North Coast Inland Trail (Kipton to Elyria)

Today it was 79 degrees out, which is slightly warm for a bike ride, but I'm not going to complain. After the winter we have had I will take anything I can get. So since it was so nice out I decided to take a longer bike ride today on the North Coast Inland Trail.

The trail is 13 miles long in a straight line, so 26 miles total if you ride both ways. The trail is part of the Rails to Trails initiative, which turns old abandoned train tracks into bike paths. This trail was formerly part of the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad, which was constructed in 1851 to ship freight, lumber, coal, produce and passengers. Once the rail line hit Oberlin it turned into the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad (built in 1866) until it reached the city of Elyria. The tracks were abandoned in 1975 and in 1998 the Lorain County Metro Parks System, with the help of a federal grant opened the trail that now rests on these old lines. The trail actually runs from Toledo to Elyria, but some sections are still being built. (Lorain County Metro Parks)

I like to start and end my trip on this trail in the small village of Kipton.

So let us begin, shall we?

28.5 miles (Google Maps)

State Street Kipton 2014

As you can see Kipton is very small.

The small village of Kipton, Ohio is only home to 243 people and was built in 1853 right after the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad tracks were laid.

The old grain silos next to the trail downtown.

I imagine this is where the grain/feed was loaded into trucks.

The trail runs right next to the grain silos, just like the tracks did when the trains were transporting the goods.

The train line ran through Kipton for 40 years before its first major incident, an incident which led to a change in how railroads are run to this very day.

The Great Kipton Train Wreck

On April 19, 1891 two trains collided about 50 feet to the East of the Kipton Depot. The head-on collision killed 8 people and part of the train landed on the depot roof. The concussion blast from the collision also blew out all of the depot's windows. The crash was blamed on the station engineer's watch being slow by 4 minutes, causing him not to be able to move one of the trains to the side track in time. This accident resulted in new regulations in time tracking and the creation of a quality timekeeper: The Ball Railroad Watch (Lorain County Metro Parks)

Historical Marker in the park next to where the old train depot was.

The Kipton Depot 1891 (no longer standing)

One of the steam engines after the collision.

Now that everyone is thoroughly depressed, lets travel East down the trail toward Oberlin and happier times.

The original railroad mile markers still stand today.

This bridge is part of the Lake Shore Railroad, which I believe is also defunct.

The Tracks Through Oberlin

The tracks also ran into the city of Oberlin (which will be mostly covered on a different day). I wanted to show you a couple of key structures that lie right next to the old railroad tracks, the first being the Oberlin Train Depot.

Unknown Year

As you can see in the "now" picture above, the brick walkway is still there and is now part of the trail.

Around the 1930's

This station was built in 1867 and was only used for passenger trains. There used to be an old caboose on site as well. The train station is well preserved as you can see from the pictures above and is now used as a meeting hall.

As I continued on there was another structure just south of the trail that caught my attention, mainly because it had a giant "1889" on its roof and because of its peculiar shape.

Looks like the same brick used for the train station walkway.

Closer....

....snooping (disappointed? Me too.)

So I was slightly disappointed with the results of my snoop until tonight when I was finally able to do some research into this structure. Obviously the structure was built in 1889 and was used to house coal gas, which seems odd for the time. Upon further research I discovered that Oberlin was the first town in the area to have gas lit street lamps, mainly by the college portion of the town. So at one point this building was full of drums of gas. The city had gas lit streetlamps all the way back in the 1850's, but on September 28, 1893 the lights were converted to electric. Another interesting fact about this building is that it was a stop on the underground railroad and will soon be turned into an underground railroad/Civil War museum. (Historic Preservation in Oberlin)

I then hopped back on the trail, continued out of the city and headed East toward Elyria...

....but I was stopped when I noticed something just beyond the fence on the left. I was just East of Oberlin.

Is that the caboose that used to reside next to the train station?

Best picture I could get. It looks as though it was turned into some sort of a park/playground.

Anyway, lets continue.

Old power lines that would have ran parallel to the tracks.

Another power line.

The city of Elyria in the distance (also my shadow).

The Elyria Foundry at the edge of the city.

Tracks under the 3rd Street Bridge.

As you can see there is only one set of operating tracks here now, but at one point there was at least three.

We will get into the cities of Elyria and Oberlin in more detail on another day. I hope you enjoyed this ride as much as I did. I have ridden this trail numerous times, but all of the things in this post about its history were unknown to me until now. So we learned something together today about a much simpler time. I had always known railroads played a large role in out country's history, but I never knew how large of a role it played locally.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more...where to next?