Railroad Depots of Northwest Ohio

By Mark J . Camp

Chartered as early as 1832, Northwestern Ohio railroads were among the first in the Midwest. Toledo, a rapidly developing lake port at the mouth of the Maumee River, was the destination point for many lines; others were just passing through on their way to Chicago and points west. By 1907, 20 lines served the northwestern counties. All had a series of stations along their lines, often with depots or other railroad structures. Although many have come and gone, Northwest Ohio was once home to over 250 passenger or combination depots serving the traveling public. Railroad Depots of Northwest Ohio relives the golden age of railroad travel through vintage postcards and mid-20th century photos of selected depots and related structures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Jul 6, 2005
• ISBN: 9781439631607

Mark J . Camp

Mark J. Camp, a geology professor at the University of Toledo, serves as a national director of the Railroad Station Historical Society. His other Images of Rail titles include Railroad Depots of Northwest Ohio and Railroad Depots of West Central Ohio.

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INTRODUCTION

Northwest Ohio of the late 1800s rapidly became a crossroads of railroads intent on reaching Chicago, Detroit, and major cities along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Here east–west lines of the Baltimore and Ohio; Lake Erie and Western; Lake Shore and Michigan Southern; New York, Chicago and St. Louis; Toledo, St. Louis and Western; Wabash; and Wheeling and Lake Erie cross north–south routes of the Baltimore and Ohio; Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton; Cincinnati Northern; Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis; Detroit, Toledo and Ironton; Hocking Valley; Pennsylvania; and Toledo and Ohio Central. The history of these lines extends back to the mid- to late 1800s.

To serve business, industry, and the traveling public, railroads established stations at regular intervals or selected sites along their lines. A station was a designated point along the line where trains might stop to conduct freight and passenger business, check for telegraphed orders, or to fuel and service locomotives. Most stations required some type of shelter from the elements—thus, the depot was born. The first depots often amounted to nothing more than a platform shelter, three-sided lean-to, or boxcar. Often a town grew up around the depot, eventually necessitating a larger depot. Some early depots served not only passengers, baggage, and freight, but also contained space for grain storage. A few offered living space for the agent’s family, but this was not as common in Ohio as farther west, because most stations lay within already established communities with available housing.

Depots became symbols of respective railroads—a marketing tool. Lines employed an engineering staff to design functional structures. Many had bay windows affording the operator an unobstructed view up and down the track. An order board, either attached to the trackside of the depot or on a separate pole on the passenger platform, served as a signal to the crews on passing trains. The agent could adjust the position of the semaphore blades and/or lights on this feature to convey orders to the engineer and his crew. Standard plans developed for depots, towers, and accessory buildings based on the importance and size of a community. Smaller towns received combination depots that typically had a waiting room and freight room separated by an agent’s office where tickets were sold and freight and baggage claims made. These buildings could be lengthened or shortened as need required. Separate passenger depots arose where passenger traffic was brisk. Across or down the track, a separate freight depot supplemented the passenger facilities. Towns served by two or more railroad lines and major cities may have had a union depot where railroads shared the passenger amenities. Outside architects might be commissioned to design such buildings. Where freight business was heavy, separate freight houses might handle inbound and outbound materials. Larger freight stations usually had offices at one end—the head house—and a long freight shed attached at the other.

Other structures associated with depots include interlocking, switch, and signal towers. In the late 1800s, these were placed at regular intervals along railroads. Towers facilitated traffic control, manned by operators who reported train positions by telegraph, provided orders to train crews, watched for hotboxes and other potential mechanical problems, and made certain switches and signals were properly set to avoid derailments and collisions, a process referred to as interlocking. In later years, towers were mainly needed at diamonds, where different lines crossed, and at passing sidings on single track stretches. Watchtowers stood at major road crossings to control gates or provide shelter for a crossing watchman. They were often elevated to provide the watchman better visibility.

Steam and diesel locomotive servicing facilities such as water, sand, and coaling towers, roundhouses, and shops were located near some depots, but usually the railroad found them to be more efficient in the midst of yards or in locations far removed from passenger handling structures.

Other structures often found nearby were lunchrooms, hotels, and, at major terminals, the Railroad YMCA. Before the advent of the dining car, restaurants, or beaneries, designed to serve passengers and railroad crews, often were part of the depot scene at selected points. Examples existed at Bellevue, Montpelier, Walbridge, and Willard into the mid-1900s. Railroad hotels were often located at junctions even in the smallest communities. Boarding houses offered rooms to railroad men. At major terminals like Bellevue, Montpelier, Toledo, and Walbridge, Railroad Ys offered clean and safe places to stay.

Following are illustrations of a sampling of these structures, mainly passenger and combination depots, across 14 northwest Ohio counties. The boundaries of the included area are the Ohio–Michigan and Ohio–Indiana state lines and Lake Erie to the north and west; the NYC&StL (now NS) and B&O (now CSX) mainlines to the south from Seneca to Paulding Counties; and the central part of Erie and Huron Counties to the east. Future volumes will continue the study into neighboring parts of the Buckeye state. As is the case with many a historical compilation, completeness is hard to obtain. If it wasn’t for the pioneer photographers who recorded the landscape for postcards, the historical record would be much less complete. It’s unfortunate that many of their names have been lost to history so it is impossible to give them due credit. Readers willing to share photographs and information of depots are encouraged to contact the author through the Railroad Station Historical Society website www.rrshs.org (an updated list of what’s needed is accessible through the Ohio page of extant structures) or the University of Toledo website www.utoledo.edu/eeescience/Camp/.

Historical information for this book came from Reports of the Ohio Railway Commission; Annual Reports of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio; Poors Manuals; Railroad Gazette; Railway Age and other trade journals; various newspapers of northwest Ohio; numerous centennial, sesquicentennial, and bicentennial compilations and histories of northwest Ohio communities; and firsthand interviews conducted over the last 40 years.

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BALTIMORE AND OHIO LINES

In 1837, a primitive rail line, then known as the Mansfield and Sandusky City Railroad, was building a