Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS Toledo, Coal Train

Lot of times when I am in Toledo, Ohio
I will find one and two coal trains
sitting on some side tracks.

These tracks are at the first crossing
West of Vickers, along the NS main.

Vickers (Toledo) crossing is where
NS East-West CR water level route
and CSX North-South, Walbridge, Toledo, Ohio,
Detroit, Mi. lines cross.

Question is where do these NS coal trains
come from and where do they go?

Who owns the tracks?
The tracks look like they connect
CSX Walbridge-Standley yard,
to NS, CR main.

Sometimes I will find CN power
on these trains.

Thanks,

Eddie Durnwald
Fostoria, Ohio

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Usually when i see a coal train in the siding at Vickers, it is for Detroit Edison. The other track leading to the yards (not sure what it is called) usually has DEEX trains too. NS will bring these up to Michigan plants.

The tracks that connect to the NS main at the first crossing west of Vickers (Oakdale Avenue) are the former C&O passenger line from Walbridge into Central Union Terminal. Conrail leased or purchased these tracks from CSX during the mid-1990s and called them the Stanley Secondary, a name that previously applied only as far as Rockwell Junction (a connecting point somewhere just east of Oakdale). I suspect the leasehold/ownership was passed to NS in the merger since NS does, in fact, routinely use them as a parking lot.

Most common use is for Detroit Edison trains, but sometimes the CN runthrough NS#353/CN#384 or other NS freight trains are parked there. NS's first choice for a parking lot is the two sidings at Wagon Works, but if those tracks are full or if the inbound crew is not qualified that far up the Detroit Line, then the Stanley Secondary is often the next choice. Other common Toledo "parking spots" are the Vickers siding and the Nasby siding.

The DEEX trains that you see are usually loaded at Gund mine in KY. The mine is on the Nolan Branch that connects to the Kenova District line. This line runs from Portsmouth, OH. to Williamson, WV. I was on a DEEX train the other night and counting the ones in sidings that were empties and the one in Williamson yard and ours was a total of six trains. This also included one loaded train that was departing Portsmouth when we were called to work. Hope this helps!

ross072566 wrote:

> The DEEX trains that you see are usually loaded at Gund mine
> in KY. The mine is on the Nolan Branch that connects to the
> Kenova District line.


Arn't the Detroit Edison coal loads coming off BNSF. Almost every day while at work I look outside across the road and thru a field and see 2 BNSF macs pulling these trains through on the old CR chicago line. And I've also seen 1 or 2 trains at a time parked on a siding in toledo when getting off of 475(or 425, whatever that highway is) heading to St V's hospital