FAIRPORT,
PAINESVILLE & EASTERN
MAPS
Background …
I have
been fortunate to have collected two rare system maps of the FP&E during my
lifetime. The first map I obtained was
a copy of the map used by FP&E employees in the early 1980s, and was
actually given to me by an employee at the Yard Office when I visited it in
1982 or 1983. The second map I obtained
was an older blueprint-style map from circa 1927, which I won on eBay in 2008. Since then, I have found another system map
that was included in the FP&E entry of some older editions of the Official
Railway Equipment Register. All three
of these maps are presented below in chronological order. After you look over these maps, make sure to
read the Other Maps section further below for more neat maps to view on the
internet.
FP&E Maps
System Map circa 1925-1926
This map
appears in ORER editions from 1926 and 1927.
The reason I have dated this map 1925-26 is because it is after the Diamond's
cement plant was completed in 1925 (see my Diamond/FP&E page
for details), but before the FP&E's roundhouse/turntable and yard facility
were constructed in 1926 (see my FP&E History page
for details).
System Map circa 1926-1927
This map
appears in ORER editions from 1928 until 1931.
This is basically the same as the blueprint-style map I won on eBay, but
since that map is 22" wide and in color, it was easier to scan and present
the smaller, black-and-white ORER version here. (For those that are interested in seeing the large map, I posted
a full-sized, 'reverse black-and-white' scan of it in the Photos section of the
"clevelandrails" Yahoo Group; to see it, simply join the group, and
look for the FP&E Maps Photo Album.)
The reason I have dated this map 1926-27 is because it is after the
FP&E's roundhouse/turntable and yard facility were constructed, but before
the connection to the NYC at Perry was constructed in 1928. An interesting thing to note is the
"wishful thinking" the map's designer had: all the blocks of land
marked "Industrial Sites" never really materialized—only two
industries established themselves on this section of the line, and they were
both near Perry; also, as discussed in my FP&E History page,
the spur to the shale beds was never built.
System
Map circa 1976
(Click on map to see it full-sized)
This is
the map a FP&E employee gave me when I drove around the FP&E facilities
in the summer of 1982 or 1983. The map
was given to me as two separate pieces of legal-sized paper; I lined up the
sheets and taped them together to make one continuous map soon after I got home
from that trip. The reason I have dated
this map 1976 is because someone indicated Erie Coke & Chemical on the map
(which is the company that bought Diamond Shamrock's coke plant in 1976), but
the CEI spur to the Perry Nuclear Power Plant is not present (it was
constructed in 1977).
Other Maps
The maps
above are not all that are available.
Thanks to the miracle of the internet, there are quite a few more maps
you can view.
Valuation
Maps
The
official Lake County website has valuation maps for all the railroad property
in the county, including the FP&E.
Valuation maps show the property owned by the railroads, but not
necessarily all (or any) of the tracks.
Still, these maps are neat to look at.
To view the FP&E valuation maps (and, if you want, save copies for
yourself), go to this webpage …
http://www.lakegis.org/taxmap/scannedsurveys/Railroad
Valuation Maps/Individual Pdfs/
There are
6 maps for the FP&E, and what follows is a brief guide to those maps/files.
The
following three files/maps show the entire FP&E line, circa 1928:
"fpe rr1.pdf" - Western Division (NYC connection
at Painesville to B&O connection at Fairport)
"fpe
rr2.pdf" - Perry Division (NYC connection at Painesville to Perry)
"fpe rr.pdf" - Perry Division (Perry to Madison
Township)
These
three maps together form the 'geographically correct' version of the 1926-27
system map I display above.
Some
interesting things to note from these maps:
The
FP&E divided their line into divisions—including having separate mile
markers for each division.
Although
later the beginning point of the railroad would be considered Fairport Harbor
(as is shown on the 1976 system map), according to the mile markers on these
maps, the beginning point for the Western Division is the NYC connection in
Painesville.
A lot of
the property on the Perry Division that the FP&E bought originally belonged
to "Frank M. Cobb"; now I have no proof of this, but I am thinking
that he must have been somehow connected to the Cleveland, Painesville &
Ashtabula interurban transit line, because those pieces of property coincide
with the old CP&A right-of-way.
