Richard's American Train Adventures

[Jordan or Plymouth Mad]

Double-stack container trains always make me smile - to think that the UK loading gauge struggled when the 'high cube' 9'6" high boxes came out, & wagons with small wheels & a low deck had to be introduced to carry them
If 53ft long boxes turned up here that would create even more chaos!! (Admittedly, they shouldn't; it'd be someone's enormous blunder somewhere if one did.)

 

[richard carr]

It takes 2 and half hours to drive to Leipsic, going via Fort Wayne, which is probably the quickest way to get there.
Once I got there though, nothing was happening, so I headed up to Deshler.



If you take the right route you can follow the tracks fairly closely most of the way to Deshler (about 8 miles). This is the southern end of the sidings, these cars were dropped off there about 2 seeks ago and are still there today (take a look on virtual railfan).

Nothing much was happening in Deshler either, it started t rain and soon got dark, then a stack train turned up



Something was going to head south but it was too dark now so I made my way to the hotel



It hadn't been the best of Fridays so hopefully Saturday would be better.

 

[Scale7JB]

I've seen ex-DRGW units in the Toledo WLE yard. It looks like current units 5412 and 5413 are ex-DRGW while 5411 is ex-SP. I have no idea if they're all still on the roster. Just checked one of the photo sites, it looks like both ex-DRGW units are still in original paint with the flying Grande logo, with just the roadnumber updated. The last photo for one is May of 2025 and the other is this month.

RRpicturearchives.net Wheeling ex-DRGW sd40t-2's

Didn’t we see the WLE locos in Cleveland a couple of years back?

JB.

 

[Big Train James]

Didn’t we see the WLE locos in Cleveland a couple of years back?

JB.

We did see a Wheeling train, but it didn't have the DRGW locos on it. It was quite the surprise, as I had never seen them through there before. I think it was due to the time of day, we got started a lot earlier than I normally do when I head over there.

The more surprising thing for me was seeing that train come out of town on the NS line, before proceeding to cross over to the CSX line and head southwest. I've never seen another train interchange between the two roads there, either before or after that morning.

 

[richard carr]

I met up with Jim at 7:30 on Saturday morning and we headed to Elyria, on the NS mainline about 80 miles east of Toledo, we were going to where the line is crossed by a CSX route into the steel works at Lorain a few mile to the north.

Here's the crossing, it's one of those and over the mainline with no break in the mainline. It clearly didn't get much use at all




This came along soon after we arrived



We then got talking to another railfan who asked if we were here to photograph Amtrak, I said no, what Amtrak, he said the one running 6 hours late !



We soon had another freight through heading east



And a pusher on the back




After that we decided to head to Greenwich on the CSX main line, its about 50 minutes to the south west, that turned out to be a good idea.

 

[Mike Walker]

Amtrak 6 hours late? On time by their standards - anything on the right day is on time for them... !

 

[richard carr]

JB

Yes we did see a wheeling train but that was in the fake DRGW livery with Wheeling and Lake Erie on the loco, there are a few locos that still say DRGW in speed lettering ie in original DRGW livery.


Richard

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

We then got talking to another railfan who asked if we were here to photograph Amtrak, I said no, what Amtrak, he said the one running 6 hours late !

And we have total meltdown if our trains are 6 mins late!

 

[AJC]

And we have total meltdown if our trains are 6 mins late!

I have a coffee, usually. More than 15 then maybe a biscuit.

Adam

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

The

I have a coffee, usually. More than 15 then maybe a biscuit.

The crazy thing is the next train is 15 minutes later (on my line it is).

 

[richard carr]

So it took 50 minutes to drive to Greenwich from Elyria, on the way we passed over the Wheeling and Lake Erie line merges into CSX at Greenwich, the CSX line to Berea (Cleveland) and the CSX B&O mainline. We saw the back of a train on the Wheeling.

This came round the corner from Willard shortly after we arrived, a train of empty spine cars heading to Berea.








Then a stack train from the west, by now I had had the time to get the video camera out



Then another one from the east, here's the DPU



Waiting to get through the junction was the wheeling train, it's headed by a former SP SD40-T2, now in UP paint lettered for the Wheeling.



