Does anyone know much about the Ashland Railway in north central Ohio? Here's what I do know: it was formed in 1986 and runs from West Salem to Ashland to Mansfield (where it interchanges with NS) to Shelby to Plymouth (where it interchanges with W&LE) to Willard (where it terminates into the CSX yard). The Willard to Mansfield portion of their line, which runs northwest to southeast, used to be part of the B&O. The other portion of the line runs southwest to northeast, and I'm not sure which railroad owned it previously. Mansfield is the center of their operation and I believe they have a small yard there. What I'm wondering is that if anyone knows much more about it, like how much traffic they tend to have or other tidbits? I only recently learned of the Ahland's existence....I have crossed their line many times in my lifetime near Willard and in and never once seen a train, so I had kind of assumed it was abandoned or maybe just a rarely used CSX spur. So it was very interesting to me when I found out those tracks were indeed owned and operated by a short line railroad. Also, I recently had 2 similar discoveries when it comes to short line railroads in Ohio. I found out that the line that goes from Woodville to Tiffin is the Northern Ohio and Western Railway and I also found out that the track I have crossed many times in downtown Bucyrus and also near Crestline is part of the Chicago Fort Wayne and Eastern Railway. Those were both tracks I have never seen trains on, but could tell were not abandoned. Anyone know much about either of those 2?
This is a blurb from a local Chamber of Commerce e-newsletter on the ASRY: Ashland Railway provides necessary transportation options Ashland Railway began its operation of the track running from the AK Steel rail yard in Mansfield to the West Salem yard in 1986. A contract agreement with the Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) allowed the two entities to continue to serve the surrounding area businesses that depended on rail transportation as a means of conducting business. The CIC therefore performed a real community service by taking ownership of a rail line that would have otherwise been abandoned by Conrail, a major class one railway. Armed with an exercisable option to purchase the track from the CIC, Ashland Railway obtained ownership of the shortline railroad in 2006. As owner of the 70 miles of rail infrastructure, David Crane has worked hard to ensure that Ashland Railway continues to negotiate competitive prices with the nationwide class one railways in order to provide the most economical bid to the local business owners. These contract agreements are made with CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroads, the class one lines that interchange with Ashland Railway in Ashland, Huron, Richland, and Wayne counties. The advantage of this process for the economy of Ashland County is to improve the area's competitiveness, as this method of contracting is a seldom occurrence in the national rail transportation business. Several local businesses reaping the benefits that Ashland Railway provides are Premium Building Products, Liqui-Box, and PCA. These three businesses help to constitute the diversification of Ashland Railway's customer base, which includes the transportation of raw materials and finished products using a fleet of 8 locomotives and over 200 cars. Bret Lloyd, Manager of Marketing and Sales for Ashland Railway, encourages all local businesses to contact his office or AACED for any inquiries about railroad services. Over the past 9 years, Ashland Railway has experienced a cumulative revenue growth of 700% due to the industry connections and managing ingenuity of the Vice-President of Marketing and Sales, Jim Lloyd. Ashland Railway is home to 55 employees and sees 16,000 railcar loads move along its track per year, creating a huge incentive for prospective businesses to enter the area and start production. With the new Ashland Business Park being constructed to the north of town, Ashland Railway will use the $500,000 of state grant money that was received by the CIC in order to build a lead off of the main line. This will provide immediate rail line access to the Park in addition to spurring the economic growth of the future of Ashland County.
And from this site, info on what the ASRY operates, plus a photo of three ASRY GP38s taken by the website's owner, Chase Zickefoose.
The line that runs from Mansfield to the east was the former Erie Railroad Main Line from Chicago to New York. They do have a small yard in Mansfield next to the AK Steel plant. This is also their headquarters as well. Ive been inside the headquarters about five years ago (almost got a conductor job then). Its neat to read that they moved 16,000 cars cause that is a decent amount for a small shortline and 55 employees seems kind of hard to believe as well. The Chicago Fort Wayne and Eastern doesn't run too many trains during the daytime. Ive heard most of the road trains operate at night. They have yards in Lima and Fort Wayne. If interested in getting pics of their locomotives i would try these two yards. Ive never been to the Fort Wayne yard, but Ive been to Lima. In Lima the yard is called Cole Street yard and it is located on the west side of downtown. It is possible to get decent pics of their power from public property. They also run a transfer train to Indiana and Ohio's Ford Park yard in Lima and CSX runs a transfer train from their yard in Lima to Cole Street yard. I also understand that Norfolk Southern has trackage rights from Crestline, OH to Bucyrus, OH on the CF&E to access the NS Sandusky Line.
