Rail line through Lancaster Ohio.

[Paw95]

Who runs this line and theirs an old rail grade along the highway coming into Lancaster I think highway is state route 22. The rail looks like it's been pulled many years ago.

[JoJames]

Indiana & Ohio runs the former C&O line through town. The route you seen removed was a former Penn Central line.

[midland sub]

JoJames is correct. It's the old PRR Morrow Secondary right of way. Line was a branch that went from Trinway on the Panhandle main to Morrow just outside of Cincinnati. PRR figured out in the 1950s line was unprofitable and not worth upgrading and started looking to get rid of it. N&W looked into getting Circleville to Wash CH and then buying the DT&I from the PRR holding company but instead got the PRR Sandusky line. PRR did manage to get trackage rights over the B&O between Wash CH and Wilmington right before Penn Central. Things just deteriorated more under Penn Central. Lancaster and Circleville became crew bases. Circleville local would head west and work as far as needed towards Morrow and then return the next day. They stopped running all the way to Morrow in 1974 and Clarksville was as far west as they went. Line wasn't included in Conrail and last trains ran March 30, 1976. C&O picked up 2 miles or so in Lancaster which is still active. N&W picked up a couple of miles in Circleville and is down to one active customer. B&O got Wash CH plus was designated operator of Wilmington to Clarksville that the state of Ohio subsidized. Tracks to Clarksville were in such bad shape the B&O give up and left the last couple of gons there after a transload was built on the Midland in 1981. Tracks came up by 1981.

Dayton Power & Light bought the right of way from Wilmington to Circleville back in the mid 1990s to build a power line. They removed all of the bridges and trestles in the process. DP&L donated the land to build a bike path. 2 miles was completed just outside of Wash CH last year. They are clearing Melvin to Fayette-Clinton County line currently. Not sure who owns Circleville to Lancaster, but all of the bridges are still in place. RT 22 follows the right of way almost the entire way from Lancaster to Morrow.

[Paw95]

I was in Lancaster and I wondered what happened to the line and what the other active one was.