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From: "Joe Mayer" jmayer AT insight DOT rr DOT com
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 21:52:37 -0500
Subject: Re: Rittman
"RittmanOH_1975_JMayer001.jpg" - image/jpeg, 633x501 (24bit)

Thanks, Mike, for the photos and info regarding the Rittman station. It is
understandable, as you stated that once a person left Rittman, they would
not desire to return, if the following 1913 piece from the Wadsworth Banner
Press is accurate:

Feb 06, 1913

Row On Train

Foreigners and Americans Mixed Saturday Night



When train seven, due here at 7:51 p.m., pulled into Wadsworth Saturday
evening, the conductor hastened into the depot and put in a call for the
police. A crowd of foreigners, who boarded the train at Akron and whose
destination was Rittman, became involved in a fight with American
passengers. The row started after the train left Barberton and despite the
efforts of the crew, there was considerable "rough House" over the
intervening six miles.



Unfortunately, the person putting in the call for the officers failed to
state what the trouble was. Officers Lucas and Mohn are frequently called
to the South End to care for drunks and believing this was one of the
periodical calls of this nature, they were not on the scene as quickly as
they might otherwise have been. They were delayed about five minutes in
trying to find out by telephone what the trouble was, as the central
operator could get no answer from the depot. When the officers arrived, the
train was just pulling out after having been held for ten minutes.



The disorderly crowd had finally been quieted and the conductor felt he
could hold the train no longer. The unruly passengers disembarked at
Rittman and the train proceeded in peace.

The Wadsworth Banner-Press



I am also attaching a 1975 photo of a WB passing the "Dereco-dipped" Rittman
station. Sorry about the quality- I was 16 and "shooting" at the time with
a Kodak 110 Instamatic!



Comparing the photo of the original station that hangs in the depot today to
the photo in the "Next Station Will Be" series reveals that the small Wells
Fargo office at the East end of the depot appears to have been heavily
modified by the time the later USRA valuation photos were taken, being more
than doubled in area, with the addition of two track-facing freight doors,
and a third on the end, and with horizontal siding now covering the entire
depot, not just the bay. The depot also looks better cared for than it does
in the older view posted by Mike.



Joe Mayer

ELHS 702


RittmanOH_1975_JMayer001.jpg

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