| Looking at the switch just southwest of the I-475 overpass in Maumee, is a cluster of the stub ends of once through-line railroads. The track that goes off to the right is all that remains of the Wabash line to Montpelier. The track ends in the distance, and the remaining stub is used by NS for car storage, as pictured here. Looking straight ahead, notice the "kink" the existing track makes slightly to the left. The Wabash line that ran towards Ft. Wayne, Indiana (now abandoned to Liberty Center) ran exactly straight away from the frame of this photo. The existing track on the left "kinks" away, then parallels the abandoned ROW. It is a "new" connection to the old Cloverleaf. The original alignment of the Cloverleaf followed US-24 into Maumee, where it then followed US-25 into downtown Toledo. At some point, it was consolidated with the Wabash lines all the way through Maumee, and an S-curve was built about a mile or so south of the photo, where it reconnects with the original alignment around Stitt Rd. This had to have been done before the construction of I-475 and US-24 in the 1960s, since part of US-24 runs atop the grade, while there is no overpass built into I-475. NS ownership ends just beyond the Dutch Rd. crossing (NS serves a few customers in the area), then a tourist railroad picks up ownership all the way to the lines current end, just outside of Grand Rapids, Ohio. It is abandoned southwest from Grand Rapids. |