Who operated the W&LE east of Bellevue in the N&W era?

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Bellevue_Guy
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Who operated the W&LE east of Bellevue in the N&W era?

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

I know the original Wheeling and Lake Erie was leased by the Nickel Plate in 1949, became part of the N&W system in 1964, and was officially dissolved and absorbed into the N&W in the late 80's. I had always just assumed that N&W operated the line themselves when it was under their control, but a recent discussion I had with a former railroader suggests otherwise.

When talking to a guy who is a fairly recent NS engineer retiree, I was asking about the different lines out of Bellevue he ran on in his career. When I asked if he had ever been though Norwalk on the W&LE during the N&W era he said something to the effect of "No, we didn't have the rights to that line, some other railroad operated it (he couldn't remember the name), though we used to build their trains for them in the old east yard"

So, anyone have any idea what he may have been talking about? Was there some other railroad that had a lease to operate the line or trackage rights? This would have been prior to the existence of the current W&LE.

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railohio
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Re: Who operated the W&LE east of Bellevue in the N&W era?

Unread post by railohio »

Probably meant through an N&W labor agreement not not a separate railroad.
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JohnnyO
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Re: Who operated the W&LE east of Bellevue in the N&W era?

Unread post by JohnnyO »

It was a separate seniority district, based out of Brewster, OH, with locals operating out of Norwalk and Toledo. Bellevue didn't have rights on the Wheeling. It wasn't like today's world where, in many places, the seniority districts are huge. To add to that, the former P&WV was yet another separate seniority district, although they did operate into Brewster from Rook via an interdivisional pool agreement.

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cbehr91
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Re: Who operated the W&LE east of Bellevue in the N&W era?

Unread post by cbehr91 »

The "new" Wheeling & Lake Erie didn't begin until 1990, so those lines were operated by N&W/NS.

http://multimodalways.org/docs/railroad ... 1-1982.pdf

JohnnyO
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Re: Who operated the W&LE east of Bellevue in the N&W era?

Unread post by JohnnyO »

My comments would be true for the NKP/N&W/NS period of operation of the W&LE portion of the railroad.

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