Train

Cridersville train railroad railway history transportation depot tracks Big Four railroad Ohio rail local history Cridersville Historical Society. CRIDERSVILLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 111 W. Sugar St. PO Box 2444 Cridersville, Ohio 45806 Preserving local history for future generations. The depot in Cridersville was located on the east side of the tracks just north of Main Street. A railroad between Cincinnati and Toledo was a widely discussed topic during the 1840s in western Ohio. Steam locomotives were then the most modern and reliable transportation technology. The Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad was chartered in March 1846. Construction of the railroad from Cincinnati to Hamilton and on to Dayton started and was finished in 1851. As the CH&D was completed, plans for a new railroad going north out of Dayton were underway. The first D&M locomotive to pass through Cridersville in 1858. First engineer to drive a train through Cridersville in 1858 The first train traveling from Dayton to Lima, and passing through Cridersville, ran on April 12, 1858. The new railroad provided year-round travel to Dayton, Cincinnati, and the Ohio River. The original schedule in Lima had two trains per day—one departing Lima south at 9AM and another arriving in Lima from Dayton at 4PM. It is hard to imagine the excitement of local residents on April 12, 1858. Most people in the area had never seen a steam locomotive. The new railroad would bring prosperity to the region and Cridersville. Western Ohio ’s first transportation asset was the Miami & Erie Canal. Construction on the canal began in Cincinnati and reached St. Marys by 1837. When completed in 1845 a trip from Cincinnati to Toledo took only three days. On horseback it had taken a week. The canal passed through Minster, New Bremen, St. Marys, and Kossuth in Auglaize County. The canal was nearly 250 miles long and took 20 years to construct at a cost of $8 million. A crew of 500 workers could build about 15 miles of canal in two years. Work on the canal was done primarily by German and Irish immigrants using picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows. The canal brought prosperity to western Ohio. It connected local...