Richard's American Train Adventures

[richard carr]

Friday morning I picked up a car at 6am and set off to explore Lima Ohio. Thats where they used to build steam locos.

The route there takes you along US30 which parallels the Chicago Fort Wayne and Eastern most of the way to Fort Wayne

First stop was going to be Warsaw Indiana, here the CFWE crosses the NS Indianapolis to Goshen route in the town centre.

I parked up by the tracks and then got a phone call from the Boss saying the TV in the spare bedroom wasn't working just as I heard a horn and this appeared.





Typical just when I didn't want to try to fix the TV

The rear loco is one of the rebuilt SD75s now with AC traction motors

I then carried on to Lima still 2 hours further on.

In theory there's quite a lot at Lima, the main route is CSX from Toledo to Cincinnati that passes through Deshler. There is a decent sized yard at the north end of town.
This is then crossed by the CFWE in the town centre. The Indiana and Ohio also has it's own route through the town and a yard to the east of the CSX one. It gets crossed by the CFWE too.

Norfolk Southern also has a route to Lima from Fostoria it splits off the main Fort Wayne line in Arcadia and heads through Findlay to Lima.
They appear to serve the large refinery in the southern part of town near the old loco works. This also crosses the I&OR and joins the CSX route for the last few miles through the town centre to the refinery.


I went to the CSX/CFWE crossing and found this parked up




It turned out to be heading north once it got moving, just as this came in from NS







I set off after the train, unfortunately I got stuck at every set of traffic lights and the train was no where to be seen when I arrived.

I waited for a while and eventually it ran round it's train and appeared.








Next I heard a horn on the mainline so crossed the road to see what was coming




It's the first responders CSX loco on the point








I was hoping that the NS train would leave now, but no luck, they just turned off the headlights and powered down the loco.

So I set off to explore the I&OR.

 

[richard carr]

The I&OR yard and mainline run down North Sugar Street. The I&OR shares the CSX main from just north of Lima to just south of Leipsic.
So the I&OR splits off CSX to run independently through Lima and then south to Springfield about 80 miles away.

This is the NS crossing the I&OR. The tracks heading right are NS those on the left I&OR, yes it is one of those jump crossings.




This is looking west along the NS tracks towards downtown Lima where it joins the CSX tracks. There is connection to the I&OR


This is looking north east along the NS tracks towards Fostoria


This is looking south along the I&OR



This is looking north along the I&OR, the track coming in from the left is the connecter from the NS and that going off to the right leads to a small yard, the main I&OR yard is further up on the left




Nothing was happening, then again it was 2pm on a Friday afternoon and most shortlines have packed in for the weekend by now.
I did drive up Sugar Street past the I&OR offices and there was a GP38 parked up but there wasn't anywhere to stop and take a picture unfortunately.

I turned round back into Lima, I even went back to the refinery but the SD40 was still there powered down, it's probably still there now.

I then went back round into Lima again followed the road over the yard but couldn't see anything and you can't stop.

Then I saw these gates go down so pulled in and grabbed this shot of a stone train heading north.






So I set off after him expecting to pass him before Ottawa about 20 miles north.
I even ended going past the I&OR offices again, this time there were 2 GP38s parked up !

 

[Osgood]

...... yes it is one of those jump crossings.

Model that, @Jordan or Plymouth Mad I dare you!

I imagine the continuous rail is prone to fracture along the flange contact line!
Looks like the flanges take the load all along the heavy ramps as well as across the 90 deg. rail.

Never thought I'd see anything like that on tinplate Hornby, let alone a full size railway......

 

[richard carr]

So I set off north along SR65, fortunately this parallels the railway for quite a way but some of it is hidden by trees. There's the Eagle Railcar repair facility a few miles out of town and there did appear to be what might be a train there, but it could have been just a line of cars awaiting repair.
I got to Columbus Grove when I saw a stone train heading south, so did a quick 180 and headed south after it, I caught it up a few miles further south.




