Eastern Railroad Discussion > What and when to see it in Dayton, Ohio

Working in the Dayton-Miamisburg area for a while and was looking for some information about what is running and when is the best time and where to see it.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

Rich from S. Jersey

Well I can't give you much information about the Dayton area, however at my job in Wapak (about 50 miles north of Dayton)I look right at CSX's Toledo Sub and see every train that passes during the day.
Look for about 4-5 south bounds in the morning, they pass wapak about 6-8am so add about an hour or more depending on your location.
From then till around 4 in the afternoon the line is fairly dead with a train every now and then. Then in the evenings the line picks up again. There are additional trains on the Toledo sub that take the Connection track in Sidney that I don't see in Wapak.
http://www.ohiorailroads.com/tracking.php
This web site has a graph that shows the number of trains each day that pass on the Toledo sub. For the month of may the lowest looks to be about 25 trains a day and the highest looks to be near 40.
Good luck

Besides the CSX Toledo Sub, you'll have trains on NS's Dayton District (ex-CR/NYC). I'm not versed on the current schedule, and it's not as busy as the CSX line, but there should be a decent amount of traffic. You might even see an Indiana & Ohio train, though good luck getting actual I&O power on such a train -- the I&O suffers from the RailAmerica Bandit Plague.

Both lines run through downtown Dayton on a shared right-of-way on the former Dayton Union Terminal elevation, but except for a hand-thrown crossover the two tracks are operationally separate. A downtown parking garage offers a very good vantage point for shooting southbounds in the afternoon. In the morning, Miamisburg is a good place to go. CSX runs right along the river on the opposite bank from the village. South of town on the main road, you'll go under the NS tracks and then they cross the Great Miami River just west of the road. You can park in the lot at a softball complex and follow a trail a short distance to the riverbank for a shot of the bridge. Just watch out for poison ivy -- there's lots of it in there. And if you make the next right south of the ballfields, that road crosses the river and goes past Dayton Power & Light to parallel grade crossings of both railroads.

As a follow up on the posts above, I won't point out what has already been said, there are two grade crossings between Miamisburg and Carlisle that the tracks are parallel to each other, the first(farthest north) is the one Patch mentioned and is Farmington Road, and as noted is across from a DP&L power plant,known locally as Hutch. The second grade crossing offers a different angle for light as the tracks curve between the two, it is located on Union Rd. in Carlisle, just a little to the south. There is plenty of space to park BETWEEN the two railroads at Union Rd as they begin to separate at this point. There is space for 1 car/truck to park just west of the CSX track at Farmington Rd.

To get to the Union Rd. crossing FROM Farmington Rd.(EASY), Continue up the hill(west) on Farmington Rd, turn left at Union Rd(less than 1 mile) and continue south on Union Rd until you get to the crossing,maybe 2 miles at most.

NS has 25+/- trains a day on Dayton District, and typically the Indiana & Ohio runs two (trackage rights) trains a day,one in each direction. Your best bet for an I&O train would be the southbound in the late afternoon/evening, but the I&O can be pretty unpredictable.

now the radio frequencies
CSX 160.230 ROAD
CSX 160.290 AR DISPATCHER
NS 160.980

Thanks for the information from those responded.

Rich from S Jersey

ZachMarlow Wrote:

Farmington Road, and as noted is across
> from a DP&L power plant,known locally as Hutch.


Hutchins is the full name, rarely spoken that way, though.


> NS has 25+/- trains a day on Dayton District, and
> typically the Indiana & Ohio runs two (trackage
> rights) trains a day,one in each direction.


...and the really cool thing about hanging out around Farmington Road is that Hutch has its own locomotive, a GE 45-tonner. It's an r/c, painted in a solid cream color. I've only ever seen it working outside the plant fence once, coming out to gather up coal hoppers recently deposited by NS. If you're sitting at Farmington Road or environs the frequent horn blasts from the r/c will drive you nuts because you'll keep getting out of the car to look down the mainlines to see which track the train is on.

BobE

A trip to Dayton is not complete without visiting
the AF Museum at WPAFB:

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/

It is the only place you can see one of the
Peacekeeper Rail Garrison Cars built for DoD:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=66926

Dave