richard carr
Western Thunderer
Here's the video from Greenwich
Richard's American Train Adventures
- Thread starter richard carr
- Start date
richard carr
Western Thunderer
So on the way back to Fostoria we stopped at Willard Yard, a large classification yard on the CSX Chicago to New York mainline.
This is the view from the west end
Nothing much was happening so we carried on back to Fostoria. We passed through Attica, a small town where the line from Bellevue heads south to Marion and on to Columbus. Jim noticed a green signal for a north bound train as we passed by, so we headed out of town to a crossing and waited, for about 5 minutes, then this came through.
We then carried on, and as we arrived in Fostoria we saw the Coke Express again.
Not a lot was happening, but there were plenty of railfans waiting for the Seaboard liveried CSX loco. Before it turned up we had this on the NS line
Thats as close as it got before it reversed into a spur a couple miles back along the line.
Then this CSX coal train arrived from Toledo.
It headed south.
The Seaboard loco eventually arrived, it's all here on the video.
Personally I don't know what all the fuss was about, it was just another CSX GEVO painted grey.
This is the view from the west end
Nothing much was happening so we carried on back to Fostoria. We passed through Attica, a small town where the line from Bellevue heads south to Marion and on to Columbus. Jim noticed a green signal for a north bound train as we passed by, so we headed out of town to a crossing and waited, for about 5 minutes, then this came through.
We then carried on, and as we arrived in Fostoria we saw the Coke Express again.
Not a lot was happening, but there were plenty of railfans waiting for the Seaboard liveried CSX loco. Before it turned up we had this on the NS line
Thats as close as it got before it reversed into a spur a couple miles back along the line.
Then this CSX coal train arrived from Toledo.
It headed south.
The Seaboard loco eventually arrived, it's all here on the video.
Personally I don't know what all the fuss was about, it was just another CSX GEVO painted grey.
richard carr
Western Thunderer
The plan for Sunday was to get up early and take a leisurely route back to Chicago, stopping off to explore Defiance Ohio and Argos Indiana.
Defiance is the main depot for the Napoleon, Defiance and Western Railway, this is another short line owned by Patriot rail and runs from Napoleon OH through Defiance OH to Fort Wayne where it meets NS and CSX. At Defiance it crosses the CSX main Chicago New York route, that then heads east to Deshler.
A smart looking new office for the railway, but fortunately its the the only thing that is.
Here's the high nose GP9, not looking to new
and here's the low nose one not looking any better.
It's a Sunday so nothing is operating today, so next time I will have to come back on weekday, hopefully during my October visit.++
There were quite a few freight cars around too.
What I think is a Gunderson 50 foot boxcar and this 2 bay hopper
The coupling box does vary quite a bit between cars
I moved about a mile further west to near where the crossing of the CSX main is.
There really is some terrible track.
Zoom in with a telephoto shot and it looks dire
I went down to the crossing I didn't have to wait too long before this manifest arrived.
He stopped to be overtaken first by an Ethanol train and then a stack train. The ethanol train will be on the video later.
After that I moved onto Argos Indiana. This is another Patriot Rail short line, this time it is part of the Elkhart and Western, not that it's really anywhere near Elkhart. It runs from Plymouth Indiana through Argos to Rochester IN. At Plymouth it crosses and interchanges with the Chicago Fort Wayne and Eastern. Just south of Argos it crosses and interchanges with the NS Wabash line. There appears to be plenty of rail customers up and down the line. They are even building a flyover on US31 to remove the flat road crossing that is there now. So it should have a reasonable amount of traffic.
Here's the office in Argos
And more GP9s
1600 is looking like it's seen better days
The view south toward the NS crossing
The track looks a lot better here
Defiance is the main depot for the Napoleon, Defiance and Western Railway, this is another short line owned by Patriot rail and runs from Napoleon OH through Defiance OH to Fort Wayne where it meets NS and CSX. At Defiance it crosses the CSX main Chicago New York route, that then heads east to Deshler.
A smart looking new office for the railway, but fortunately its the the only thing that is.
Here's the high nose GP9, not looking to new
and here's the low nose one not looking any better.
It's a Sunday so nothing is operating today, so next time I will have to come back on weekday, hopefully during my October visit.++
There were quite a few freight cars around too.
What I think is a Gunderson 50 foot boxcar and this 2 bay hopper
The coupling box does vary quite a bit between cars
I moved about a mile further west to near where the crossing of the CSX main is.
