the PRR Zanesville Branch (Trinway to Morrow), and MP 185 on the PC Western Branch, formerly the NYC-T&OC (Swiss WV to Toledo).

The 7226 sits on the Zanesville main track.  A northbound symbol freight (likely NT5 or NT7) converges from the left off the Western onto the Zanesville track, and will run west 12 miles to Bremen, where the Western diverges northward off the Zanesville track toward Thurston and Columbus.  Cars to the right of the 7226 are in the PRR 50-car “west” siding, and the switch in the foreground is for the PRR 23-car “east siding”.

Photo by Jon Bentz, 1970.

The New Lexington block station train order office, with a train approaching from the west on the PC Zanesville Secondary Track.  The PC Western Branch diverges to the left behind the office, southward toward Corning, Hobson and on to West Virginia.  The NYC storage track, with mixed freight awaiting local switching or pick up for Columbus, is just beyond the Western Branch switch.  The switch in the immediate foreground is the west end of the PRR 50-car “west” siding.

The block office operator handled the Western switch, enabling T&OC trains to pass without stopping, picking up train orders from a hoop stanchion at the far end of the brick-paved platform.

This was a busy place around 1970, with four daily Western Branch Columbus-WV freights, multiple weekly coal unit trains and empties drags, the twice-weekly T&OC mine run to and from Claybank five miles south of New Lexington, plus daily PRR eastbound and westbound locals serving numerous industrial shippers between Circleville and Trinway.

Photo by Jon Bentz, 1971.

A local train crew is switching two Flexi-Van cars as it services a Penn Central mail train.  The camera is looking southwest from the Columbus Union Station complex.  The Maple Street Bridge is in the background.

Photo by Jon Bentz, 1969.

The Chesapeake & Ohio local known as the “Pole Job” is working the Northwest Blvd industrial trackage on the west side of the C&O main.  NW2 No. 9553 is switching between West 3rd and West 5th Avenues.  The track going off to the right went to West Fifth Ave and served Columbus Washboard and the Pfenning Bakery Equipment Company.

Photo by Jon Bentz, 1969.

A trio of C&O GP9's led by the No. 6226 with coal empties and merchandise drifting down Powel Hill taken near Henderson Road.

Photo by Jon Bentz, 1967.

The United Aircraft Corporation TurboTrain visits Columbus.

“The UAC TurboTrain was an early high-speed, gas turbine train manufactured by United Aircraft that operated in Canada between 1968 and 1982 and in the United States between 1968 and 1976. (Amtrak disposed of the trains in 1980.)  It was one of the first gas turbine powered trains to enter service for passenger traffic, and was also one of the first tilting trains to enter service.”- Wikipedia

The train is headed to Columbus Union Station behind the photographer.  In this photo it’s on the Little Miami line between the Scioto River crossing and Water Street.

Photo by Jon Bentz

No. 51 has crossed Water Street on its way to CUS.

The camera is looking northeast. Photo by Jon Bentz.

Visitors were welcome to walk through the Turbo while it was on display at CUS.  It didn’t serve Columbus rather this modern train set spent its service time in the east.

Photo by Jon Bentz