Mark J. Camp - Railroad Depots of West Central Ohio

Larger communities had separate passenger and freight depots. This c. 1907 scene on the Pennsylvania Railroad at Bucyrus shows a brick freight house on the left and a passenger depot on the right, both dating to the 1870s. At the road crossing in the foreground is a shanty for the crossing watchman. (Mark J. Camp collection.)

The Dayton and Michigan Railroad connected Dayton and Toledo in 1859 by way of Sidney, Wapakoneta, and Lima. Construction began in Dayton in 1853; the line was in operation to Sidney in 1856 and Lima in 1858. The Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad (CH&D) had a vested interest in this line since it had recently ended its agreements with the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad (MR&LE) for access to a Lake Erie port by way of MR&LE tracks from Dayton to Sandusky. In 1863, the line came under the control of the CH&D, and the CH&D had a port of its own at the growing city of Toledo. In 1887, a line began west from Findlay, eventually reaching Fort Wayne in 1895. The original name, New York, Mahoning and Western, hinted at great aspirations; it became the American Midland and, eventually, the Findlay, Fort Wayne and Western (FFW&W), often called the Tangent line because of its relatively straight course. It connected with the Toledo and Ohio Central (T&OC) in South Findlay and the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and Wabash on the east side of Fort Wayne. After the CH&D gained control in 1902 and reorganized it as the Cincinnati, Findlay and Fort Wayne (CF&FW), it connected the new acquisition to its Delphos-Dayton branch by laying track from a new wye junction called East Mandale south to Delphos in 1904. The Delphos-Dayton branch, chartered as the narrow-gauge Toledo, Delphos and Burlington Railroad in 1879, began service in 1883 as the Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad. It was taken over by the CH&D and converted to standard gauge. The main business along the line was lumber, and when the forests disappeared, so did the future of the line; traffic did not develop as projected. The CH&D encountered financial difficulties around 1905, receiverships followed, and the 1913 Flood wreaked havoc along the road. The Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) bought the CH&D minus its line from Hamilton to Indianapolis and Springfield, Illinois, and the Pere Marquette system in Michigan, which it had controlled, in 1916. The Delphos-Mandale stretch was removed in 1918. The CF&FW was scrapped in 1919 with the exception of a stretch from Grover Hill to the Cincinnati Northern connection at Haviland, which reportedly operated until June 1920. The Delphos-Dayton line came up in 1923.

The Dayton and Greenville Railroad opened between Greenville and Union, west of Dayton, in June 1852. After extending the line to Union City, it became the Dayton and Union Railroad. A two-story frame office building and depot was built on Martin Street in Greenville. After several corporate changes the Greenville-Union portion was taken over by the B&O. The Greenville depot was demolished around 1951; a metal prefab building served the line in later years.

The CH&D, and later B&O, erected significant brick passenger depots at Lima, Sidney, and Wapakoneta and a larger frame structure at Columbus Grove. Other depots were small combination depots built to a number of standard plans. Depots along the Delphos-Dayton branch and FFW&W were particularly spartan, and since the lines were abandoned by the early 1920s, few survived. Apparently only Wapakoneta and the relocated and modified Anna, East Mandale, and Versailles depots survive in this part of the state.

The New York, Mahoning and Western used Findlays Lake Erie and Western (LE&W) depot initially. Later the FFW&W connected with the T&OC at this depot on the south edge of Findlay. The depot was used for less than 30 years. In this 1918 evaluation photograph, the depot is boarded and grass grows between the rails. (T&OC photograph; Allen County [Ohio] Historical Society collection.)

This depot replaced an earlier passenger depot located at the crossing of the FFW&W and CH&D on the north edge of downtown Ottawa. The tracks of the FFW&W have been gone for many years, but the corner bay window calls attention to its former existence.

With the exception of Findlay, Ottawa, and Fort Wayne, the communities served by the FFW&W were small farming communities and adequately served by standard plan combination depots like this 1894 structure at Glandorf. The paint scheme dates to the time of CH&D control. After abandonment of the line, the depot was moved off-site to become a garage. It has since been demolished. (Mark J. Camp collection.)