There really is some terrible track.
Zoom in with a telephoto shot and it looks dire
I went down to the crossing I didn't have to wait too long before this manifest arrived.
He stopped to be overtaken first by an Ethanol train and then a stack train. The ethanol train will be on the video later.
After that I moved onto Argos Indiana. This is another Patriot Rail short line, this time it is part of the Elkhart and Western, not that it's really anywhere near Elkhart. It runs from Plymouth Indiana through Argos to Rochester IN. At Plymouth it crosses and interchanges with the Chicago Fort Wayne and Eastern. Just south of Argos it crosses and interchanges with the NS Wabash line. There appears to be plenty of rail customers up and down the line. They are even building a flyover on US31 to remove the flat road crossing that is there now. So it should have a reasonable amount of traffic.
Here's the office in Argos
And more GP9s
1600 is looking like it's seen better days
The view south toward the NS crossing
The track looks a lot better here
richard carr
Western Thunderer
If you go down towards the crossing with the NS line, you find that there is a small yard just to the east of the crossing with a connector that runs east to south.
This was parked up in the yard
The road goes over the end of the yard crossing about 5 tracks, you can easily get up close to some of the switches, so I took a few detail track shots while I was there.
A self guarding frog
Eventually a train did arrive on the NS line, a short stack train heading west.
After this is went upto Plymouth and had a quick look around, nothing was happening so I didn't stay long. Another visit on a weekday is needed for that too.
Richard
This was parked up in the yard
The road goes over the end of the yard crossing about 5 tracks, you can easily get up close to some of the switches, so I took a few detail track shots while I was there.
A self guarding frog
Eventually a train did arrive on the NS line, a short stack train heading west.
After this is went upto Plymouth and had a quick look around, nothing was happening so I didn't stay long. Another visit on a weekday is needed for that too.
Richard
richard carr
Western Thunderer
I have finally got around to putting together the final video, it's only a short one.
I'm back in Chicago again this week, so hoping that the weather improves for the weekend. I'm going to spend Friday exploring the Napoleon, Defiance and Western. Hopefully some of the rickety track is still being used.
Richard
I'm back in Chicago again this week, so hoping that the weather improves for the weekend. I'm going to spend Friday exploring the Napoleon, Defiance and Western. Hopefully some of the rickety track is still being used.
Richard
Jordan
Mid-Western Thunderer
Ooh, yes! Photos please!!
Big Train James
Western Thunderer
The worst of the internet (in)famous horrible track was replaced several years ago. And I just read recently that the railroad has gotten another grant or two intended to finance the upgrading of the rest of their track to class 1 standards. So you may need to find a new inspiration for the next layout.
richard carr
Western Thunderer
As Jim says above the worst of the horrible has been replaced, but looking at what I saw yesterday, it's a bit hard to believe it. I can't see how the latest grant is going to fix the rest of it.
I started out in New Haven at the east end of the NS yard there (THe eastern edge of Fort Wayne Indiana), I wasn't there too long but saw a few trains.
There is an enormous grain elevator right at the eastern end of the yard, 1098 on the right is an ACe and 5192 on the left is a high nose GP38-2.
A shame that it isn't running high nose first. 5192 was the yard switcher. This appeared soon after this.
A train of mainly gondolas, it headed north east on the wabash line. I think it is an SD60
Old gondolas and new ones.
The first one was built in 1975 the new one in June this year.
After this I headed off to find the ND and W. Officially it starts at Woodburn, but it leaves the main NS line a few miles before that.
Here's the first view of the track I came across.
and the direction towards Woodburn
You really need to see it on a big screen to appreciate just how bad it is. There is some pretty light used too.
.
I did eventually find a train, but more of this later, I'm meeting Jim and heading to model railroad show at Marion OH.
I started out in New Haven at the east end of the NS yard there (THe eastern edge of Fort Wayne Indiana), I wasn't there too long but saw a few trains.
There is an enormous grain elevator right at the eastern end of the yard, 1098 on the right is an ACe and 5192 on the left is a high nose GP38-2.
A shame that it isn't running high nose first. 5192 was the yard switcher. This appeared soon after this.
A train of mainly gondolas, it headed north east on the wabash line. I think it is an SD60
Old gondolas and new ones.
The first one was built in 1975 the new one in June this year.
