Remember When...

By BETTY POKAS, Times Leader Area Editor FILMING of the movie, “Unstoppable,” partially in Eastern Ohio, is a reminder of how important the railroads once were in this area. The movie, starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pine and Rosario Dawson, is about efforts to prevent an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train carrying combustible liquids and poisonous gas from wiping out a city. Train wrecks occurred in Eastern Ohio both on the narrow gauge railroad and the regular railroad tracks, but fortunately, such an occasion as that portrayed in the movie didn’t happen. There was an explosion that removed the railroad bridge leading from Martins Ferry to Warwood in 1993, but that was intentional in order to remove the bridge. Although the railroad tracks on which filming occurred still are in operation, not as many tracks still exist in the area as they were removed years ago. With the exception of the bridge explosion photo, the other photos in today’s “Remember When” date from the days when trains were in their heyday in Eastern Ohio. All three pictures were included in “Eastern Ohio’s Pictorial Past,” which was published by The Times Leader in 1999. Contributing the photos for the book were Richard Bibbo, Jay Stock of Jay’s Studio and The Times Leader. Pokas can be reached at timesleader@timesleaderonline.com.