I then got back in the car, drove over the crossing as sat nav now said go that way, but in the distance was a head light, so that must have been a train at the Eagle Car repairs.
Another quick turnaround and back at the crossing I was expecting the north bound stone train but no it was the first responders again, it hadn't got far in the past 2 hours.






I jumped back in the car and headed to Ottawa, I caught it again there and this time shot a bit of video.

I then moved on to Leipsic and parked up by the crossing with the NS line, I soon head a train horn to the south and this time I was expecting 911 again but no now it's the stone train.

 

[richard carr]

After this had passed by I started back to the hotel in Maumee (Toledo), it took me along SR65 again and past the ethanol plant to where it crosses the CSX main, here I found ES40DC 5452 switching coil cars at the Protec steel coating plant (a lot of galvanizing according to their website). I hadn't seen CSX doing this before it had always been NS doing it from their line with a daily local train from Bellevue/Fostoria.




The switching ended up pushing a large number cars into the plant



Then the loco came out light engine and sat and waited for a while, which could only mean that something else was arriving on the main.



And here it is arriving from Deshler



Once it had gone passed the loco moved forward to clear the signal and then reversed south along the main. That's the Mars Iams plant in the background, Petfood.



Then it was time to head to the hotel without stopping at Deshler.

 

[Jordan or Plymouth Mad]

Model that, @Jordan or Plymouth Mad I dare you!

I would dearly have liked to model a 90° flat crossing as they are a signature feature of US railroading, 'but'.... I would want such a feature to be workable on all routes - a proper interlocking if you will, not just as a 'dummy' feature where the one route is cosmetic only. Realistically, that's all I could fit on a shelf layout, so I didn't do it.

 

[richard carr]

Jim had let me know that after a 12 hour drive back from Canada he wasn't going to meet up at 7am, considering how jet lagged I felt that seemed like a really good idea to me.

So I setoff about 10am to go the Railpark in Walbridge, it's at the north end of Walbridge yard about half an hour from the hotel.



You could hear this grumbling away behind the trees before it finally emerged into the open, an SD70ACC





Yes that car is in the path of a moving train.

Here I'm looking south along the east side of the yard, most of the tracks are to the right and hidden behind trees, thats where this train is heading. The train has most likely arrived from Stanley yard which runs parallel to Walbridge yard about 2 miles to the west, both of these yards are now CSX but originally one was B&O and one C&O or something like that.

Yes that's another jump crossing, that takes the former PRR line from Tiffin (where it joins the CSX main B&O line) over the tracks that run to the port and joins the tracks to Stanley yard.





A Lake State Railway SD70AH T4, this was being turned on the triangle, sorry Y.







Next this train of autoracks came out of the yard



They were crossing over to the left hand tracks to put a train together, only the lead loco was working.





They are now pushing back on to the left hand tracks.



Shortly after this Jim arrived and not a lot happened so we headed off to Fostoria.

 

[Big Train James]

I'll post a Toledo Terminal map tomorrow that will explain how all the trackage in this area is arranged. It's pretty involved even now, although nothing like the old days. Toledo used to have a lot going on until the industries moved away.

 

[Big Train James]

The area in question in Richard's post is Walbridge, which is in the southeast corner of the map. The Terminal tracks are indicated in bold, forming a complete loop around Toledo. There are plenty of interesting interchange track arrangements all around town, but it gets pretty crowded on the southeast side. There's the C&O yard lead to the south, the C&O lead to the north to connect to the NYC to access the union station downtown, and then the PRR line coming up from Carruthers crosses all of them. Then mixed in is the the Terminal through route plus its interchange with the C&O. Stanley Yard and its interchanges with the Terminal happen just to the west of Walbridge.

Regrettably, quite a bit of what is seen on this map no longer exists. Only half of the Terminal loop remains, the PRR yard and trackage north have been gone for decades, most yards have been reduced in scale or repurposed, and all of the trackage into downtown warehouse districts has been gone for decades as well. Toledo is now largely a place that trains go through, rather than to or from. That's progress, but it's not as much fun.