After this I headed off to find the ND and W. Officially it starts at Woodburn, but it leaves the main NS line a few miles before that.
Here's the first view of the track I came across.
and the direction towards Woodburn
You really need to see it on a big screen to appreciate just how bad it is. There is some pretty light used too.
.I did eventually find a train, but more of this later, I'm meeting Jim and heading to model railroad show at Marion OH.
Jordan
Mid-Western Thunderer
I feel so much better about my Code 100 to Code 125 transition joints, now....!!!!Love the pigeonwelding to the rail head to bring the lighter rail up to the same level as the heavier
oldravendale
Western Thunderer
I reckon that falls in to the prototype for everything department. Whilst I have only a small interest in NA subjects this sort of thing is really characterful!
Brian
Brian
richard carr
Western Thunderer
Next I came across these freights cars parked on the line in what appears to be the middle of nowhere.
I can only assume that as they are near the NS end of the line that they have been dropped off or are ready for pickup by NS.
Not sure about this bridge
Next I moved onto Woodburn the official beginning of the line. A few more freight cars parked up.
This car was parked up all on it's own.
Here are a few detail shots that might be useful to someone.
I can only assume that as they are near the NS end of the line that they have been dropped off or are ready for pickup by NS.
Not sure about this bridge
Next I moved onto Woodburn the official beginning of the line. A few more freight cars parked up.
This car was parked up all on it's own.
Here are a few detail shots that might be useful to someone.
richard carr
Western Thunderer
The grain elevator in Woodburn is still rail connected.
The local corn and Soya bean harvest is in full swing at the moment but no sign of any rail use here.
The next location is Antwerp, there is another big grain elevator right in the middle of the town, the railway runs through the middle of it.
A decent looking switch.
The other side and end of the elevator, maybe these hoppers are full of grain.
This road railer came through, was it inspecting the track ? My telephoto lens is making it look worse here.
Some of the money has gone into new signalling equipment
The track further north now looks terrible, note the switch in the middle of the dip
The local corn and Soya bean harvest is in full swing at the moment but no sign of any rail use here.
The next location is Antwerp, there is another big grain elevator right in the middle of the town, the railway runs through the middle of it.
A decent looking switch.
The other side and end of the elevator, maybe these hoppers are full of grain.
This road railer came through, was it inspecting the track ? My telephoto lens is making it look worse here.
Some of the money has gone into new signalling equipment
The track further north now looks terrible, note the switch in the middle of the dip
richard carr
Western Thunderer
The next place along the line is Cecil, it's a pretty small place with another grain elevator. There is a siding off to the south about 3 miles long at which there is a LaFarge cement works ? I didn't investigate this.
The track around cecil looked pretty bad.
The next stop along the line is Defiance. There was nothing happening here so I didn't stop long as I had seen that on the previous trip.
Between defiance and Napoleon there are 2 villages, Jewell and Okolona. Both places have grain elevators that are rail connected.
I also saw what appeared to be some more freight cars parked up.
You can just about make out the car as the track disappears into the distance.
But this turned out to be the back of a train as it was moving so slowly it appeared to be stationary.
As I left Okolona and headed into Napoleon, I passed a train, I then went to get ahead of it and then found that there were in fact 2 separate trains, and I was now ahead of both of them. I managed to get a video of the first one and then some stills of the second. Both trains are headed by ex Santa Fe GP20s. One has been repainted into Pioneer rail livery (still yellow and blue) and the other has the original blue and yellow santa fe livery and looks pretty tatty.
The trains were moving very slowly not much more than walking pace. So I went off into Napoleon to catch them up again.
The track around cecil looked pretty bad.
The next stop along the line is Defiance. There was nothing happening here so I didn't stop long as I had seen that on the previous trip.
Between defiance and Napoleon there are 2 villages, Jewell and Okolona. Both places have grain elevators that are rail connected.
I also saw what appeared to be some more freight cars parked up.
You can just about make out the car as the track disappears into the distance.
But this turned out to be the back of a train as it was moving so slowly it appeared to be stationary.
As I left Okolona and headed into Napoleon, I passed a train, I then went to get ahead of it and then found that there were in fact 2 separate trains, and I was now ahead of both of them. I managed to get a video of the first one and then some stills of the second. Both trains are headed by ex Santa Fe GP20s. One has been repainted into Pioneer rail livery (still yellow and blue) and the other has the original blue and yellow santa fe livery and looks pretty tatty.