This was followed by a manifest heading to Berea, I have it on video and just caught the back of it for a photograph.



Finally the Wheeling came through, the SD40s making a right old racket far noisier than modern locos.








5 trains in under an hour, it was time to go, we headed to Fostoria about an hour east of us.

 

[Scale7JB]

JB

Yes we did see a wheeling train but that was in the fake DRGW livery with Wheeling and Lake Erie on the loco, there are a few locos that still say DRGW in speed lettering ie in original DRGW livery.


Richard

Oh that would be nice to see!

JB.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

We then got talking to another railfan who asked if we were here to photograph Amtrak, I said no, what Amtrak, he said the one running 6 hours late !

To me the Siemens front end aesthetic has gone out of the window for their locos built for the North American market. It would look much better if it had a European Vectron style cab.

 

[richard carr]

Fostoria is well known for the Iron Triangle Rail Park, the only trouble with the rail park is that its not that good a view of the CSX BO mainline.
So this time we skipped the park and went to Columbus Avenue, there is parking at the end by the CSX B&O main.

There was nothing doing when we arrived. This is the view east towards Greenwich, the yard allows the NS and CSX to Interchange cars.



and this the view west towards Deshler, the line off tot he right going to the NS yard to the north.



It wasn't long before we heard a horn, but this was on the NS lines, so we had to qucikly drive north on Columbus avenue it take about 30 seconds and there's parking there too.

It's an ACe on manifest, we weren't quite quick enough.



There were lots of coil cars, so we thought this might be from the steel coating plant at Leipsic.



But then it had a another ACe for a DPU






Then we went back to the other end of Columbus Avenue and the coke express turned up






Then anther horn from the NS line, so back in the car to the top end of the road.

This time it was the local from Leipsic, with GP40s, this is on the video.

 

[richard carr]

So once back at the northern end of Columbus another horn, this time on the CSX Toledo line, a stack train heading to North Baltimore.





I was able to get some detail shots of well car couplers as the train crawled around the corner



While this train was passing an NS stack train had arrived from Belleview and was waiting for this train to pass. But first a west bound stack arrived on the CSX main and went over the crossing (on the main) first





Finally the NS stack train got underway, at the same time as NS manifest arrived, here they are passing.





Finally an east bound manifest arrived on the CSX main

So Saturday had turned out really well, 3 trains in Elyria, 5 at Greenwich and 8 at Fostoria, so 16 in under 8 hours was pretty good going,

Plenty of video to follow.

 

[mickoo]

To me the Siemens front end aesthetic has gone out of the window for their locos built for the North American market. It would look much better if it had a European Vectron style cab.

Oh I dunno, I quite like them, they're quick off the mark but then that's the beauty of modern 3ph drives.

I spoke to an engineer at Fort Madison during a crew change, she liked them but some of her colleagues didn't, not made in the USA sort of stuff; she confirmed the traction difference over the Genesis and said they can get away from you real quick.

Having said that, you can't beat a Genesis soundtrack when it's wound right out.

 

[Stephen]

Having said that, you can't beat a Genesis soundtrack when it's wound right out.

Peter Gabriel - Yes,
Phil Collins - No…

 

[richard carr]

Here's the first video from the other weekend, it's Fostoria, we saw 8 trains in well under 2 hours, 7 of them made the video.

 

[richard carr]

Here's the next video from that weekend, we started Saturday at Elyria on the NS mainline.
There is a CSX track that crosses the main but it clearly doesn't get much traffic.

Amtrak was running 6 hours late .

 

[Stephen]

Here's the next video from that weekend, we started Saturday at Elyria on the NS mainline.
There is a CSX track that crosses the main but it clearly doesn't get much traffic.

Amtrak was running 6 hours late .

Curious to know why the consist was rated a double header? I wouldn't have imaged that ten vehicles would be a struggle for a single Siemen's Charger....

Wonder whether the second loco had failed - alas I can't work out whether both were under power.

Cheers,

Stephen