Some things bring about a memory, this one come while I was driving last Thursday on my way to help someone move some boxes out of the basement. While I was driving through the new interchange ramp I look over to the right and saw that what remained of the Akron Barberton Belt's East Akron line right of way and the water department maintenance facility was totally wiped clean and nothing remained but a dirt pile. Let's rewind 25+ years ago back when I was about 9 or 10 I remember riding over to South street to a restaurant called the Bunn. It was about 1500 feet south of the water dept and the Beltline crossed directly in front of it and me and my dad would go for a cheeseburger and the hopes one of the pinkish yellow switch engines would traverse the line, and every once and a while we would get a show when they made their way back to Barberton. Little did I know that in less than 5 years the tracks I would see these trains on would be nothing but a memory. I personally want to thank a friend Bryan K. Porter for sharing some pics out of his collection of the switchers and the defunct line.
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| Akron Barberton SW 1502 Crossing Exchange Street |
Now the above pic I remember from riding with my dad on many of his excursions to East Akron for whatever we went for. Sometimes we would go to another restaurant closer to the house called Clouser's. Usually it was on Saturday mornings and there always seemed to be a plethora of train activity. Sometimes we would catch the belt while visiting the Firestone gift shop since my dad had retired from there the year I was born. While I cherished those moments I look back and wished I would of somehow figured a way to save the memories through a picture or something. As I grew up little did I know the railroad I grew up with literally would be in for some drastic and permanent changes. One of the last memories I have of the East Akron Line was my final day at middle school when we had a class picnic at Morgan park. Morgan park was literally right next to the tracks and a fence was the only thing separating the tracks from the park. While it was a time of change for me to be going to high school it would be also one of the last trains I would ever see on the line. I remember it vividly hearing the horn blow for what I now know to be Baird street. I broke from the crowd and ran to the fence and within a few minutes here come the switcher with it's cars in tow and I ran with the train along the fence until I reached the corner of the fence and then I watched as the train and history would fade off in the distance. Later that year the Wheeling took over the beltline and the tracks would be pulled never to see a train again. Like the East Akron Line, the restaurants, my dad and the putrid pinkish yellow of those switchers are all nothing but a memory. One day I may go do some exploring and see just How much of the right of way exist today. As I close for now you know I can't leave you without some words of wisdom. Like the subject of today's blog and with the upcoming Christmas season coming upon us we are going to hopefully be around the ones we love and make some memories, let me say just this one thing.... Cherish them..... sometimes we may never know when it is going to be the last of something or when we will lose someone we love many times I look over my pictures and sometimes wish my dad could see them, but somehow I think he is looking down at me standing in the pouring rain photographing and watching trains smiling at me and saying that's my boy. Until next time take care and remember God is still in control.
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