Western Railroad Discussion > The INDY Road pt 11: My tour guide from Dayton

At the end of part #10 I was looking ahead to a couple of train-filled threads from 2 full days railfanning the Western Ohio corridor between Dayton & Deshler. That was April 17, 9 days ago. The day before I received news that on 15th I had lost a very close friend in John Arbuckle. I already had part #10 written up and ready to go, so I went ahead and posted it on the 17th. Then I decided to suspend posting anything on TO so I could focus my energy in locating & scanning many dozens of slides taken on numerous 70s & 80s railfanning treks with John. It was the least I could do in return for the trainload of invaluable influence & benefit John’s friendship did for me. After John’s death so many other mutual friends & acquaintances expressed very kind thoughts to me, both publicly and privately. For that I am deeply grateful even if I failed to acknowledge the same.

The scanning is now behind me and I can slowly get back into posting my usual contributions to this great website. It will take me quite a while to photo-edit slides that I have yet to choose, then compose what will hopefully be a fitting tribute to my friend John. In his quiet way he once unknowingly delivered a great compliment to me with his opinion that I knew how to write an entertaining story. I am determined to not let him down with my ‘tribute’. Until then, here is part #11 of my recent 25-day eastern USA railfan trek. One slight change: I will now be combining both days in Ohio into one thread…

I railfanned my way through the heart of Ohio from Marion, arriving in the Dayton area late on March 10. I found a motel with a helpful suggestion from a Dayton railfan I had met at my February 25 Santa Fe Mini-Meet presentation in Indianapolis. Mr David Oroszi had offered to be my railfan tour guide should I decide to return home to Kansas through his “home turf”. I had known of him, seeing his photography in Joe McMillan’s 1992 book “Wheat Lines & Super Freights”. It took me only 2 words to provide an answer: You’re on! Contrary to the mostly overcast weather I had experienced thus far, David & I were blessed with 2 days that were about 90% filled with glorious sunshine. We started the first day with a familiar yellow face from the Midwest:

1. UP 5469 is our first train of the day in Tipp City, OH on the CSX main line north out of Dayton. This northbound train was shot from West Broadway St. With the morning backlight we both opted for some residential scenery in the foreground.

2. A short jog up the road north in Troy, OH we caught CSXT 380 on another northbound manifest. This time we captured a near street-running scene along N Clay St just off of East Main.

3. Just over an hour later, still in Troy we finally got a sunny southbound hopper train led by CSXT 8772. This unit train is slicing across Union St at a very sharp angle.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/17 10:09 by santafe199.

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4. & 5. We returned to Tipp City and soon found onto this local consist crossing Plum St, going back to fetch its train. 12 minutes later the local was highballing out of town. Here it is crossing West Broadway St, taken from West Dow St. Reaching in with 116mm worth of telephoto I have cropped the old Tipp City depot just out of frame to the left. I’ll be saving a couple of the Tipp City depot images for “Depot Friday”, someday…

6. Here’s the probable reason the local in images 4 & 5 was in an all-fired hurry to vacate Tipp City: CSXT 8772, our southbound unit hopper train friend from up in Troy was evidently waiting on the local to “git the hell outta dodge”! Here it is crossing West Broadway 9 minutes behind the local.

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With the sun approaching its ‘high-noon’ phase David & I decided to head back to Dayton and grab some chow. We spent some time watching & shooting trains from both CSX & NS rolling through the west end of the bridge over the Great Miami River. We puttered around downtown checking out a few locations where the elevated main lines were photo-worthy from street level.

7. & 8. David got word through the local railfan grapevine that the NKP Heritage unit would be on the point rolling through town. The sun would be working against us, so we found a location with the best angle. Here is NS ‘NKP’ 8100 leading a manifest over North Findlay St east of downtown Dayton.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/17 10:13 by santafe199.

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9. About 40 minutes later we found ourselves in the ‘burbs’ down at Miamisburg, catching an all-CN consist with CN 2010 in the lead on a southbound unit tanker. We had already bagged this train downtown running elevated over East 1st Street. David introduced me to a couple more interesting locations in the Miamisburg area before we headed back north and…

10. …caught NS 9715 coming north over Dayton Cincinnati Pike highway in Miamisburg. David happily told me that he had been trying to nail down this location with a train, for ‘quite some time’…
(Photos 1-10 taken March 11, 2017)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/17 11:06 by santafe199.

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As the afternoon wore on we kept seeing & shooting trains in various residential and other urban settings. Even in the oncoming evening light we kept busy. When the time came David & I parted ways with plans for a hearty breakfast that would get the next morning started out right for our 2nd day prowling around western Ohio. Our ultimate destination would be that old B&O crossroads of Deshler, a town I stopped at for a couple of very busy hours on my way east several days ago…

11. We started the new day’s excursion with my esteemed & very capable railfan tour guide taking me to one of his favorite spots out in the sticks near Kirkwood, OH. In due time CSXT 8721 came rolling south with another unit tanker at River Road crossing. We were on the chase again, checking out various RR towns and shooting locations north of the Tipp City ~ Troy area we looked at yesterday.

