ALLEN COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: About Railroads (1920)
***********************************************************************
OHGENWEB NOTICE:  All distribution rights to this electronic data are
reserved by the submitter.  Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted
material will require the permission of the copyright owner.
***********************************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Linda Dietz 
ldjdd@wcoil.com
February 15, 1999
***********************************************************************

 This area at one time a major thoroughfare for train traffic. In 
 1920,eight steam railroads operated in Allen Co.

 They included the Baltimore and Ohio,Pennsylvania,Erie,Detroit,Toledo 
 and Ironton and Lake Erie and Western,all serving Lima;
 Northern Ohio,operating through Bluffton to Delphos;Toledo,St Louis and  
 Western which had terminal facilities in Delphos;and Dayton,Toledo, and 
 Chicago,  which had track between Delphos and Dayton.

 The Hardin County village of Dola was at one time a hub of activity as 
 trains on the Pennsylvania Railroad refueled there.

 Just west of Dola, water pans which stretched for one mile were laid on 
 the tracks. 

 The steam trains would take water on the fly.These trains traveling
 about 50 miles per hour,would force the water into the engine tender.
 In cold weather, to keep the ice from building up in the pans,workers 
 would pull a U-shaped metal plate through the pans to force the ice out.