No, this isn't Fostoria; but it is as close as this blogger got to being there on this sunny-but-cold February afternoon. Q-110-13 (Chicago/TOFC, IL - N. Bergen, NJ intermodal) is making its daily appearance, running a little behind schedule as most trains on the former B&O seemed to be doing on this day. Power for today's train is CSXT ES44AC # 5292, AC4400CH # 534, and AC4400CW # 456, seen here plying the rails eastbound and heading towards Fostoria. The location? Deshler, Ohio, another of Ohio's many rail "hot spots." The Toledo Sub's geographically north-south line is in the foreground, with the southeast connection that takes trains toward Fostoria seen curving towards Q-110. On this day, two trains (K-802-08 and Q-500-13) were waiting just south of the diamonds to head west once Q-110 has cleared.
Well, here it is....
CSX train Q-135-19 (Chambersburg, PA - Chicago/Bedford Park Yard, IL intermodal) is racing down B&O main # 2 westbound out of Fostoria at Adams Street on Thursday afternoon. This is a case of the train looking nicer than the power pulling it, as "splotchy"/faded CSXT C40-8 # 7543 is in the lead, with a little better attired AC4400CW # 390 trailing.
Meanwhile, N-841-19 (Cicero, IL/BNSF - Trenton, MI Powder River coal loads) is moments from taking off eastbound on B&O main 1, after which it will head into town and around the northwest transfer to go north. N-841 was stopped for close to an hour and a half waiting on other train traffic to clear in the Iron Triangle. BNSF AC4400CW # 5630 is on the lead, and is paired with SD70MAC # 9437.
It is almost two weeks since the first running of the "new" Q-136 (Chicago/Bedford Park Yard, IL - Chambersburg, PA intermodal), and this blogger has finally caught a good photo of the train in Fostoria! Today's edition had CSXT ES44DC # 5431 on the lead and ES44DC # 5320 trailing and is seen here on B&O main 2, crossing the NS diamonds and passing the B&O depot.
I've seen both 135 and 136 on many of the days they've run since their inception on September 6th/7th, but if "it wasn't one thing it was another" that prevented gaining a photo of these welcome new trains, both of which run in daylight hours. Q-136 is like clockwork (so far!) out of Chicago, through Fostoria between 8:15 and 8:45 am each day, usually running just ahead of or just behind Q-164. Q-135 seems to have a normal time of around 4:30 to 5:30 pm, an hour or two ahead of the usual evening parade of westbound intermodals, Q-161, Q-137, Q-117, and Q-109. However, 135 has been making excellent time (again, so far!) and has showed up as early as 12:45 pm. Hopefully that train will make it on here for tomorrow's Pic of the Day!
It is Friday afternoon and Fostoria is a busy place, as usual. Traffic was especially heavy this day and evening off of the C&O coming north from Columbus. One such train was V-990-12 (Lick, WV - Conneaut, OH coal loads), which normally runs on the ex-Conrail route from Columbus to Cleveland via Crestline and Greenwich, OH, but today is using the C&O to Fostoria, and then the B&O to Greenwich via Willard, to get back on to its usual route there. Here, CSXT AC4400CW #'s 486 and 277 pull their coal loads of mostly BLE hoppers (with a few IC and CN's mixed in) around the southeast transfer and onto the B&O to head east.
NS train 16K (Tolono, IL/CNIC - Bellevue, OH freight) often has Illinois Central power mixed in the locomotive consist somewhere...but, not today. Instead, we have NS C40-9W # 9589 leading, and NS C40-9W # 9435 and SD60 # 6694 trailing on a beautiful, sunny morning, as 16K slowly rumbles eastbound across the B&O diamonds and the Main Street crossing, watching out for workers at both the B&O diamonds and at the road crossing at Columbus Avenue next to the C&O diamonds, which has been being taken apart and then rebuilt over the last couple of weeks.
CSX train Q-634-07 (Russell, KY - Willard, OH freight) approaches the signals at East Fostoria on a cloudy Saturday morning with a brand new "YN3" repaint, fresh from CSX's shops at Huntington, West Virginia, on the lead. Had SD40-2 # 8867 not just been painted, this train would have featured an all-Conrail blue lashup, since C40-8W # 7921 is trailing.
NS trains 14E (Danville/Tilton Yard, IL - Bellevue, OH freight) and 272 (Kansas City, MO - Bellevue, OH auto racks) have both just received a green signal from F Tower on Wednesday evening, after CSX train Q-156-05 (Chicago/59th Street Yard, IL - S. Kearney, NJ intermodal) cleared the NS diamonds. Both started pulling from Findlay Street together, but 14E (NS C40-9W # 9716 and SD70M # 2637) got the best of 272 (NS C40-8W # 8381 in Conrail Quality paint and SD60 # 6592) as they headed east across the Iron Triangle.
