I needed about 3’ of twin conductor wire to run to some supplemental 12 volt fans in my work truck and this spool was the most accessible one I had around. It’s maybe down to 1/4 of a full spool left since I had used it on many previous projects.
The abandoned coal tipple was used by the Berea Brick & Tile Company in Strongsville, Ohio, a southwest Cleveland suburb. Coal cars would be spotted here and would dump the coal into the concrete basins where it could later be loaded onto trucks and taken a short distance across Eastland Road to the kilns.
This is a well known location, but was more going on here? I’m wondering if they also loaded bricks and tile into boxcars here to ship product out? The approach rails to the tipple have a fairly large level area next to them and there are lots of bricks and shards of broken tile everywhere. More so than would normally be this far from the kilns. So in addition to getting coal delivered to run the kilns, I believe this rail spur was also used shipping out finished bricks and tiles.
Last two images are an old property map and old aerial imagery of the area.
In the early to mid 1960s the Commerce Drive area in Stow, Ohio was being developed as an industrial park area anchored by Morgan Adhesives. As was typical at the time railroad service was available from an industrial branch connecting to the Pennsylvania Railroad, later Penn Central; and eventually Conrail. This industrial branch was later expanded; but as years went by and rail service was replaced by trucks, nearly the entire industrial branch and various spurs were removed, except for some rails laid down in concrete. This “team track” arrangement allows forklift or truck access all around any rail cars spotted here so businesses without direct rail service could load or unload various commodities. Currently these rails are behind OLA on Commerce Drive and are open and accessible to anyone wanting to check them out. Towards the end of the tracks a painted line was still visible on the rails. This marking would have helped railroad employees spot the cars here.
These rails appeared to connect to the main industrial branch west of here; and they possibly served this tram track area and maybe a second business. Access gates were spotted in a few locations. Railroad employees would have keys to unlock the gates to spot or pull cars.
Further west the slightly elevated right of way of the industrial branch was still visible, along with what looked to be part of a railroad tie; but no rails or additional ties were located. My exploration of the rest of the industrial park was limited due to regular business activity.
On a historical note, the Pennsylvania Railroad mainline this industrial branch connected to was the site of a major disaster further south of here in Cuyahoga Falls. This happened long before this industrial branch line even existed though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doodlebug\_disaster
This is my 1993 Mitsubishi Minica Toppo at Wallace Lake in Berea, Ohio; a southwest Cleveland suburb. I just got it out of the shop today, so it’s not fully cleaned and washed but I wanted to get some miles (well, kilometers) on it as road test, so this was an unplanned photoshoot.
Checked out some abandoned industrial railroad spurs on Harvard Avenue and Park Avenue, off E. 59th, in Cleveland. The Newburgh & South Shore Railroad would have been the railroad these spurs connected directly with. I’m not 100% sure what business the first four photos served, the next four photos show an old spur into a lumber yard - which itself once had two additional spurs inside the gates, while the last two photos show a spur once used by the Minneapolis Flour Company - the bumper block is most visible, but you can barely make out the rails still there too.