Ohio Hotspots Tour Pt. II Marion and Deshler

CSX SB on the old C&O at Marion.

Part I..............Part II.............. Part III..............Part IV

We arrived at Marion Union Station on the 2nd evening of our tour (Monday 7/28/15).  Since it was suppah time we went to "The Shovel" after some minor LARFing by empty tracks.  No trains were moving and we missed one on the old N&W when we were eating.  The coolness of Marion is obvious to many.  The former Hocking Valley/C&O CSX line that runs from Columbus to Toledo (also through Fostoria) runs north-south on the west side of the depot.  The former PRR, bought by N&W, NS line from Columbus to Bellevue/Sandusky runs north south on the east side of the depot.  Both cross the former Big Four/NYC and Erie both now CSX which runs east-west past the north side of the depot.  AC Tower, once positioned across the tracks, is restored and now on site of the depot, giving up it's stairway to elevate photographers.   Though the depot area is fenced off from the tracks, slight elevations (made from old ties) and fence covers (split drainage pipes) are provided at the diamonds.  We recommend hearing protection at either diamond.  It's a very loud place but especially in the corners, a few feet from the diamonds.  After dinner CSX did provide a couple of trains on the C&O line and NS tossed in some when the sun light failed
for my camera.  We quit once even the video didn't have enough light.  Besides, the bugs were getting thicker as the sun set.

Charles demonstrates LARFing in his Meijer chair.

Tragically, Charles' long-time handy lawn chair broke so we also stopped at the Meijer "hypermarche" behind our Marion Best Western for a replacement.   Here one of our side adventures begins, for this chair did not last and it too had to be replaced.  We found a very heavy duty, and therefore solid replacement later at the Kmart in Fostoria, but we didn't see any Meijer's for a refund.  So, our exit from Ohio later on Friday would include a "keystone cop-esque - lost in Mansfield episode" trying to find their local Meijer.  TomTom eventually bailed us out.  On the plus side, our trip was not harmed by the chair since we had no real schedule or route to follow.   We were on vacation after all!

 

We returned again in the morning but not before one detour. We passed the home of President Warren G. Harding in town so we stopped to walk around the place.  Interesting how rail adventures manage to cross paths with historical places.  The home is a very nice upper-middle class place but not overly flashy and blends well into the neighborhood.  Out back they had a Sears & Roebuck kit house for correspondents.  But, we all know Harding died after his freezing cold inauguration, so the place didn't have a chance to change or get left behind.  The association that runs the place keeps the place "as it was" but they've added some public facilities and showcase a restored mobile voting booth.  

 Most spectacularly, after stopping at the Harding house, our timing was just perfect so that we caught this Loram rail grinder train crossing the diamonds before we even got a chance to return to the depot.  We sped down a side street and got ahead at a permanently closed grade crossing.  The set came to a stop briefly while the crew got into place then fired up the griders and water cannons and rolled south on the former C&O.  What a sight!  The grinder units were rumbling and smokey enough to create quite a lively atmosphere around them.  This was a very large set too!  We were lucky that NS was quiet while this was there. 

Once the Loram moved on, we headed back to the depot.  A very small Loram unit was following close behind the big one but we decided not to return to the chase. 

The depot museum opens at 10am on Tuesdays and Thursdays and we just happened to be there, being that it was Tuesday.  The inside is full of old tower panels and other hardware from all over Ohio.  There's a lot of local rail history and the building itself is fairly restored.  The docent was quite helpful and talkative.  I even found some neat painting prints of the depot for $1 each.  There's a stained glass skylight that was apparently a carefully restored original based on newspaper clippings displayed.  It added well to the open ceiling of the waiting room.  And, the full ticket counter was apparently resurrected after someone disassembled it for removal. Fate stopped it from disappearing when the Association took possession of the building.


