The Heritage rail trail

The Heritage rail trail is where I took up more than just neighborhood bike riding. I wanted a little more than just cruising around the neighborhood, so I heard about “Rails to Trails” and this is the first trail I explored. It was near (and a short bike path ride to Homestead park) down the road (Cosgray Rd) from the Hilliard YMCA which I support and belong to.

The path is flat and the pavement is smooth well maintained it’s a nice bike path, 6.1 miles long from end to end. It’s a good place to get accustomed to riding a bike again for us……more mature folks. Then it becomes just a nice place to get in a nice relaxing quite bike ride in away from the hustle and bustle of the city. There are three crossings on rural lightly traveled roads.

The path is surrounded by flat farm land and A few horse stables(Please don’t feed the horses, sign is posted). The pathway has several benches along the way and is just a nice place to get away to from the city while really only being 15 to 20 minutes away.

It’s just a nice place to escape to and quietly ride. On windy days you will get a Westerly head wind!

Parking is ample, at either the Southern trailhead off of Main St. in downtown Hilliard(Makoy Center on Center St) or off of Cosgray road or Hayden Run road. There isn’t any parking at the Northern end of the trail. Even though there is an exit into downtown Plain city and close to the nearby Der Dutchman restaurant.

I’m glad I found this trail, It’s just a nice place to escape to for a quietly ride. It was a great place to become familiar with bike riding again!

This trail was the near eastern end of Conrail's 79mph freight main (and an occasional Amtrak National Limited detour route) through 1979. The Columbus-Dayton-Richmond single main was the PRR's "passenger line", and this double-track from Columbus through Bradford and back to Richmond was its "freight main." This line also headed straight west beyond Bradford to Chicago. I noted the following significant features relative to the trail's railroad heritage (The trail brochure doesn't even MENTION the railroad... Nor does the town trailhead! Egad!) For about two miles starting at the Hilliard Main Street trailhead, there are small, round metal signs posted in both directions, spaced 0.2mi. apart. On the signs, "PCC 550 STL" to "PCC 650 STL." The pre-PRR railroad heritage is obvious, as the "Panhandle" lines west of Pittsburgh "started out" as the Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis Railway, but what is the purpose of these signs? Norwich Station, at Trail MP1.3, sports a beautiful Conrail N9 caboose, #18238, built in June of 1942, and a depot-like rest and soda machine facility, with a separate "station platform" rest structure. There is a little "tree museum" in a tiny board-and-batten, early Panhandle-style "interlocking tower"-like structure at Bradley Station parking area, at MP1.8. The real treat for ME, though, was the fully intact (save for wires) string of 2-arm telegraph poles on the south side of the trail, and corresponding line of 2-arm (one short arm above, one long arm below) cab signal poles on the north side of the right-of-way, between trail MP3.3 and 4 (A few more beyond MP4). Cab signals permit a continuous readout of signal conditions on a panel inside the engine that mimics the wayside signals. This still current modern mode of operation was pioneered by the Pennsylvania Railroad 60 years ago, and NS still uses the system on its still intact network ex-Pennsy lines east of here, but the wires are gone now... all satellite or underground cable. Sadly, the trail ends abruptly at MP6.1, just short of Plain City, at Cemetery Pike. (No wonder I couldn't find the trail in Plain City a year ago!) The campaign to extend the trail to Plain City has been a long, drawn-out one. This is a nice, smooth, flat, asphalt trail, well-used by bikers, hikers, runners, and roller bladers. It's lucky they saved it, because the residential encroachment on the east end is really serious... Lots of new and under-construction housing being built in this Columbus-west suburb.

This trail follows the route of the 1895 Pennsylvania Railroad from Old Hilliard to a dead end out toward Plain City. Park at the Center Street parking lot near the Makoy Center on the eastern end of the trail in the parking lot as there is no parking on the western end. Round trip from start to finish was logged by GPS as 12.3 miles. This is a long, very straight, and reasonably level section of the right of way that crosses several rural roads in well-marked crossings. The trail right of way has a thin row of bushes and a tree line on either side then wide expanses of open farm land beyond that. The only scenery to be found, other than open farmland, is the railroad station and caboose found in Cosgray Park less than a mile into the ride. The train station there was originally located at the eastern end of the trail where the parking lot is now.

This is literally a one-gear ride for cyclists. Aside from starting out, I stayed in one gear for an hour. The surface is smooth, clean, and free from cracks, ideal for cyclists, roller bladers, and strollers. I consider this trail particularly safe and it can be ridden at all hours.

Those who enjoy this trail may want to look into the Cinnamon Bun Delight ride that starts on this trail every Saturday morning, rides into Plain City for an Amish cinnamon bun or breakfast, then returns, increasing the round trip to 24 miles. I've done that ride once and was surprised by the number of riders who met for breakfast.

~ Trail Jogger ~