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From: Mike Spinelli idrsspin AT yahoo DOT com
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 13:45:24 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Rittman, Ohio today
"2011-01-05_09.36.40.jpg" - image/jpeg, 1800x1121 (24bit)

Hello,

I went out to the Rittman, Ohio depot for breakfast this morning, and shot a few
pictures. Not a great day for photography, and all I had was my phone. But these
pix may be worth looking at.

The Rittman depot was built in 1913 along with a freight station that sat just
to the east. The depot sits along Ohio Street, which I believe was the once part
of State Route 94, later recertified State Route 57. SR 57 now bypasses Rittman.
The original station was built in 1869 for the "Almighty and Great Windy" and
sat on Main St. Rittman was originally named "Milton", but a dispute with one of
the railroads (The B&O/CSX mainline also runs through town) led to the name
being changed to Rittman.

After 1958, the station was only a scheduled stop for Train 7 and Train 9 while
it was on), but not for no eastbounds. Apparently once you got out of Rittman,
you didn't want to go back. Passenger service ended in 1965. The depot has been
maintained, and used as a diner, open for breakfast and lunch. The interior
walls appear to be left as original, and can be seen in one of the shots.

The picture from "trackside" is looking at the SE corner of the structure, the
new pavement you see is the nearly complete bike-hike path from just east of the
station to Creston, Ohio. The darker picture is the NE corner, and the entrance
to the diner is in the far end. The other two pictures are a couple of the
artifacts in the station, one is a picture of the original depot, the other is
the train board.

Rittman was home of the Ohio Salt Company and Ohio Packaging Company. These
plants are still open as Morton Salt and Caraustar Industries. Right behind the
station sits Ohio/Morton Salt. The city owns the former Erie mainline from the
Brickyard (near Seville Rd west of Wadsworth) to the end of track west of the
station. The line is single track since the Conrail days, except for a three
track "yard" at the station for running around the train and switching. The
Akron Barberton Cluster handles all operations on the line, which starts in
Barberton, Ohio. Trains operate through Barberton, Wadsworth, and Rittman three
days a week. In Rittman, the train simply drops off cars for CSX to spot at the
two industries. A strange arrangement, the companies using a class one to do
their switching, and CSX doing interchange for the two companies in Rittman
instead of interchanging at Barberton as they normally do. But it keeps the
rails shiny west of AkroMills in Wadsworth, so I'm not complaining.

The ABC RR is a subsidiary of the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad, and includes
the former Akron Barberton Belt trackage, former Erie trackage between Barberton
and Rittman and between Kent and Ravenna.

Anyway the food's not bad, the service is great, and the atmosphere is
interesting. If anyone is travelling through the area, it's worth stopping
there.
Mike Spinelli





2011-01-05_09.36.40.jpg

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