I have an old conductors chair. It is chestnut with spindles on the back dating back to late 1800’s. I am looking for information about the chair. The story is that it was purchased at a garage sale in a suburb of Cleveland. When the yard was closing they told an employee to take what they wanted and this chair was one of those things. Can anyone tell me the timeline and railroads involved from late 1800’s to closing the yard?
The chair is finished and very nice (not for sale). It was a gift to me and I would like to hear some of the stories from the railroad(s) of its era.
The Collinwood yard is still very open and quite active with intermodel transport for CSX. The New York Central roundhouse is no longer there but the 500-ton coaling tower is still standing.
I did a Google search for Collinwood yards, Cleveland, Ohio. The history of Collinwood yards came up. The Collinwood yards were built by a subsidiary of the NYC, Lake Shore & Michigan Southern in 1874. The yards were expanded over the years. In 1981 a portion of the yard was sold off.
So you have the LS&MS, NYC, Penn Central, Conrail and now CSX as owners of the yard.