When the Norfolk & Western absorbed the Nickel Plate Road and Wabash in 1964, it created a system with one major problem: nowhere did the former Norfolk & Western connect with its two new acquisitions. No problem, said the Norfolk & Western's financial parent, the Pennsylvania Railroad, which agreed to sell the "new" N&W its line from Columbus to Sandusky, Ohio. Here at Marion, Ohio, although the track is now Norfolk & Western, it's evident that Pennsy successor Penn Central still has rights over its former line. This southbound PC freight is about to cross the double-track Erie mainline followed by the Big 4 (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis, a New York Central subsidiary).