The trains were moving very slowly not much more than walking pace. So I went off into Napoleon to catch them up again.
richard carr
Western Thunderer
However it took longer than I expected to find a a good spot and the first train had already gone by, but I did catch the second one.
There are even proper crossing gates here.
Once that had gone by it was obvious they were going to the warehouse area to the north edge of town. so I headed up there.
I finally managed to catch the shiny new one for a photograph, but it didn't come over the crossing. Although I'm guessing to an extent.
Here's all the action on video from YouTube
There are even proper crossing gates here.
Once that had gone by it was obvious they were going to the warehouse area to the north edge of town. so I headed up there.
I finally managed to catch the shiny new one for a photograph, but it didn't come over the crossing. Although I'm guessing to an extent.
Here's all the action on video from YouTube
richard carr
Western Thunderer
Here's a few more photos from the Friday
2026 has pushed all the boxcars onto the end of the line, it goes about half a mile from here and ends. If it were to continue to Liberty centre, which is where it claims to g it would have to cross highway 24, a busy dual carriageway.
I did think 3054 was a low nose GP9, but I now think that it is another GP20. It was switching these boxcars on Monday morning.
That was it for the Friday.
2026 has pushed all the boxcars onto the end of the line, it goes about half a mile from here and ends. If it were to continue to Liberty centre, which is where it claims to g it would have to cross highway 24, a busy dual carriageway.
I did think 3054 was a low nose GP9, but I now think that it is another GP20. It was switching these boxcars on Monday morning.
That was it for the Friday.
richard carr
Western Thunderer
Saturday I went to the RPM meet at Marion OH with Jim. It was a miserable day, it rained heavily on the drive down and back.
It did ease off a bit while we were there so I did get to shoot a bit of video. Here's the link
In the afternoon we stopped off in Deshler, the weather wasn't doing much better but there was a train as soon as we arrived.
Then we realised it was actually time to leave to go and get dinner.
We decided to meet up again at Deshler the next morning at 7:30.
Dawn was just breaking as I arrived, Jim was already there, then the first train arrived, then an oil train arrived from the south and headed west.
It was still going round the corner when a stack train arrived from the west with BNSF power, in the middle of all this my wife called too, so although I got a bit of video I didn't get any stills.
This was the first train I managed to photograph, it's the southbound stack train which I think heads to Florida, it leaves North Baltimore (the container terminal about 5 miles to the east) at about 9am each day. Today there was a west bound manifest at the same time.
Next up was an east bound stack train for North Baltimore, but this time with Canadian Pacific power on the point.
This was followed by an east bound autoracks
It did ease off a bit while we were there so I did get to shoot a bit of video. Here's the link
In the afternoon we stopped off in Deshler, the weather wasn't doing much better but there was a train as soon as we arrived.
Then we realised it was actually time to leave to go and get dinner.
We decided to meet up again at Deshler the next morning at 7:30.
Dawn was just breaking as I arrived, Jim was already there, then the first train arrived, then an oil train arrived from the south and headed west.
It was still going round the corner when a stack train arrived from the west with BNSF power, in the middle of all this my wife called too, so although I got a bit of video I didn't get any stills.
This was the first train I managed to photograph, it's the southbound stack train which I think heads to Florida, it leaves North Baltimore (the container terminal about 5 miles to the east) at about 9am each day. Today there was a west bound manifest at the same time.
Next up was an east bound stack train for North Baltimore, but this time with Canadian Pacific power on the point.
This was followed by an east bound autoracks
richard carr
Western Thunderer
This was the final north bound train of the morning
It did include some interesting freight cars, so here are few close ups that I know some peole will find useful.
Starting with a brand new gondola built in June this year
A boxcar from 1975
An old looking hopper but built in 2003
86 foot boxcars
It did include some interesting freight cars, so here are few close ups that I know some peole will find useful.
Starting with a brand new gondola built in June this year
A boxcar from 1975
An old looking hopper but built in 2003
86 foot boxcars
WM183
Western Thunderer
I'm am Ohio native and those big 86 foor cars were a common sight in the 1980s when auto manufacturing was still centered in Ohio and Michigan. They were special cars for auto parts, which are light (by railroad standards) for their volume. We would see strings of them come through my hometown of Ashtabula. They were on their way from General Motors' engine plant in Tonawanda to Chevrolet factories in Cleveland.