PRR/NYC trackage rights on the B&O (Boanna to Rave)

[EL3632]

Does anyone recall the approximate number and types of trains that the PRR ran on the B&O between Niles, OH (Boanna?) and Ravenna, OH (Rave) on the former B&O Akron Sub mainline?

It seems to me that the NYC also had trackage rights on the B&O from Youngstown, OH (not sure where) to Ravenna, OH (Marcy), and in addition may have used the PRR from Rave to Marcy. Does anyone recall the number and types of trains the NYC ran via this routing?

How did the PC merger affect these trains? Did Conrail ever use these same trackage rights?

When were these connections ripped out? If I recall, these connections tied into each main of the B&O double track.

Thank you,

DED

[BaltOhio]

I can't answer the question about number of trains, but can fill in some other details.

PRR's use of the B&O between Ravenna and Niles Jct. goes back to the early 1900s when PRR controlled the B&O and the two railroads cooperated on joint facility projects. At that time the B&O mainline east of Ravenna followed an abandoned canal, was single track with a lot of curves. At the time, too, PRR was planning its own direct line to Youngstown that would have paralleled the B&O. The two roads got together, with B&O building a new double-track line on a new alignment and PRR given trackage rights. (The old B&O alignment was later used by the short-lived Cleveland, Alliance & Mahoning Valley interurban line.)

NYC's use of the B&O between Ravenna & Niles Jct. actually piggybacked on PRR's trackage rights contract. This was another joint project, this time between PRR and NYC. NYC needed a direct route between Cleveland and Youngstown, and about 1905 the NYC and PRR jointly bought a project called the Lake Erie & Pittsburg (no "h" in the title, and no relation to the P&LE) to accomplish this. NYC and PRR each had a 50% interest in the LE&P, although the PRR never made use of it.

The LE&P was completed in 1911 from NYC's Marcy yard outside Cleveland (actually in Cuyahoga Heights) to a junction with the PRR at Brady Lake, west of Ravenna. East from Brady Lake, NYC trains used the PRR to Ravenna, B&O to Niles Jct. (using PRR trackage rights over B&O), and then LE&E/P&LE into Youngstown. This was strictly a freight route for NYC, with about 8 scheduled merchandise trains a day in total. A couple of these were WM-connection trains via the P&LE and Connellsville.

The LE&P remained a separate corporation, still with 50-50 NYC-PRR control, until the PC merger, although, as noted, it for all practical purposes an NYC facility and operated as part of NYC's Cleveland Division. After the PC merger the LE&P became redundant, and was soon abandoned, even though it had better grades than the more-or-less paralleling PRR line into Cleveland.