Railroad ties: Orrville group preserves rich train history

The Orrville Railroad Heritage Society, founded in 1978 by railroad enthusiasts eager to preserve Orrville’s ties to the railroad industry, has a long-standing presence in the community.

This summer there are a series of events for all ages planned at the Depot and also at the rail yard.

ORHS member Howard Crawford has been instrumental in formulating and promoting this event for kids and families, Kids Day at the Depot, to be held Saturday, June 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event will feature model trains from both ORHS and the Wooster Society of Model Railroaders Club and tours of the Depot. The gift shop also will be open.

Kids Day will jam a lot of fun into a four-hour window. There will be a magician, a cornhole contest and rides on the Lions Club mini train. You can get thrown in jail and hope someone bails you out with bail proceeds benefiting Depot renovations, get your photo taken in the Vintage Vibe photo booth, and get some complimentary Orr Theatre popcorn. There also will be a food truck onsite.

There will be displays and giveaways from various local organizations at the free event, which will be held at the Depot, 145 Depot St., Orrville.

The city of Orrville is named after Judge Smith Orr — born in Ireland and whose family came to America after the 1798 Irish Rebellion — and in 1812 the Orr family settled in what is now East Union Township near Apple Creek.

In 1851 the Pittsburgh and Fort Wayne Railroad, later the Pittsburgh Railroad, was being promoted through this area, and Orr moved his family from a farm in the Orrville area into the 1844 house, which is still standing today at 365 W. Market St. and is owned and operated by the Orrville Historical Society.

As a result of Orr’s negotiations with the railroad, Orrville became a fuel and water stop on the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad as it built west from Allegheny City, now part of Pittsburgh, to Crestline just west of Mansfield. Of an enterprising nature, Orr started a sawmill to furnish wood for the steam engines.

The Orrville junction was a busy transfer point with freight and passengers being transferred between the two railroads.

“Orrville was also the site of a large horse trading auction, which also propelled its growth and the importance of its railroad connections,” said Anna Davidson, a member of ORHS.

The Orrville Union Station was built in 1868 by the PRR at the junction of the PFW&C and the Cleveland, Akron and Columbus Railroad. It replaced the original depot, located at Main Street, which was destroyed by fire. In 1899 PRR bought the CA&C, and Orrville became a terminal. The CA&C had a terminal with a yard and roundhouse in Orrville.

By 1968 the depot had served passengers for a hundred years when the PRR, by then merged into the Penn Central, ended passenger service to the city. At that time the station became a maintenance building until the early 1980s when it was no longer needed and was set to be demolished. The Orrville Railroad Heritage Committee, as the ORHS was originally known, moved in and purchased the building in 1982 and also bought the signal tower and moved it across the tracks to its current location adjacent to the station.

Celebrating the past

In June 1982 the ORHS started operating passenger excursions using both steam and diesel locomotives to support various restoration projects. From 1982-2014 the ORHS had successfully and safely operated over 130 excursions, carrying over 90,000 passengers.

These trips were powered by such famous steam locomotives as Nickel Plate 765; Chesapeake & Ohio 2765; Norfolk and Western 611 and 1218; Ohio Central 1551, 1293 and 6325; and various diesel locomotives of the Conrail, Norfolk Southern, Ohio Central and Wheeling & Lake Erie railroads.

But in 2014, when the railroad cars were leased to another railroad historical group, the cars derailed while sitting on the siding with no passengers on board, an accident that caused an extended hiatus in the long-standing railroad excursions that had helped to fund other ORHS restoration and depot projects.

A new era

In 2017 the ORHS was able to bring back a variation on its railroad excursions, offering an event known as Speeders and Spikes, Davidson explained. The event used speeder cars, which are smaller, open-air cars used by the railroads to inspect and repair railroad tracks and transport workers and equipment along the rails, to transport riders on a fast-paced train ride. These events are now held routinely throughout the warmer months of the calendar year.

In 2017 the group also acquired a new rail yard between Catrone Trucking and Scott’s Lawn Care, located at 2174 S. Crownhill Road. This location allows ORHS to have its own railroad track that runs 2 miles south and west of Orrville. The group handles its own track, car and engine maintenance. They have a team of individuals who inspect and repair track and chief mechanical officer Ron Connor, who is a retired Conrail railroad engineer. In 2023 the group also resurrected the popular Santa Train rides, and it plans to offer those rides again this year.

“Our future hopes and plans include moving the signal tower closer to the Depot building, and we look forward to the development of the new railroad heritage area being established by the city in the property adjacent to the Depot,” Davidson said. “We are also lucky to have three local teens who are very active in our group. They are the foundation of our future.”

For more information about all the events being planned throughout the year, visit www.orrvillerailroad.com/events.