12. When we entered the famous city of Lima, OH my railfan interest spiked right up & off the chart! I may have been born the in the same year (1955) that steam locomotion, by overall general consensus, had died. But I will still voice my opinion that the 2-8-4 Nickel Plate Berkshire, built right here at Lima Locomotive Works is the single most handsome steam locomotive ever produced. For this reason it was a genuine thrill just to be in Lima! While cruising around town we managed to catch southbound CSXT 3200 stopped in the clear at the Flanders Avenue crossing.

13. We kept our northward bearing, catching CSXT 5290 southbound at the old B&O depot in Ottawa, OH.

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14. We took a round-about path toward Deshler, stopping to catch UP 5731 on this “salad shooter” meeting a westbound just outside of Hamler, OH.

15. We arrived in Deshler in mid-afternoon and found yet another unit tanker, westbound with CSXT 8543 + 2 BNSF pumpkins in command crossing East Main St.

16. 38 minutes later a pure BNSF consist led by the 4042 was westbound with an intermodal, crossing Deshler’s famous ex-all B&O crossing diamonds. The old interlocking tower and part of the old B&O depot are both visible at the left.

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17. 18. & 19. We ran into and chatted with a group of local fans, picking off the occasional train as it went by. Later on with fans slowly dispersing and sunshine slowly ebbing away David & I figured it was time to head back to Dayton. Just south of Deshler we spotted a northbound headlight, so we doubled back to catch CSXT 4559 with a manifest passing through the signal bridge at the south end of the 3 main tracks along rural road ‘3C’. We hustled right back into town to catch the train going around the WYE, then nailed it one more time at the east stub end of rural Road D, just west of town.

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20. The trains just wouldn’t stop running! Shortly after the 4559 (above) cleared Deshler here came CSXT 5258 around the other WYE from the east, retracing the path the 4559 used to come up from the south.

21. We chased the 5258 a few miles south to Leipsic, OH where it crossed the NS main. We were having such a blast that neither one of us wanted the day (read: evening) to end. We shot a few extremely low-light shots of the old interlocking tower guarding the modern day CSXT ~ NS crossing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/17 10:05 by santafe199.

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Just a couple more:

22. & 23. I’m pretty much “blessed” with permanent after-effects of walking pneumonia that left me feeling chilled and a bit exhausted so I moseyed over and took my seat in David’s rig. But a few short minutes later he came over all excited: “There’s a giant full moon on the rise, right over the NS main.” Thank goodness for digital technology with its high-ISO capability. I just plain didn’t have the energy to set up my tripod. Instead, I ran the ISO way up and with a hand-held, heavy tele-boomer shot well over 50 various images in the space of approximately 10 minutes. I did this hoping to get maybe a dozen or so images with no camera motion blur. It worked! Here are a couple of images with the ghostly Leipsic crossing tower watching in approval.
(Photos 11-23 taken March 12, 2017)

David and I finally headed back toward Dayton, two old timer railfans now intertwined in a genuine friendship. Without saying a single word I think we both knew we would meet again someday, dragging our cameras all over some main line. In part #12 we’ll take a look at Terre Haute, IN on the way to an overnight stop in Effingham, IL.

Thanks for riding along!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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Welcome back and thanks for the tour.
DAF

Lance,
I'm certain you will do justice with anything you write in memory of your friend.
Great stuff your posting! I share your enthusiasm for the NKP Berkshire. I built a Hobbyline plastic kit of it when i was a kid. I also felt excited when I drove through Lima years ago. But after driving all night and needing to get to a destination I didn't have time time to stop or explore on the way through. At that time the locomotive assembly buildings were still standing.
The night shot of the tower and the moon is awesome! You are quite the night time photographer.
Gonut

Great bunch, really like those last two. Great job.
JB

santafe199 Wrote:
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> After John’s death so many other mutual
> friends & acquaintances expressed very kind
> thoughts to me, both publicly and privately. For
> that I am deeply grateful even if I failed to
> acknowledge the same.

No acknowledgements necessary Lance - glad you're back posting and looking forward to your tribute of John.
BB

Very NICE and enjoyable return series!!

Larry

Very nice portfolio Lance. Really like #10-#11 and the tower/moon night photo very much. All a great bunch though.
Brian Stevens

Great set of pics!

You guys cleaned house. Nice stuff!
mg8711

Thanks, guys! David (Oroszi) was a very good tour guide, and I can't wait collaborate with him again...

Lance