Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX: More trains at Deshler or Fostoria?

Which location has a higher train count, Deshler or Fostoria? Minus the NS trains at Fostoria of course. Historically, the north-south C&O had much more traffic to Toledo and Michigan than did the B&O, but balanced out between the two by the 1980's. Since the C&O is mainly for coal and the B&O mainly for merchandise and automotive traffic, as well as the connection to Cincy, I'm guessing Deshler has more trains. Can someone confirm or deny this?

TIA for replies,
Joel Gilmore
Fort Worth

jgilmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Which location has a higher train count, Deshler
> or Fostoria? Minus the NS trains at Fostoria of
> course. Historically, the north-south C&O had much
> more traffic to Toledo and Michigan than did the
> B&O, but balanced out between the two by the
> 1980's. Since the C&O is mainly for coal and the
> B&O mainly for merchandise and automotive traffic,
> as well as the connection to Cincy, I'm guessing
> Deshler has more trains. Can someone confirm or
> deny this?
>
> TIA for replies,
> Joel Gilmore
> Fort Worth


I'd guess Fostoria has slightly more CSX trains because a fair amount of the Toledo-Lima-Cincinnati traffic operates via Fostoria -- so you see those trains in both places -- while the Toledo-Willard, Toledo-Columbus, and Columbus-Willard traffic that misses Deshler outnumbers the traffic in Deshler that misses Fostoria. If all Toledo-Lima-Cincinnati trains ran the ex-B&O between Deshler and Rossford, that calculation would be different.

The northwest and southwest transfers at Deshler see a fair amount of traffic daily. Also with North Baltimore now some trains see Deshler and never see Fostoria.

Posted from iPhone

farmer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The northwest and southwest transfers at Deshler
> see a fair amount of traffic daily. Also with
> North Baltimore now some trains see Deshler and
> never see Fostoria.
>

Besides Q500/Q501 and occasional ethanol and potash/phosphate trains, what else uses the southwest transfer?

toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> farmer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The northwest and southwest transfers at
> Deshler
> > see a fair amount of traffic daily. Also with
> > North Baltimore now some trains see Deshler and
> > never see Fostoria.
> >
>
> Besides Q500/Q501 and occasional ethanol and
> potash/phosphate trains, what else uses the
> southwest transfer?


Q248 daily and S501 is just about daily. Ethanol is about daily either loaded or empty.

Northwest transfer Q324 Q395 Q508 Q509 and Q209

Posted from iPhone

OK, let's add Q133/Q134, four other "west" intermodals, Q506/Q507, Q512, Q243, Q231, and a K185 (they seem to run loaded or empty once per day on average), plus the eight northwest-or-southwest trains Farmer cited, which gives us 20/day that go through Deshler but not Fostoria. Heck, let's even say 22 based on the likelihood I've forgotten something, or that my estimate of four "west" intermodals is low and isn't offset by trains that only run east of North Baltimore (besides Q150/Q151, which I'm about to account for).

Does that trump Q634/635, Q636/637, Q348/349, Q150/Q151, Q216, Q253, Q276, Q290, Q299, Q355, Q394, Q132 (if it still runs via Marion), and a K178 or K179, plus a conservative estimate of a half-dozen unit trains (coal, grain, stone) that either go north-south or use one of the easterly transfers at Fostoria?

I'm coming up with a couple dozen "Fostoria-only" trains with this list. I am assuming that Q241 and Q272 always take the Fostoria-Deshler jog, but I have seen Q231 and Q243 go this way, too depending on operational needs.

I'll concede that Farmer is there much more often than I am, and I do consider this purely an academic exercise. Both places are so busy that one truly can enjoy an active day of train-watching at either, with the primary constraint on enjoyment these days being CSX's propensity to run big fleets in one direction or the other over a period of hours because of dead trains on the mains. That can mean that a lot of westbounds run in the morning, or eastbounds in the afternoon, neither of which is especially photo-friendly.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/14 10:17 by toledopatch.

Lake coal on the C&O was a good base of traffic, but, that is hard to measure these days...

CG Tower

toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
I do consider this purely an
> academic exercise. Both places are so busy that
> one truly can enjoy an active day of
> train-watching at either,

Good summation, but it is an interesting academic exercise nonetheless. I didn't realize so much non-coal traffic was still using the C&O these days, though I believe your estimate of coal traffic itself is probably low. Utility trains to MI may be down from years ago, but I still gotta believe that plus Toledo docks coal amounts to more than the 2-3 each way per day as you postulated.

JG

Fostoria more than likely sees a few more CSX trains than Deshler. I was just pointing out that there is more traffic coming around west transfers at Deshler than one would think. Throw in 145 146 171 172 and 246 from North Baltimore and Galetea connection also.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/14 13:47 by farmer.

jgilmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> toledopatch Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> I do consider this purely an
> > academic exercise. Both places are so busy that
> > one truly can enjoy an active day of
> > train-watching at either,
>
> Good summation, but it is an interesting academic
> exercise nonetheless. I didn't realize so much
> non-coal traffic was still using the C&O these
> days, though I believe your estimate of coal
> traffic itself is probably low. Utility trains to
> MI may be down from years ago, but I still gotta
> believe that plus Toledo docks coal amounts to
> more than the 2-3 each way per day as you
> postulated.
>
> JG


With CSX getting the Detroit Edison traffic on January first this has created a huge increase of western coal moving through Fostoria and Deshler. Two or three trains a day with the loads operating via Fostoria and about half the empties via the northwest transfer at Deshler.

Posted from iPhone

Don't forget Q135/136 at Fostoria but not Deshler.

Posted from iPhone