I’m trying to figure out where the CL and LSL separate. Looking at the time tables it is sometime after the Cleveland stop. The CL goes next to Alliance, Ohio, and the LSL heads towards Erie, PA. Does anyone know what mile post or town the routes physically separate? Thank you in advance.
I asked your question over at trainorders.com and symph1 replied with the following:
"They split almost immediately east of the Cleveland Amtrak station–within a couple miles. The LSL goes east on the old NYC, the CL goes southeast on the old PRR.
The Amtrak station is pretty close to where the PRR had it’s downtown Cleveland station. The NYC took a bypass from Collinwood to CUT. However, the 20th Century, which didn’t stop in Cleveland, took the lakeshore route through town, and so it went right by the location of the Amtrak station, too. NYC and PRR tracks were parallel there, and shared the bridge over the Cuyahoga river."
Thank you very much for the thorough and informative answer.
“Shoretower” also replied with this:
"Let me add a few details. Conrail needed to change some trackwork around so that it was possible to move from the Amtrak station track to the Alliance Line (former PRR) off the former NYC. Going east from the Cuyahoga River, the interlocking at Drawbridge controls access to the Amtrak platform. Then there is a crossover at CP 122 (formerly “Silver Plate Junction”) that permits movement directly from the CSX mainline to the former PRR (which is now controlled by NS). Some NS trains make this move as well, since NS dispatches from Berea to the west end of the Cuyahoga drawbridge, and CSX takes over east of there. So NS trains through Cleveland run to the Alliance Line, and CSX trains from Berea use the Cleveland Short Line to Collinwood, east of downtown. This is not the same route as the former route through CUT, which is called the Clark Branch and no longer goes all the way into CUT, but just reaches a few industries.
The operations through Cleveland were one of the most contentious parts of the NS/CSX split of Conrail, and the current arrangement provides neither railroad the same flexibility that Conrail enjoyed. However, it does work. NS, of course, also has the former NKP to use, and has built several connections between it and the former CR."