With Loram taking over the C&O line, and the likely resumption of MOW activities on the Big Four, it was the busy N&W line that kept our interest for the morning.  We missed a train or two while touring the depot but the Sandusky line was very active.  Either side of town the line is single track but that only makes Marion a good passing zone.  Usually a southbound would pull near to the diamond, short of a grade crossing, and wait its turn.  Often there was a northbound nearby as well so a meet was the real purpose of the stop.  We were treated to a parade of variety.  Any kind of train on the NS system seemed to pass here.

NS SB with our first (of many) ex-UP SD90MAC.

After we'd had our fill of Marion history and a pretty good dose of trains (except for the Big Four line) we decided to head for Deshler.  A pair of CSX units playing in the yard finally brought a local out and over the diamonds as we packed to leave but we did not pursue not knowing the area very well.  We took a small detour to find the Schneider terminal which is the origin of CSX's Q106/107.  We heard Q107 the night before on the scanner well after dark as it maneuvered to get onto its train. These trains are a dedicated effort by Schneider, CSX and KCS between Marion and Kansas City.  Apparently there is also a Q109 that hauls from here to New Baltimore, a massive intermodal facility we discovered on the way to Deshler.

Former Conrail SD60I

Deshler was a bit of a drive but still under 2 hours of zig zags through the countryside.  I might add that the road system out here is pretty smooth, unlike Maine's.  Yes there are rough, pothole sections here and there but they only noticed because they were so few.  And, almost no roads had that undulating sensation caused by frost heaves.  Plus, most roads follow a N-S-E-W grid pattern, especially in town.  Makes navigation much simpler.

WB empty coal

SD70MAC

Nearing OH-18 for the short trip west to town, we pretty much stopped for then followed a westbound empty UP coal train on the way into Deshler.  It had stopped so we went on to see why. We "dead reckoned" our way to the railfan park in the south-west quadrant of all former B&O diamond.  There were a couple of fans from Toledo who were very informative and full of conversation.  We weren't there long when an eastbound or two came by but my camera malfunctioned on them (duct tape later solved the problem). There was also a southbound from Toledo that needed the diamond which I did record.  It was mainly notable for the former Conrail SD60I, complete with "bug eyes".  Then our empty coal train headed west.  The SD70MAC caught my eye on an eastbound  as we got ready to get some lunch.  We must add that Mama Rose's a block or so away was a treat, not just for the A/C and good food but the owner was a hoot to talk to.  We'd recommend this dining establishment to anyone visiting Deshler.  The Toledo folks recommended it to us.

We had a pretty good supply of trains east and west.  Motive power buffs would have fun seeing all the oddballs on the CSX roster here.  "Foreign Power" was common too.  The former B&O east-west line passes through Fostoria as well, so we continued the feast a bit down US-18 at Fostoria later.










Long before we left, we saw a southbound on the former B&O Toledo line take a siding that led to the westbound main.  It stopped and talked with the dispatcher.  Apparently 2 or three districts converge in Deshler and something was off kilter because of miscommunication.  Apparently the extra 7558 loaded Herzog ballast train could not be unloaded on Tuesday or Wednesday nights (this was Tuesday evening) because of traffic peaks.  But here is was, ready because someone called the crew to move it from the Toledo area.  Now it was in need of someplace to go.  We know that someone found a place for it to dump the ballast and turn the train.  We saw the same unit leading the empties at Fostoria about 27 hours later where it returned north on the former C&O.   Too bad it was too dark for my camera then, but Charles might have captured in with video.  I don't want to know how many crews were involved due to the SNAFU.

This last encounter was just as we were preparing to get to the Fostoria Best Western before dark.  Following OH-18 we encountered the massive intermodal facility at New Baltimore.  This place is relatively new and we had no idea it was there until we approached Deshler earlier.  As we headed east to Fostoria we mainly saw a large fenced berm around the place but you couldn't miss the massive cranes from miles away.  Here are the photos from the actual "drive by" taken by Charles on my "throwdown" camera.  Apparently some overpass provides a good vantage point but the light was all wrong and we had Fostoria on the mind.

Enough for one day.  We did see some action at Fostoria once we checked into the Best Western.  But I'll save that for the next post in Part III.

Part I..............Part II.............. Part III..............Part IV

BC