Licking County Railroads, Part VI -The Toledo & Ohio Central Railway (Revisited)

Several Toledo businessmen sought to connect the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Erie on an overland route that terminated in Toledo.  Work began in Toledo and in Perry County, Ohio, under the name of the Atlantic & Lake Erie, as chartered in 1869.  Track was also laid near Newark connecting Bremen in eastern Fairfield County to the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway -- The Panhandle Route.  There was coal in southern Ohio and several Toledo businessmen in Toledo thought it might be wise to build a railroad to access that coal and ship it over the Great Lakes.  The scope of the railroad changed and in 1877, the company renamed itself the Ohio Central Railway, not to be confused with the Central Ohio Railroad which had recently been absorbed into the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and ran on an East-West route across Licking County.  The Ohio Central would run from Northwest to Southeast.

As with so many start-up railroads, bankruptcy always seemed a day away.  In 1877, the railroad ran out of funds and was sold by the court in March of the following year.  By November 1878, a part of the railroad were bought and incorporated into another railroad, the Columbus and Sunday Creek Valley Railroad.  In 1880, the remainder of the railroad was bought and organized as the Ohio Central Railroad.  The railroad was extended, but by September 1883, the Ohio Central was bankrupt again.  The line between Toledo, Ohio, and Corning, Ohio, in Perry County, was sold in a foreclosure sale and reorganized as the Toledo & Ohio Central Railway on July 1, 1885.  This reorganization stuck and the railway was able to purchase the Toledo, Columbus, and Cincinnati as well.  Finally, Licking County had a second independent railroad line.

The T&OC Route in Western Licking County

    An 1898 map of Railroads in Licking County showing stops of the T&OC,

    the Panhandle Route, and the Newark & Granville Electric Street Railway.

    Note the Columbus, Buckeye Lake & Newark Traction Company had yet to build their system.

The T&OC entered Licking County in the northwest from Centerburg into Hartford and had a station there.  From there, the track cut across the smooth farmland to Johnstown for the next station stop.  At this point, the eastbound train had a nice long downhill, which meant a rough uphill climb for westbound trains, as it hugged the hills and descended into the Raccoon Valley at Blood Hill with the next stop at Alexandria.  Two miles after Alexandria, the train arrived at Clemons Station where the ground leveled off and water was readily available.  This was a crucial stop for the westbound trains, for here they could take on water and coal for the climb.  After Clemons, was a stop in Granville, then across the Cherry Valley following approximately the path of the old Granville Feeder Canal to Central City where it crossed the Panhandle Route's double-tracked main line before heading south towards Thurston in Fairfield County.  This route was placed in operation in 1881.

Alexandria Station

Alexandria Station shortly after construction.

Long-time Alexandria resident, Edith Irwin, did not have an easy life.  Her husband caught tuberculosis leaving Edith to raise two daughters.  During the summer, Edith would take her two daughters to Columbus to shop at Lazarus.  To do this, she left Alexandria via the T&OC to Granville, then transfer to the Interurban which took the women to the corner of Third and Town Streets in downtown Columbus.  From there, they walked to Lazarus, shopped, ate lunch there, and had some time to visit other shops before taking the Interurban back to Granville and the train to Alexandria.

The station itself sat at the end of Depot Street, a side-street off Granville Street on the village's east side.  The station currently exists, having been taken apart and moved to downtown Alexandria and rebuilt.  Several activities took place at the old depot.  Besides passenger service, the facility offered freight service, a telegraph, then on a siding, a grain elevator, and a coal bin.  In the early 1900s, gas was run into town which cut into the coal business, but the station provided a hub of activity that augmented the downtown businesses.

Clemon's Station

Clemon's Station is but a couple of miles east of Alexandria, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

  In it's heyday, Clemon's Station was was of the more important stops for the railroad

 and a major facility for the local people.

Located along the tracks a short distance from the mouth of Hardscrabble Road,    the location was also on the northern bank of the Raccoon Creek and at the bottom of a significant aquifer.  The T&OC also placed a large amount of coal there making for a refueling facility there.  Additionally, the railway had crew accommodations there that included a kitchen and dormitory.  The telegraph was manned 24 hours each day providing communications for the railroad as well as local families.  Finally, the station could accept shipment there saving area farmers the difficulty of transporting their crops to Alexandria or Granville.

Clemons Station was all but rebuilt in 1901 after a fire destroyed the coaling facility and the crew dormitory.  A new coal dock was built and the telegraph office was moved to the other side of the yard.  From the available drawings, it is not clear if and where the dormitory was rebuilt.  The T&OC also had several long sidings there to hold cars when not needed and to allow trains to meet and pass each other.  Today little remains of Clemons Station beyond a plaque and some concrete foundations.  The foundations are overgrown and hard to see in the summer.

Granville Station

While the Granville Feeder Canal and associated businesses were all found on the city's east side, the T&OC located their facilities on the city's southern side at the lower end of Main Street.  This may have been done to take in business that would have otherwise continued on Main Street for another three miles to Union Station and the Panhandle trains.  At last, Granville had a railroad.

There was business in Granville.  In addition to the routine passenger, freight, and telegraph, Granville had elevators, stock pens, the city water works, a warehouse and a planing mill.  Accordingly, the T&OC had several sidings located to serve these businesses.

When the Interurban arrived, it did not take long for the Interurban to place a track from the Interurban Depot, currently the Granville Historical Society, down Broadway with a turn down Main Street downhill to the T&OC Depot.  The Interurban ran a car twice daily to the T&OC depot to facilitate passengers like Edith Irwin and her girls.

Leaving Granville, the train stayed south of Granville to the east side where it crossed over the remnants of the Granville Feeder Canal on a three bent trestle, making the span approximately 50 to 60 feet.  The canal held water as of the survey of 1890.  This location is at the end of Clouse Lane where a foundry was briefly operated two generations earlier.  From here, the track crosses the Raccoon Creek then turns southeast and crosses the Cherry Valley near the Showman Arch Bridge, now Cherry Valley Road, and on to the crossing of the Panhandle Route at Central City.

The Demise of the T&OC

Overgrown foundation of the coal dock along the siding at Alexandria Station.

During World War I, as a wartime issue, the Federal government assumed control of the railroads    under the U. S. Railroad Administration (USRA).  The T&OC prospered during this time, to the point of controlling other railroads in West Virginia and Michigan.  Following the war and the return to peacetime operations with the end of the USRA, the big railroads, who already owned significant stock in smaller railroads, began to consolidate their holdings.  On January 31, 1922, the T&OC was officially leased by the New York Central Rail Road and the NYC logo begins to appear on the T&OC mainline.  By 1938, the T&OC is merged into the New York Central System.  The T&OCRR began displaying New York Central logos in 1952 and by 1968, became part of the merger of the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad which eventually became Conrail in 1976.  The last passenger train left Alexandria sometime in the 1930s.  Freight service continued until sometime in the 1970s until the track was undercut during a flood that filled a bottom area just east of Northridge Road, north of Alexandria.  when the Federal government stepped in.  In 1985, the T. J. Evans Foundation purchased the right-of-way and turned it into a bike path.

Looking eastbound down the long descent into Alexandria

 from the old Hubbard farm on the T&OC mainline.

  Today, it is a picturesque place to stop

 along the T. J. Evans Bike Trail.