Riverside-Sharon transfer eastbound at Hartwell Ave.

NG501072

Riverside-Sharon transfer eastbound at Hartwell Ave.

Steam Freight Train

Compared with the across-the-river transfers, the inter-yard transfers are much less spectacular and not quite as interesting, but they are just as important in a different respect. Their average consists are shorter and include very little coal, hence the tonnage rarely requires the use of a helper. On the other hand, these same consists are made up to a considerable extent of good manifest freight spiced with perishable, and this is of course where the importance comes in; there are connections to be made at Sharon with the Ohio Division symbol trains. As a result, the overall progress of these transfers is a more urgent matter than that of the "coal drags" from the L&N at DeCoursey and the C&O at Stevens (with an exception; the 7:45 PM L&N transfer out of Sharon has cars for LS-6 on its return trip). The picture shows the 8:00 AM transfer out of Riverside for Sharon hustling up the valley at Hartwell Avenue behind the 1995. This job picks up important connection freight from the Southern at Mill Creek - on this occasion its 26-car consist included several perishables from this source - and is highballed to Sharon in time to make CC-2, the Toledo fast freight scheduled to leave at 1:30 PM. (In the case of the across-the-river transfers, there is sometimes a need for haste prompted by an altogether different consideration: savings in per diem. A lot of money rides on the ability of the evening transfers out of Sharon to reach Wood Street before midnight so much so that, in nip-and-tuck situations, permission is requested to operate via the relatively less congested and gradeless C.U.T. route, normally a privileged sanctuary of passenger trains.)

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

Nov-55

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352

H-7e

#1995

Cincinnati, OH

See NG501072a