Saturday, June 4, 2022

Lost NYC/(LS&MS/LE&W) Bridge on Shoreline of Sandusky, OH

(no Bridge Hunter; Satellite, only the remnants of the abutment is left)

Steve LaConte posted
LS&MS drawbridge; Sandusky, Oh. by Dutch Lane. Nov. 1978
Steve LaConte posted
Nov. 1978; LS&MS lift bridge, Sandusky, Oh. (off Dutch Lane behind old police station at Battery Park)
Norbert Scherger: My friend who grew up there steered me wrong I guess. 😀. So the big 4 ended about where the coal docks are?
Steve LaConte: Norbert Scherger Around Batterey Park. The Big 4 took over the old Mad River and Lake Erie western line. The Big 4; LS&MS and the LE&W shared a roundhouse about 1/4 mile west of the current Amtrak depot(Which was a union terminal for all three railroads) B&O had its own depot on Hancock st.
Bob Weston: Is that bridge still there?
Steve LaConte: bridge and line is now gone. Former mainline of LS&MS until line went south of Sandusky and station built on N. Depot St..
Geoffrey Moreland shared

Cleveland State University Library Photograph Collection from Old Bridge Hunter

Corey Brown commented on Bob Weston's comment
No not much of the right of way is either.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Corey's comment
Thanks for this information. I had assumed it was the predecessor to this bridge:
https://www.google.com/.../@41.4846236,-82.../data=!3m1!1e31959
Castalia Quad @ 1:24,000

One can easily trace the lost route of the original LS&MS mainline through town including this lost bridge. But my 2005 SPV Map labeled the track that remained in the 1959 topo map as NW/LE&W. Comments in railroad confirm that LE&W and LS&MS shared trackage between CP242/Bay Jct. and the waterfront. In addition to accessing industry along the waterfront, I think the LE&W used to trackage to help form a loop to turn their trains around and to access the shared depot and shared railyard that Steve LaConte mentioned in a comment above. In the following, a yellow rectangle highlights the shared railyard. A blue line shows the LE&W track that joined the LS&MS line to the depot at CP240/BO Tower. The red line is the original LS&MS mainline that was already abandoned by 1959. The purple line shows the shared route along the waterfront and across this bridge.
1959 Sandusky Quad @ 1:24,000

The same map before I marked it up.
1959 Sandusky Quad @ 1:24,000

The L&EW route was originally a Granger railroad that went all the way to Peoria, IL, which was a major gateway when railroads were king. [akronrrclub and  nkphts] So it would make since that L&EW would want to efficiently turnaround their trains at this terminus of their route.




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