Ohio Road Trip IV: Elyria to Fremont and back
Marc Fannin
Road Trip IV, our fourth excursion solely for roadgeeking and
photographing. Our goal was to cover North Central Ohio, and we pretty
much met that goal. Details:
We left Elyria on Ohio 2 Westbound. Noted were the first two exits
after I-90 -- they are numbered 10 and 7, consistent with the
milemarkers which reset at the Lorain/Erie County Line. Strange. The
bridge over the CSXT tracks between Lorain and Vermilion has just been
dedicated to a good samaritan who was killed only a few months ago
jumping from the bridge to avoid an oncoming car while helping someone
else.
After going around Huron, we took US 6 to Sandusky and Cedar Point
Amusement Park (where I worked two seasons in the 1990's). We couldn't
enter the park, but we were able to get good photos of the approach
area, as well as the old road along the thin part of the peninsula on
which Cedar Point is located, the road which was the only motor vehicle
entrance until the causeway was built in the 1950's. We also got
various pictures elsewhere in Sandusky, including new variable-lane
signals for Cedar Point traffic as well as the termini of US 250 and
Ohio 4 and 101.
Leaving Sandusky, we took US 6 west then continued on old Ohio 2, which
parallels the current Ohio 2 freeway to the north, to Bay View on
Sandusky Bay. Here, Ohio 2 and 269 cross the bay on the Thomas A.
Edison Memorial Bridge, a causeway. Just to the east is where Ohio 2
then Ohio 269 used to cross the bay on a causeway with a lift bridge in
the middle; by the mid-1990's the bridge had been removed and the
approaches converted to fishing piers. Even further east the
aforementioned CSXT tracks cross the bay on their causeway. Many
photos.
To Port Clinton where we photographed some old signals, a drawbridge,
and an Ohio 53 trailblazer sign which contained a red US 53 shield,
among other things.
Then we headed for Fremont on Ohio 53. Fremont has a very interesting
system of city routes. They are identified on small vertical rectangles
throughout the city. Sandor and I traced much of the system since these
routes do not appear on maps (I have the records from the trip of these
so anyone with questions can e-mail me). They also are clearly only a
City of Fremont creation since they all disappear at the city limits
(interesting since all their parent routes generally exist outside the
city limits by some space).
From Fremont we took the Ohio Turnpike to US 250 so we could photograph
the local road/NS train track/Ohio Turnpike stack just west of US 250.
Then we finished up the trip by visiting Milan along US 250/Ohio 13 and
going to the west side of Norwalk so we could field-check the Norwalk
bypass (US 20/Ohio 18) -- at the east end of the bypass there is
right-of-way graded for a continuation of the northbound lanes to just
shy of old US 20 but no other signs of an extension -- then we headed
back to Elyria on US 20 with a short detour up Ohio 10 to Ohio 83 and
back which included another numbered exit on a state highway (3 on
Ohio 10 for Ohio 83).
I know I've forgotten some stuff, so this is Sandor's cue.
--
Marc Fannin musx...@kent.edu (use first) or musx...@hotmail.com
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~musxf579/
Roads: http://members.nbci.com/musxf579/roadsite.html
"If '[Weird] Al' didn't exist, we'd have to invent him."
-- Doug Fieger of the Knack
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Sandor G
news:8pmmp9$3ja$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
We had lunch at Wendy's and Marc told too many Lake Erie as ocean jokes. :-)
Marc explained the qusi-cloverleaf on Oh 57 for a shopping district between
I-90 & I-80 to me
The right of way along US 20 between Kipton Oberlin looks to have been moved
over time. Signage and Telephone poles show the highway used to be a little
more to the south than it is today, but it is still two lanes. Now that is
strange!
Of other notes that I saw from Marengo to Elyria.
ODOT is installing a traffic signal at the south end of the OH 61-I-71
diamond interchange (though not at the north end) near my house. Mainly due
to the impending construction of a new truck stop by Williams (??).
The original County Highway markers on I-71 overpasses in Morrow County have
been removed by ODOT. :-(
Oh 83 NB has to stop while SB 83 and a county highway (former routing of US
224) have right-of-way on the southside of Lodi.
There is a traffic circle for Oh 83 @ Oh 18 in Litchfield. Oh 83 has stop
signs before preceding, Oh 18 doesn't .
There is an intercrossing T intersection on Oh 57 just south of US 20.
Traffic to and from NB Oh 57 have to loop in.
The Elyria by-pass is named the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway
We'll both think of more (I'm sure) after I get the film developed (with
whatever $$$ I have left after the RMCA meeting this weekend and schoolbooks
next week).
> --
> Marc Fannin musx...@kent.edu (use first) or musx...@hotmail.com
> http://www.personal.kent.edu/~musxf579/
> Roads: http://members.nbci.com/musxf579/roadsite.html
> "If '[Weird] Al' didn't exist, we'd have to invent him."
> -- Doug Fieger of the Knack
>
--
Sandor G
"I'm not from here" - President of the OSU Geography Club
"I Just live here." - Middle of Nowhere, Ohio
-- James McMurtry
"Rocks are my pillow
The cold ground my bed
Highway is my home" -- Magic Slim
Larry Stone
Fannin) wrote:
> We left Elyria on Ohio 2 Westbound. Noted were the first two exits
> after I-90 -- they are numbered 10 and 7, consistent with the
> milemarkers which reset at the Lorain/Erie County Line. Strange. The
> bridge over the CSXT tracks between Lorain and Vermilion has just been
> dedicated to a good samaritan ...
> Even further east the
> aforementioned CSXT tracks cross the bay on their causeway. Many
> photos.
Norfolk Southern, not CSX. In the Conrail split-up, the former New York
Central main line west of Cleveland went to Norfolk Southern. East of
Cleveland, it became part of CSX.
-- Larry, who many years ago worked for Norfolk Southern predecessor
Norfolk and Western in Sandusky
--
Larry Stone
la...@stonejongleux.com
http://www.stonejongleux.com/