The unofficial start of fall is here now that Labor Day has passed, though you wouldn't know it on such a warm Tuesday afternoon. NS train 904 is the research/test car train and is being pulled by NS GP38-2 # 5566 (rebuilt from NS/NW high nose GP38-2ac # 4156), and also features a track test unit converted from an NS slug, # 34 (formerly NS RPE6 # 9951, ex-NW # 9921, and originally Norfolk & Western high nose SD35 # 1530), along with one passenger car. The train was westbound through Fostoria at 3:04 pm, seen here passing the B&O depot at Main Street crossing on main 1, while an NS local works on main 2. Although this is the fourth or fifth trip (at least) this year for this train through Fostoria, heads up is warranted anyway along the NS Fostoria District west of Fostoria and to Ft. Wayne, IN.
On a sunny and somewhat cooler Thursday afternoon, CSX train N-824-26 (Myra, KY - Toledo/Lang Yard, OH coal loads) crosses northbound over Columbus Avenue and the NS diamonds on C&O main # 1 (powered by CSXT AC4400CW # 288 and SD70MAC # 4719), while local H-793-30 (with GP40-2 #'s 6049 and 6097) utilizes C&O main # 2 before departing northbound to work north of the Iron Triangle.
There was, as usual, quite a burst of train activity in Fostoria on Friday afternoon. Here, CSX train Q-164-24 (Chicago/59th St. Yard, IL - S. Kearney/TV, NJ double stack intermodal) heads east on B&O main # 1 at F Tower, while K-683-22 (Oak Island, NJ - Proviso, IL/UP unit ethanol empties) pulls out of the east siding to dpeart on B&O main # 2 after making a set off (for reasons unknow), and a somewhat lengthy delay afterwards. Q-164 featured CSXT ES44DC # 5204, C40-8 # 7567, and C40-8W # 7656 for power, while K-683 was led by UP AC440CW # 6754 and AC4460CW # 7304.
As with the Pic of the Day from last Wednesday (NS 412), any help on the details of this regular NS train symbol (856, westbound unit loads) through Fostoria, as I attempt to build the train schedule page, would be greatly appreciated! Regardless of details, here it is approaching Township Road 262 after passing under the signals at "FS," just west of Fostoria, accelerating out of town after enduring 10 mph speed restrictions that have been placed on NS main 1 on the C&O and B&O diamonds today, with a pair of "standard cab" locomotives, NS SD60 # 6656, and C40-8 # 8710.
In the middle of a VERY busy Sunday night around the Iron Triangle, NS train 59A (anyone with details on this train's info, please e-mail Fostoria Rails!) is occupying first the B&O diamond, and then the C&O diamond as well, for about 15 minutes, while picking up a grain train from the Blanchard Valley grain elevator in Fostoria. NS C40-9W # 9881 eases across the B&O diamond eastbound with NS C40-8 # 8765 while working the elevator.
On Saturday afternoon, CSX train Q-200-18 (Chicago/Blue Island, IL - Toledo/Walbridge, OH auto racks) rattles slowly over the "88 crossovers" after making the turn around the northwest transfer, from heading east on the B&O to heading north on the C&O. Today's power is GCFX SD40-2 # 3077 in it's not-so-bright grey-and-white, and HLCX SD40-2 # 7181, formerly in BN green, but now repainted into solid blue.
H-795 (Toledo/Walbridge Yard, OH - Fostoria, OH/Mixing Center auto racks/turn) is starting to become a popular pick for the "Pic of the Day" - but with lashups like this one, why not? CSXT GP38-2 # 2667, the last Seaboard System painted locomotive on the CSX roster, leads CSXT MP15AC # 1139 northbound across the B&O diamond on Friday night's return trip to Walbridge Yard, with 78 loaded auto racks (over 7000 feet of train) in tow.
CSX train Q-394-16 (Toledo/Stanley Yard, OH - Cumberland, MD freight) makes its way south on C&O main # 2 between Jackson Street and High Street in Fostoria on Thursday morning, prior to crossing over to main # 1 at the "88 crossovers" and utilizing the northeast transfer to head east towards Willard, all while navigating a large track work crew that has been working around F Tower and the Iron Triangle area this week. Today's power for the train is CSXT ES44DC #'s 5498 and 5471, GCFX SD40-2 # 3054, and CSXT GP38-2 # 2642.
