Eastern Railroad Discussion > Railfan Trip to New Places - North Central Ohio

Saturday October 1, 2022

Today was a quick venture outside the normal Lake Erie Land territory into B&O Land and then up to Bellevue to end the day. Completely unfamiliar with these parts and trains and it was a tough day trying to figure out what was where and how to best shoot it. Overall a disappointment and was very tempted to just delete all the images, things just didn't work out well. I did a little photo editing tonight, and this is what came of it. More a chronicle of the trip than anything else. I tried to ID the trains, but am very unfamiliar with CSX symbols so corrections are quite welcome.

1. We are just west of Greenwich, OH and catch an eastbound out of Willard on the old Akron Division (now CSX Willard Terminal Sub). CSX 364, 29 and 3325 are the power on this unidentified train.

2. He was grunting pretty hard here and standing on the crossing looking west with the telephoto lens shows why,

3. Up in Greenwich we catch Train I-161 coming off the Big Four and on the connector to the B&O and Willard. Power is CSX 3014 and DPU CSX 995.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/22 19:31 by train1275.

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4. The DPU on Train I-161, CSX 995.

5. Empty coke, Train B158 heads east on the B&O, crossing the Big Four diamond in Greenwich with CSX 461 as sole power.

6. A Coke Express hopper; CSXT 298047 on the B158.

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7. A straight through move on the B&O eastbound as Train L321 crosses the Big Four diamond. Power is CSX 745 and 5494.

8. Coke loads west on the B&O approach the diamond, Train B157, the counterpart to the earlier mty coke B158. Power on the B157 is CSX 858 and 7024.

9. Train M567 is on the Big Four having come out of Cleveland, and he will take the connector to go over to the B&O to Willard. Power is CSX 9025 and 8842.

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10. CSX 8842 an SD40-2 on the M567 was built as Conrail 6473 in October 1978. Back in those days when it was built and painted blue, it was one of the hottest of the hot engines.

11. An interesting hopper in the consist of the M567 is this Union Equity car; NOKL 830451.

12. Up from Galion on the Big Four is Train I-008, he is going straight through on the Big Four heading to Cleveland as he crosses the B&O.

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13. Train M566 is bending off the B&O out of Willard and will take the Big Four to Cleveland. Power is CSX 5496 on the headend.

14. Following him is another train coming off the B&O and heading onto the Big Four, this one is Tr I-010 with CSX 3360 and 5322.

15. Back to more familiar territory on the way home we stop at Bellevue and see the B45 coming in off the old Wheeling Toledo line into the yard at Mini Plant. Power is NS 4199 and 7525.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/22 06:03 by train1275.

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Looks like you did quite well. I like the looks of the "Coke Express" trains.

I could probably find a few places on the NS where you could just kick back and watch trains roll. Not sure where you'd do that on CSX in PA or Ohio.

Thanks for sharing.

16. The Wheeling came in, I think this train was called "Wheeling 90". He is on the connector arcing around to enter the yard at Mini Plant. His Power is WLE (DRGW) 5412, 5411, 7023.

17. Curving sharply off the connector and entering Bellevue yard.

18. A closer look at the Wheeling (D&RGW) SD40T-2. This unt was built for DRGW in August 1978.

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19. The Wheeling train heading into the yard. Kind of looks more like Colorado than Ohio.

20. Heading out the east end of Bellevue towards Kimball we catch up to that B45 we saw enter town from Toledo. This will be the last look at a train for the day.

It was a very frustrating day overall, but blazed a little new ground and visited some new spots.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/22 06:03 by train1275.

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You photographed 12 freight trains from 3 RRs (including a vintage D&RGW tunnel motor) in a single day and had a bad day!?! In New England where I live I might capture 12 freights in 12 days, I'd say you did pretty well!  LOL!

BTW, for CSX trains bound to/from Cleveland on the Big Four at Greenwich, there is a live cam at Fairport NY that has a train list. A  couple of the trains you photographed show up on the train list as having passed the Fairport cam on 10/1/22: 
1:28 AM West I161-30 Intermodal - Syracuse, NY to North Baltimore, OHCSXT 3014, CSXT 9955041x1x0 
9:20 PM East I010-01 Intermodal - Bedford Park, IL to Port Newark, NJCSXT 3360, CSXT 53222242x0x0

Link to Fairport NY Train log: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14AoSt5DQERBR4GGVe-LtGyREFFSDpdpraGlWD2P8VxE/edit#gid=474585124

And by the same token, some of the CSX trains you captured also show up on the Fostoria OH live cam train log:
CSXT 12:09:00 I010 Bedford Park- Chicago, IL to Port Newark, NJ Daily Priority EB
CSXT 15:39:00 B157 Riverton Yard - Demmler, PA to Kirk Yard - Gary, IN (CN) Daily Coke Express WB
CSXT 17:08:00 M567 Frontier Yard - Buffalo, NY to Walbridge, OH Daily Manifest NE Wye B&O to C&O

Link to the Fostoria train log: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rC5mWGb7lXb7gYJT_A5iR2nwlYX_brSHlZOSKn3q09E/edit#gid=1760361059



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/22 05:57 by JPB.

If that's a frustrating day for you, I'd hate to see what a really spectacular day might look like!  (But, then again, you had one of those a couple of days ago as well, when all those heritage units showed up.)

I could be happy with North Central Ohio, not to mention a lot of places with fewer trains than North Central Ohio.  :-)    

Yeah, I guess I need to put that all in perspective. There were lots of trains, especially through Greenwich, but they were a challenge to photograph due to the layout and obstructions. But indeed, at least there were trains.

Thanks to for those train spreadsheet links.

Given the clouds, I thought the photos and the editing were good.  I know the feeling, you spend a lot of time in the car, the clouds are a bummer, it's hard to keep it in context. But you got some good stuff at some neat locations.

You took you last picture from my driveway out east of Bellevue! lol

Ha !

What are those gears you have out front ?

We thought it was 316 pulling for Kimball and went to turn around in your driveway. It wasn't, he started backing up and I grabbed the shot.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/22 08:59 by train1275.

They are from a final drive out of a cat dozer from when my dad worked at the coal dock in sandusky.

steamtime Wrote:
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> They are from a final drive out of a cat dozer
> from when my dad worked at the coal dock in
> sandusky.

Very nice !!