Eastern Railroad Discussion > Such a Pretty Locomotive for Such an Ugly Train

In years past, the top of the reservoir at Wellington, Ohio, had been one of my favorite places to watch and photograph trains. The CSX mainline (former Big Four) passes between the reservoir and the Lorain County Fairgrounds. The elevated view gives the aura of seeing a model railroad.

The Wheeling & Lake Erie tracks (Hartland Subdivision) pass to the north although photographing W&LE operations from atop the reservoir is far from ideal.

It has been a while since I’d been to the reservoir. In fact, the last time that I was there with a camera was back in the days when I was making images on slide film. I’ve been digital since July 2011.

Last Saturday I decided to go to Wellington and the reservoir. It was a warm, humid day and a strong wind was whipping the water about.

I got a later start than I had hoped due to waiting in Olmsted Falls for two hours longer than I expected for a late Amtrak train.

By the time I got to Wellington, it was high noon. I hung around for more than an hour and was rewarded with steady traffic on CSX, two eastbounds and three westbounds.

The westbound fleet included a train of garbage containers that was pulled by a Southern Belle locomotive of Kansas City Southern (Photo 1).Somehow it doesn't seem right that such a pretty locomotive was assigned to help pull such an ugly looking train. But that is how the motive power assignments fall.

I almost wasn’t ready for the Belle. An eastbound auto rack train was passing through and its rear had just cleared the eastbound home signals for the CP 37 interlocking when there was the Belle and its train.

Behind the garbage train was the L091, the run-through train of reefers bound for Union Pacific with its all UP motive power consist. (Photo 2).

I thought it noteworthy that there was a handful of cars in the consist that were free of graffiti (Photo 3). They must be new. Will these cars still be so pristine when they return east with a load of fresh produce?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/14 02:14 by SDP40F600.

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(Photo 4): An eastbound manifest freight skirts the edge of the reservoir. This train might have originated on Union Pacific given the consist, including numerous cars with UP reporting marks. Also in the consist were serveral boxcars with Southern Pacific markings.

(Photo 5): The westbound Q371 cruises through Wellington behind the L091. All three of the westbounds that I saw continued on the ex-Big Four through Greenwich and toward Crestline. In the background are the barns of the Lorain County Fairgrounds.

(Photo 6): During a side trip to New London, I spotted this Wheeling & Lake Erie train sitting just west of the Ohio Route 162 crossing. Leading was an ex-KCS unit. It might have been waiting for a track car to clear up before proceeding toward Spencer on the former Akron, Canton & Youngstown line. The second trailing unit has Denver & Rio Grande markings in W&LE colors.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/14 02:17 by SDP40F600.

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Very nice photographs. I have not been to Wellington in some time now, but your shots make me want to visit there again soon. The only thing I don't like are the poles and wires that run along the tracks. They make shots from atop the reservoir tricky. The last time I was there it was later in the afternoon and I was on the fairgrounds side of the tracks. Thanks for posting these shots!

Rich

Richard Kaminsky
North Royalton, OH
THE RAILFAN GALLERY

Real nice series of photos. Refreshing to see a few cars with NO graffiti.
John

SUPER pics!!! Thanks for sharing.

Great photos. Having never seen a garbage train...Do they smell like garbage trucks?

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> Great photos. Having never seen a garbage
> train...Do they smell like garbage trucks?

Oh my gosh yes!!! I've seen rats jumping out of the dumpsters/containers too when stopped.
I prefer to see garbage trains at track speed and on cold days when the stench and critters aren't going to stick around long.
Dan

Posted from iPhone

Great photos.

Ronda Thomas

Wow!

dschlegel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >
> Oh my gosh yes!!! I've seen rats jumping out of
> the dumpsters/containers too when stopped.
> I prefer to see garbage trains at track speed and
> on cold days when the stench and critters aren't
> going to stick around long.
> Dan
>
> Posted from iPhone

SDP40F600 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Behind the garbage train was the L091, the
> run-through train of reefers bound for Union
> Pacific with its all UP motive power consist.
> (Photo 2).
>
> I thought it noteworthy that there was a handful
> of cars in the consist that were free of graffiti
> (Photo 3). They must be new. Will these cars still
> be so pristine when they return east with a load
> of fresh produce?

Yes, those cars are part of the order of 50 Cryo-Trans cars just built for Railex service. By now they've had a couple of trips under their belt (and they were built out west), so there is hope.

Did you notice that UP is re-applying the reporting marks and numbers of its ARMN 110000-series reefers (the ones that usually make up these 090 and 091 trains) high up on the sides...raising the bar for the taggers, as it were.

Carl Shaver
Lombard, IL

dschlegel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wabash2800 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Great photos. Having never seen a garbage
> > train...Do they smell like garbage trucks?
>
> Oh my gosh yes!!! I've seen rats jumping out of
> the dumpsters/containers too when stopped.
> I prefer to see garbage trains at track speed and
> on cold days when the stench and critters aren't
> going to stick around long.
> Dan
>
> Posted from iPhone

To add to that, on a hot, humid summer day the stench can linger for 15-20 minutes after the train has passed. It can almost make you want to stop railfanning for the day. A following train, provided it's not another trash train, helps clear the air. LOL

Has anyone ever seen back to back trash trains? Probably very unlikely, but never say never. The day you do, it will happen to you. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

Greg

Nice mix of photos. I have seen trash trains, but not sure I have smelled a garbage train. Why move garbage?

nancyg

Why move garbage? Regulations require all states to reduce solid waste to certain pre-determined levels. States with too much waste pay to transport their garbage to states with less - and that will accept it.