Norfolk Southern train 412 (Westbound coke loads...anyone who can provide additional information (such as to/from locations, etc.) on this train and its counterpart, 413, will be properly credited when these trains go up on the Fostoria Train Schedules page...so please e-mail me with the info. if you have it!) is parked at Town Street early on Wednesday afternoon, waiting on CSX traffic on the B&O and track work on the C&O around F Tower before departing westbound. Just-a-few-months-old NS ES40DC # 7634 is on the point, with NS C40-9W # 9327 trailing.
On Tuesday evening, CSX train H-795-14 (Toledo/Walbridge Yard, OH - Fostoria, OH Mixing Center turn, auto racks) is ready to go and departing the north end of the C&O yard to return to Toledo, sporting a pair of locomotives, one each in CSX's "YN2" and "YN3" schemes, the former (GP38-2 # 2690, originally L&N/Family Lines 6039) in bad need of a dip in the YN3, and the latter (GP40-2 # 4436, ex-CR 3363) still looking pretty good in its newer paint. Despite CSX's many variations on its paint scheme over the years, it is still essentially the same scheme as it has been since the word "Transportation" was done away with shortly after the 1986 inception of a CSX paint scheme: A big, chunky, block "CSX" on the side, nose, and rear, and some variation of blue, grey, and yellow. Not exactly the stuff legendary paint jobs are made of, but when your name is just a bunch of letters anyway, I guess uninspiring just fits the bill.
It is another HOT Sunday evening in Fostoria as CSX train Q-117-11 (Boston, MA - Chicago TOFC, IL intermodal) heads west on clear signals through Fostoria with a pair of CSX ES44DC's, #'s 5206 and 5402. Tomorrow will be cooler both in temperature and on the rails, being a Monday, the "slow" day of the week, when "only" well over 100 trains will pass through town in the 24 hour period.
It is a beautiful, sunny mid-day on Saturday as NS train 10E (Salem, IL/UP - Conway, PA freight) makes its way through town over the B&O diamond and Poplar Street road crossing, powered by a trio of Union Pacific locomotives: UP SD70M #'s 4999 and 4448, and B40-8 # 1837.
A nice matched set of BNSF SD70MAC's, #'s 9949 and 9933, are on the lead of E-940-10 (Willoughby, OH - Cicero, IL/BNSF/Powder River coal empties) on B&O main 1 at Columbus Avenue in Fostoria early Friday evening. Meanwhile, Q-349-10 (Willard, OH - Indianapolis/Avon Yard, IN freight), at a very unusual time (349 is normally through Fostoria before daylight, occassionally later in the morning), is on the right pulling out of the east siding and on to B&O main 2 and headibg around the southeast transfer, this after waiting for "new" train Q-368-10 (Chicago, IL - Cumberland, MD freight, taking the place of the "old" symbol Q-378 through Fostoria) to clear.
Top Photo:
March 5th, 2008:
Spring may be on the way soon, but it was certainly not here yet on this winter morning of storm recovery, full of snow, ice, and grey skies.
Through the scene next to old B&O depot in Fostoria blasts BNSF SD70MAC # 9618, looking rather ghostly with its "BN" logo no longer on the nose. She is leading CSXT train U-994-04 (Cicero, IL/BNSF - Colona, PA Powder River coal loads) eastbound on B&O main # 2, along with BNSF SD70MAC # 9404, also in the "executive" colors. Both units also have fairly newly applied "swoosh" patches on the sides of the cabs, not visible here.
The winter weather delayed many trains on this day, but didn't keep the Fostoria Rails from being just as busy as ever.
All content and images copyright 2007-2008 Fostoria Rails and Phil Michaels unless otherwise noted.
No, this isn't Fostoria; but it is as close as this blogger got to being there on this sunny-but-cold February afternoon. Q-110-13 (Chicago/TOFC, IL - N. Bergen, NJ intermodal) is making its daily appearance, running a little behind schedule as most trains on the former B&O seemed to be doing on this day. Power for today's train is CSXT ES44AC # 5292, AC4400CH # 534, and AC4400CW # 456, seen here plying the rails eastbound and heading towards Fostoria. The location? Deshler, Ohio, another of Ohio's many rail "hot spots." The Toledo Sub's geographically north-south line is in the foreground, with the southeast connection that takes trains toward Fostoria seen curving towards Q-110. On this day, two trains (K-802-08 and Q-500-13) were waiting just south of the diamonds to head west once Q-110 has cleared.
