Eastern Railroad Discussion > First Time Visit on the Wheeling

Good day/evening,

For the longest time, I've been eyeing a trip to the Wheeling and Lake Erie lines to see some veteran EMD power, but more importantly, witness in action former Rio Grande tunnel motors. Growing up in Colorado, I was exposed to UP trains often having D&RGW power. I thought they were the neatest thing. Gold and black paint, speed lettering, and its diverse history made it my favorite road. 20 years since the DRGW/SP to UP merger, The number of Grande units are down to 1, but I'm glad to know they still have a home on the W&LE.

Not knowing much about W&LE operations, other than their HQ is a Brewster, and Bellevue is guaranteed A train at some point, I decided to try my luck there, and chase it east to Wellington, OH. At 2.5 hours of driving just for this railroad I was hoping something, anything would show up. Thankfully, a train did showed up, a chase ensued and the following shots were taken. Here are some from today.

#1. I had ATCS open, so as to keep an eye on the Brewster Connection while I'm away from Bellevue. A friend of mine gave a heads up of NS 218 with NS 4001 leading. Just as 4001 got a crew, the W&LE began to leave town. What to do? Give up NS 218 and go straight for the Wheeling? Why not do both! Here's NS 218 near Flat Rock, OH.

#2. Since I chose to catch 4001, that meant I had to give up seeing it take the connection. So I put the foot down for Monroeville, and the bridge shot. This day's 22something had W&LE  6315, 6317 and former D&RGW SD40T-2 5341. Boy was I happy to see a Grande unit after all these years.

Last 3....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/16 09:44 by wheelnrail.

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#3. WLE 6315 leads the tanker train through West Clarksfield, OH, at the massive Sunrise CO-OP grain elevator complex. What a place for an industrious backdrop!

#4. At 25mph, chasing for the most part was easy. WLE 6315 was caught again, further down the road at White Fox, OH. Codeline not necessary here.

#5. I went ahead to Wellington, OH for a shot of it crossing the diamonds, but I was unaware the crew tied up west of town. With the fair going on in town the L&WV were running their E8. Unfortunately, their locomotive derailed, so catching him was out. All I could do is sit and wait for any CSX traffic in the hot sun. Almost 3 hours later, a fresh crew finally takes the train across the CSX diamonds.

I'd say it went well. Hope the next time I visit I'll chase it further and on other subdivisions.

Thanks for looking!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/16 09:45 by wheelnrail.

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Very nice. I like #3 photo. Nice location.
John

Nice piece of work Carlos, great shots.

Five great images make it hard to choose a favorite, but mine is number five at Wellington. Thanks for posting these.
Bob

Thanks for sharing these great photos mate, I am heading over there next year from "down under" to get the coverage of these short lines.

That shot at the co-op is great!

Great images.  I really like the looks of #3 & #4.
Brian Stevens

Nice pics!!

Very nice! That's Wheeling 228, tunnelmotor is 5391. They likely stopped and switched at Hartland yard, just east of your shot before Wellington.

Matt