Railfanning Norfolk Southern RR

[railohio]

March 14, 2009 around northwest Ohio. Not every train on Norfolk Southern belongs to them, however!




I rolled up to Swanton in the late morning to meet some friends in time to catch the tail end of the eastbound intermodal parade. I shot Baltimore-bound 24M through CP 307 at Main Street with the 2751. He was definitely flying!




We headed back down to the library and shot 20E bringing up the end of the parade with another thundercab, 2745, leading.




Our first appointed catch was 186 which turns onto the Detroit Line at Hallet and runs through to Bellevue. This train operates from Flat Rock to Diann on home rails and then turns onto the Ann Arbor utilizing CN's trackage rights into Toledo at Hallett. We found him parked on Norfolk Southern rails north of Wagon Works at Sylvania Ave.




Soon after we jumped back on the road we heard a Wheeling & Lake Erie train departing Lang Yard. After a quick conference we shot down Stickney Ave. to Manhattan Blvd. where we missed shooting him by less than a minute. The new plan became a quick trip across the river on I-280 and down Front Street to intercept him on the east side. There, from the Front St. overpass, we shot him coming across the Wheeling's swing span. This bridge is owned by the Wheeling but the rails leading up to it are still owned by Norfolk Southern on which the Wheeling has trackage rights to interchange with Canadian National at Lang.




Our next move was to Vickers crossing in Northwood to wait for the 186 again. When we arrived we found his counterpart, 353, waiting in the siding to head west. A van had taken its crew to the Amtrak station to recrew the 186 and its crew was going to come back to Northwood to recrew the 353. This way each road's crews can return to their home terminal at night. Eventually the 186 rolled by under the signal bridge, thankfully still with nose light. As he went east on Track 2 he was paralleled by another eastbound on Track 1 which was going the exact same speed.




We regrouped to Front Street to shoot the 353 from the overpass and found this guy, 44G, coming east across the river at CP Maumee. I don't think I've ever seen a bridge operator's car parked in the cage.




Soon the 353 came rolling east. The track to the right is NS's Miami Cut Branch that goes to Stanley. In Conrail days it was much busier, but today it only sees a few moves a week. Just head of the power are the abutments for the Pennsy bridge that lead their line downtown. The bridge was removed just a couple years ago though it had been out-of-service over a decade.




The next move was back to the north side to Hallet tower. While there we shot this NS transfer move coming out of the Ann Arbor's Ottawa Yard and and turning onto the old Toledo Terminal back side and eventually to Airline Yard.




With nothing moving around the tower for the foreseeable future we headed for the Amtrak station, specifically a pedestrian overpass at the west end of the complex. Here's an eastbound empty Detroit Edison coal train coming under the I-75 overpass.




Very soon after the power rolled by this westbound showed up. The station was built in 1950 by the New York Central and was one of the few major passenger projects undertaken in the postwar era. It's built of yellow brick and glass block. There were once nine through tracks plus four stubs, two on each side of the terminal. The ground floor is occupied by Amtrak and those above by the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority who owns the building. The buildings to the right, the old commissary and other support buildings are now occupied by Norfolk Southern offices. This is where most mainline trains change crews in Toledo.