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In General
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Location / Name:
Cleveland OH, Cuyahoga County, county seat
What's Here:
CSX
Norfolk Southern
Amtrak (on NS)
The Cleveland Port Railway
The Cleveland Works Railway
The Newburgh & South Shore Railroad
RTA Light and Heavy Rail Systems
the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, about 25 miles south of downtown
The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame
The Cleveland Browns football team
The Cleveland Guardians baseball team, formerly known as the Cleveland Indians
Data:
GPS Coordinates: as needed
Phone A/C: 216
ZIP: 44114 (at the R&R Hall of Fame)
Access by train/transit:
Amtrak
RTA heavy Rail
RTA Light Rail
Geography:
Hills, some real good :-)
The Scoop:
I've split up the Cleveland guide into two sections to make things more manageable:
-- Part 1 covers Amtrak, Norfolk Southern, CSX, and the shortlines.
-- Part 2 covers everything else - the yards, bridges, signals (if any are noteworthy), miscellaneous railroadiana, and other stuff like the RnR Hall of Fame
As you can see from the list of what's around Cleveland to check out, there is a lot if you know where to look:
- You have the two short line railroads: the Cleveland Port Railway, and the Cleveland Works Railway.
- You have a presence by both of the east coast class 1's: CSX and Norfolk Southern.
- South of town, you have the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, a railfan favorite for many decades.
- In town, the RTA offers you both heavy rail and light rail service.
- Amtrak has a relatively new station (1977) near the Brown's stadium and the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, although it is not service by light rail.
- The -best- railfan spot is Berea where you can catch freights at speed, about 25 miles SW of downtown.
- And among others, there is the aforementioned Brown's Huntington Bank Stadium and the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, a must see.
- Cleveland's Hopkins International Airport is about 16mi SW of downtown, just above Berea, and heavy rail goes there.
One of the more favored places in the area to railfan is Berea, just southwest of downtown. Here you have the CSX and NS mainlines heading into Cleveland and they are a mere 100 feet apart. If you have the patience, you will be rewarded with a shot of two freights coming thru at speed, and they are neck to neck. It's a sight you won't easily forget. Very few other railfan locations around the country offer this opportunity! I was VERY lucky, and only had to wait about 10 minutes! My page for Berea is here.
The
The transit system in Cleveland is covered on it's own page here, this page will concentrate on the freight roads and Amtrak.
Because of the way the Cuyahoga River meanders thru Cleveland, the Case Western Reserve University Encyclopedia of Cleveland History puts the bridge count in Cleveland at 330 bridges. According the Google AI, Pittsburgh PA has the most recognized bridge count in the United States, with an official total of 446 bridges.
Acknowledgements:
Cards84664
Dick Flock
Chris Zygmunt
Derren Reynolds
NRHS
Google Maps
Open Railway Map
Wikipedia
Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
https://omnitrax.com/cleveland-port-railway-llc/ Cleveland Port Rwy homepage, their Google map next link below
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1CHpcErboMu1Kl_FMFLTwe1q6RjHYKa8&femb=1&ll=41.505117419066295%2C-81.674039538198&z=15
https://www.cvsr.org/ the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad
https://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/2015/05/17/scenes-from-clevelands-national-train-day/
NRHS Photo Archive SW1000
Progressive Railroading All Battery Electric for the NSR
Planning Your Trip and Getting Here
All mileages are approximate, measured using Google Maps.
I-90 brings you here from points west such as Toledo OH (113mi), Detroit MI (160mi) and other points in Michigan, South Bend IN (230mi), Chicago IL (325mi), and Milwaukee WI.
BTW, the combined I-80/90 going thru both Ohio and Indiana is a toll road! :-( I-90 joins I-80 (the turnpike) about 30mi west of Cleveland in Elyria OH.
Kalamazoo (255mi) and Grand Rapids MI (300mi) are reached via US131 (I-90 exit #107).
Lansing MI (268mi) and Battle Creek MI (226mi) are off I-69 (I-90 exit #144).
I-90 from the east brings you in from Schenectady & Albany NY (460mi), Syracuse NY, Rochester NY, Batavia NY, Buffalo (180mi) & Niagara Falls NY, and Erie PA (90mi).
I-86, then I-90 will bring you here from the southern New York cities of Binghamton (325mi), Endicott, Corning (270mi), Hornell, Olean, and Salamanca.
