by Rick Forrester
On a balmy February morning, the Thursday Fosters FLMSP volunteers were out in force beautifying the Morrow section of trail, clearing weeds from a stop sign in Loveland, and cutting honeysuckle near the Lebanon spur. While cutting the invasive shrub, Rick Forrester’s chainsaw chain struck sparks from an object buried just below the berm surface .
The sustained efforts of the crew uncovered a piece of history buried decades ago. After some digging by Jim, then comical attempts by the crew to move the artifact by brute force, followed by a lengthy debate about how best to bring the object out of the berm, the crew attached a metal chain to Rick’s pickup and, lo and behold, extracted a length of railroad rail! Trail crews have uncovered many railroad items over the years including spikes, j-hooks, tie plates, wooden ties, anchor bolts, signal towers, and even artifacts of totally mysterious purpose, but this rail was a first.
A few facts about our Little Miami railroad and its rails:
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Rails typically weigh 138 pounds per yard. No wonder it took a truck to move it! We joke about being on the chain gang with all the work we do, but this is a whole ’nother level!
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Standard length American rails are six tenths of a “chain length” long. An old English surveying term still used today, a “chain” is exactly 22 yards. The standard rail is therefore 39.6 feet long. Also, the Little Miami State Park is one “chain length” wide (railroad right of way), or 66 feet for most of its 50 miles.
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A rail car wheel contacts the rail in an area roughly the size of one dime as it travels along the track.
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Rails are made with their destination in mind. They are forged and then stretched or warmed to have a “neutral temperature,” meaning a rail that is free of thermal stress based on the expected temperature range of the specific environment where it will be installed. I wonder what the Little Miami temperatures were in the 1830s and 1840s?
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The clickety-clack you heard when riding on a train was caused by the joints where rails were bolted together with a “fishplate.” Most rails now are fused together to prevent wear of the wheels, reduce vibration, and reduce maintenance costs.
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The Little Miami Railroad was incorporated in March 1836 with the Honorable Jeremiah Morrow as its first President, who was also Governor of Ohio. Track laying began in 1837 and was completed in Xenia in 1846—a distance of 84 miles. Our Park comprises 50 miles of the original rail line.
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The last train company to run commercial passengers on the Little Miami line was the Miami/Penn Central Railroad in 1968. The last train ran on the tracks in 1974 (read about it here).
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Little Miami Inc. (now Little Miami Conservancy) was instrumental in saving the railroad right of way. Their office is located along the trail in Nisbet Park in Loveland. Stop by and visit their exhibits for more historical tidbits!
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In 1983, the Us Congress adopted the Rails to Trails Act allocating $5,000,000 to convert abandoned railroad lines to multi-purpose recreation trails across the country. There are 399 rails-to-trails encompassing over 2, 300 miles throughout the United States. Visit https://www.railstotrails.org for information on where to find them.
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After purchasing the right of way, ODNR allowed Penn Central Railroad (which was in bankruptcy) to salvage the abandoned rails which were worth approximately $2,150,000 as scrap metal. The artifact we unearthed is one they missed.
Take a trip up to the Lebanon spur to see the historical rail!
Photo right: The rail unearthed using log levers and cleaned up
March 2024
