The highest point in Licking County is on Sportsman Club Road, just east of Northridge Road. One would expect things around there to be named "Summit." Instead, this area is referred to as Northridge. Summit Station is actually located a few hundred feet lower in elevation in southwestern Licking County.
As far as the Pennsylvania Rail Road (PRR) is concerned, Summit Station is appropriately named. Anyone traveling to or through Columbus from points east would travel on trains with names like the "Spirit of St Louis" or the "Panhandle Express." These trains were express sleepers on which travelers would board in the afternoon in New York or Washington, D.C., enjoy cocktails and canapés in the club car, then migrate to the dining car and enjoy five-star cuisine on custom chinaware in an elegant dining car. Guests would then retire to their rooms where they would sleep the night to the gentle rocking action of the train. The engineer and fireman carefully guided their way towards Licking County through the dark woodlands of Ohio. These were not so much trains as grand hotels on wheels.
Dinner aboard an eastbound The Spirit of St. Louis, 1953.
Entering Licking County in the eastern central hills and rivers north of Zanesville, the train made its way southwest towards Newark, then south of Granville at Union Station to the relatively flat portion of Licking County at Kirkersville Station. As a side note, the people of Kirkersville Station changed the name to Outville because it was far enough away from Kirkersville to be its own village and, honestly, when addressing an envelope, Outville is a lot easier to write than Kirkersville Station.
The Tower at Summit Station, August 1977
After Kirkersville, on a gradual uphill climb, came Pataskala and Columbia Station, then to Summit Station, the highest point on the Panhandle Route. From there, the train left Licking County practically coasting into Columbus. Most people slept through this with the gentle rhythm of the train's movement acting like a sedative. Breakfast was in Indiana.
From a post-war brochure advertising The Spirit of St. Louis
The Panhandle Route was PRR's main route to the west. Eventually, instead of changing trains, travelers would keep their rooms at St Louis the PRR locomotives and crews were switched out for Union Pacific or Santa Fe power and staff and continue on their way to Los Angeles.
This way of travel was overtaken by the airlines.
The Spirit of St. Louis leaves St. Louis in 1957 (Photo: Fred Ripley)
If you wanted to travel from New York to Los Angeles and chose the PRR, you came through Licking County. Soon, you would fly over it. But for a brief moment in the life of the country, you had to go through Licking County on THE PANHANDLE ROUTE.
No comments:
Post a Comment