I-80 from the east brings you in from New York City (400mi!), central PA towns such as Lewisburg (290mi), Williamsport (285mi), State College (240mi), AND Scranton (355mi) & Wilkes-Barre (340mi) via I-81. When you get near Cleveland on I-80, you're still 15 miles (24km) south of town, so you need to take I-77 north (at I-80 exit #173) into town.
BTW, FYI, KIM (keep in mind), just west of Youngstown OH (~10mi), interstates I-80 and I-76 "trade places", and I-80 going west is now a toll road and the continuation of the Ohio Turnpike, which started at the PA/OH border as a continuation of the PA Turnpike (I-76) , also a toll road.
OK, next is the BIG feeder, I-76. I-76, the Pennsylvania Turnpike brings you in from as far away as Philadelphia (400mi, off the map), Harrisburg (300mi), and Pittsburgh (131mi). At Breezewood PA, I-76 is joined by I-70 (in blue), which dips down into Maryland, and connects you with Baltimore (341mi), Hagerstown (271mi), and Frederick (295mi). AND, were not done yet, at Frederick, I-270 (in red) brings you "up" from Washington DC (345mi) via the I-495 (bright green) Beltway. Phew.
For a higher resolution version of the above map, click here
Because there is a lot on this page to view, I've included the shortcuts below to make it easier.
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6 7 8
9 10 F1
Amtrak StationGPS Coordinates:
Station Code:
200 Cleveland Memorial Shoreway, Cleveland OH 44114
https://www.amtrak.com/stations/cle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Lakefront_Station
The Cleveland Lakefront Station is an Amtrak train station at North Coast Harbor in Cleveland OH. The current station was built in 1977 to provide service to the Lake Shore Limited route (New York/Boston-Chicago), which was reinstated by Amtrak via Cleveland and Toledo in 1975. It replaced service at/to Cleveland Union Terminal.
There is NO light rail service to the nearby North Coast station unless a Browns game or other special event going on.
Cards84664 via Wikipedia
9th Street "Train Bridge"GPS Coordinates: 41.50201, -81.70409
For some reason, the 9th Street bridge seems to be a favorite with railfans visiting Cleveland, and if you go searching for places to watch trains from, the bridge is mentioned a lot. I'm NOT sure if access to the bridge is always available.
From this bridge you can get Norfolk Southern freights, Amtrak, the Waterfront light rail line, and the Cleveland Port Railway. Keep in mind that the light rail only runs -here- on Browns game days.
the Cleveland Port Railway4200 East 71st St, Cleveland OH 44105 (in Marcy Yard)
877.276.3777
https://omnitrax.com/cleveland-port-railway-llc/
Located in it's entirety on the north side of the Norfolk Southern main going along the water's edge is a shortline that services industries located along the water's edge.
In January 2011, the Cleveland Commercial Railroad (CCR) signed an agreement with the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, which operates the Port of Cleveland, to run a new switching service, called the Cleveland Harbor Belt - CHB. Although only a few thousand feet of track were built, the service made it much easier for Great Lakes freighters to move cargo directly onto rail cars, which would be pushed by a CHB locomotive onto the tracks, or connect to a train of a nearby Class I railroad (Norfolk Southern).
The Cleveland Port Rwy is owned by Omnitrax, which also owns the Cleveland & Cuyahoga Railway LLC - CCRL, which was formerly the Cleveland Commercial Railroad.
From their webpage: The wholly owned Cleveland Port Railway, LLC (CHB) provides rail switching services at The Port of Cleveland. CHB provides efficient access through the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway with port-based warehousing solutions.
the Cleveland Works Railway the Newburgh & South Shore Railroad (NSR)GPS Coordinates HQ: 41.44486, -81.64158
4200 East 71st St, Cleveland OH 44105 (in Marcy Yard)
877.276.3777
https://omnitrax.com/newburgh-south-shore-railroad/
An OmniTrax railroad. They operate 5 miles of track. The NSR headquarters location provides a base of operations and service facilities for all of the Omnitrax railroads in the Cleveland area.
From their website: Newburgh & South Shore Railroad (NSR) operates in the heart of Cleveland’s interstate highway system. NSR was originally built as one of several railroads in Ohio to serve U.S. Steel’s Cleveland area steel mills. With acres of improved industrial property in the heart of Cleveland’s interstate highway system, NSR is poised for continued growth.
The GSHX 3380 engine below is an all electric engine they bought from Progressive Electric for $2.5mil, with help from Ohio, to see if a battery electric engine will help with the clean air initiative.
Dick Flock, 1996
None for now
Courtesy USGS, click here for their index page.
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New format 10/26/23: Please check out my disclaimer page for my standard dribble and contact info here
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