north central ohio dates of operation 1986 track gauge 4 ft 8 1 2 in 1 435 mm standard gauge headquarters mansfield ohio website http www.ashlandrailway.com ashland railway reporting mark asry is a class iii railroad shortline railroad operating within north central ohio and based in mansfield ohio . since inception in 1986 ashland railway has grown to provide service 24 hours a day 7 days a week along 55 miles of track to industries within ashland huron richland and wayne counties . asry interchanges with the norfolk southern railway in mansfield the wheeling & lake erie railway in plymouth and csx transportation csxt in willard . the line runs southeast from willard through plymouth and shelby to mansfield . from mansfield the line runs northeast through ashland and terminates in west salem . the ashland railway operates on two separate lines that connect in mansfield ohio . the original ashland mainline which began operations in 1986 was purchased from conrail . this line s heritage goes back to the erie lackawanna railway el and was their chicago new york main line . after conrail took control of the erie lackawanna most of its trackage was deemed redundant and removed in vast sections . the portion east of west salem and the portions west of mansfield removed in about 1984 . conrail retained ownership of the el line between mansfield and ontario to service a gm plant . the crossing with the conrail former pennsylvania railroad ft. wayne line was removed and spur tracks were built to interchange traffic on either side . the second portion of the ashland railway is the willard to mansfield section . this was operated by the baltimore and ohio railroad as a line between the docks on lake erie to south central ohio including the city of mt. vernon ohio . because of economic downturns in the 1980s freight traffic declined drastically on this line and it was later reduced to a branch line between willard and mansfield . by 1990 the new csx transportation was ready to part with this line and sold it to the ashland railway as well . before the purchase of the csx line the ashland was marooned with only one railroad to interchange with conrail in mansfield . the railway has built a spur line to serve an industrial park in ashland . 1 in 1924 the chesapeake and ohio railway was considering buying the ashland railway a separate company from the current one by that name . 2 references edit minnear travis november 25 2008 . rail spur will link to business park site preparation work under way near faultless drive . times gazette . ashland ohio . retrieved january 6 2010 . buy the ashland railway. ; van sweringens to add it to chesapeake & ohio . new york times . april 2 1924 . p. 30 . retrieved january 6 2010 . external links edit railways portal official website v t e common carrier railroads of ohio current aa ab acjr asry ble ccra ccrl cfe cind cn csxt cuoh cwro fir ierr in iory knwa lt maw mvry now ns nsr ntry ohcr ohic osrr rjcl rjcw usrp we wtrm yarr yb ysrr retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ashland railway & oldid 599302552 categories ohio railroadsrailway companies established in 19861986 establishments in ohiohidden categories articles that mention track gauge 1435 mm navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutsch edit links this page was last modified on 12 march 2014 at 16 09 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view