I believe
Parcel 44 on the "fpe rr.pdf" map is where the spur to the Grand
River shale beds would have started.
The next
two maps show a 'swap' of property between the FP&E and Diamond Alkali in
1937 [there is no date on these maps, but I was able to get a date from the tax
maps for the area (I discuss tax maps further below)]:
"FPOE RR.pdf" - property the FP&E conveyed
to Diamond Alkali
"fpe rr3.pdf" - property Diamond Alkali conveyed
to FP&E
As I
mentioned briefly in my FP&E
History page, these maps show how the FP&E redesignated their main
line—primarily in the eastern portion of the Diamond Alkali complex.
The last
map/file, "fpe rr4.pdf", shows a larger view of the beginning of the
Perry Division, where the FP&E goes under North Ridge Road and the NYC
lines.
Tax
Maps
The
official Lake County website also has tax maps for the entire county, which
show property ownership boundaries, names and dates. There are no track details, but again these maps are neat to look
at. To view these maps (and save your
own copies in .pdf format), go to this webpage …
http://www.lakegis.org/default.aspx
… then
click on PUBLIC ACCESS SYSTEM, click on YES on the disclaimer page, click on
ARCHIVED TAX MAPS, enter the VOLUME and PAGE (ignore SUBPAGE1 and SUBPAGE2) for
the map you want, and you will find both current and older maps of a specific
area in Lake County available to view.
Now you may ask, "Scott, how do I know what volume
and page to put in the little window?"
Well, I
happen to have listed below each and every volume/page combination that the
FP&E shows up in. The left-hand
alpha-numeric code is the volume, the right-hand number is the page. So now go have some fun!
FP&E
Western Division
(from west to east):
14A 24
14A 23
14A 22
14A 26
12A 59
12A 54
12A 53
12A 51
12A 52
11B 40
11B 42
11B 39
11B 38
11B 29
FP&E
Perry Division
(from west to east):
11B 29
11B 30
11B 31
11B 32
11B 33
3A 4
3A 12
3A 11
3A 18
3A 17
3A 26
4A 35
3A 34
4A 44
4A 43
3A 43
4A 53
4A 52
3A 52
3A 63
3A 72
3A 82
3A 81
1A 12
1A 13
1A 5
1A 8
2A 11
2A 12
2A 13
2A 8
2A 6
2A 3
1A 71
1A 68
1A 70
FP&E
"Rayon Branch" (from west to east):
11B 42
11B 43
11B 44
11B 45
11B 46
11B 50
NOAA
Maps
The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a section of their website devoted
to historical nautical charts of ports all over the United States—including
Fairport Harbor. These maps have great
details for railroad tracks that surround any given port, and Fairport Harbor
is no exception; you can see the western-most portion of the FP&E, and in
many of the maps the western portion of the Diamond Alkali/Shamrock
complex. To view these maps (and save
copies for yourself), go to this webpage …
http://historicalcharts.noaa.gov/historicals/historical_zoom.asp
… then in
the "Enter keyword(s)" field, type Fairport, click on Submit Query,
and the result will be charts of Fairport Harbor from 1901 to 1997.
The
following charts will be of most interest for FP&E and Diamond
Alkali/Shamrock 'fans' (it's neat to see the progression of the facilities and
tracks over time in these charts):
1912
1917
(note how the Diamond's dock, built by the FP&E but then sold to Diamond
Alkali after it was completed in 1917, changed the topography of the area along
the Grand River compared to 1912)
1924
1937
(1935 shows the same details for the Diamond plant, but doesn't show as much of
it as 1937)
1940
(1943 & 1946 show the same details for the FP&E and the Diamond as the
1940 map)
1956
(1949 & 1953 are missing tracks that reappear as they should in 1956; 1959,
1963, 1965 and 1967 all show the same details for the FP&E and the Diamond
as the 1956 map)
1971
1978
Enjoy!
Created
by Scott Nixon
July 2009