C46 // Silverplate Branch, Cleveland, OH

            Rockport-based local NS C46 shoves west on the Silverplate Branch towards the main, after switching out the Cleveland Industrial Warehouse on the northeast side of the city.
What compelled me to visit this area was the scenery in which this local switches, surrounded by numerous long-standing old brick buildings, many of which used to see rail service at one time in their assorted histories. The huge brick structure directly behind NS 5813 is the former Fisher Bros Co. warehouse, built in 1916 as a central hub for Fisher Bros' supermarket chain, which was the predominant grocery store to serve the Cleveland area and its surrounding suburbs for over 50 years. At one time this warehouse was served by rail, likely dating back to the days of the Pennsylvania Railroad, spilling over into the Penn Central years and later Conrail, confirmed on a ZTS map I recently acquired (though under a different name on that map).
After doing some brief digging, I found the warehouse was eventually sold off by Fisher Bros when their headquarters relocated in the late 1960s. By 1970 it was owned by North Coast Logistics, who operated at this location until 2003 before closing the doors for good. The site was purchased by a real estate firm in 2013, but was never revitalized and has instead sat dormant for the last 20 years since North Coast occupied it. Having walked a little ways down the main prior to C46's arrival, I snapped some phone pictures of the unused rail siding, including track which led into a lengthy indoor dock area for box cars. Given the track is still there, albeit with some switches torn out, I can only surmise that NS was the last railroad to serve this building during North Coast's final years of running it.
Landmarks like these are slowly becoming more scarce in the 21st century, with ancient crumbling foundations sometimes rotting away without any hope for restoration. Just in the last year back home, Buffalo lost one of its landmark grain elevators due to rapidly deteriorating structural conditions, calling for a controlled but rapid demolition. Speculation around the future of the Fisher Bros warehouse is one in the same.  The building is still privately owned and mostly secure from urbex activities, but it's not getting any younger or more stable. While most of the time us railfans are concerned about the actual rail service, and its possibility of being cut off in older industrial areas like these, the buildings which make up that scenery should garner just as much adoration and empathy as the rails we care so much for. A scene like this won't have a quarter as much appeal if the background is just flat empty space, and that's a fact.
   

Taken on: April 8, 2024

Tags:

Cleveland

Ohio

5813

Cityscape

City View

Abandoned Building

Warehouse

Backlit

Sunset

Trains

Train Photography

Train Crossing

Railroad

Railroad Photography

Old Building

Landmark

Fisher Bros

Industrial

Silverplate « less

Sets appears in: • Cleveland Shenanigans

Groups appears in: • in explore • WONDERS OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN GENERAL.MARAVILLAS DE LA FOTOGRAFIA EN

Camera: Panasonic DMC-G7, f/5.6, 1/320 sec, 114mm, ISO 1600 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-G7
Lens:	LUMIX G VARIO 45-150/F4.0-5.6
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/320)
Focal Length:	114mm
ISO:	1600
Exposure Bias:	+0.33 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Lightroom 9.3.1 (Android)
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