All I Wanted for Christmas was Some Sunshine

Instead of dreaming of a White Christmas I just wanted some sun.  After having precious little sunlight for the last month, on the Friday after Christmas the sun returned.

A trip out to Willard and Attica yielded quite a few colorful consists.

First out was a Wheeling & Lake Erie train parked at New London with the two Rio Grande tunnel motors.  They still look good but had no crew at this time.  Later we would catch them on the move to Willard.

Next was a CSX westbound with 2 BNSF units and a Kansas City Southern Belle. Then we caught a CSX eastbound with a mix of leasers.

We then went to Attica Junction (Siam) and caught four CSX and two Norfolk Southern freights.

Back to Willard we went for another six-unit lash up with some leased SD90MACs.  On the way home the two Rio Grande units brought their train into Willard.

Lastly, we caught an NS lashup from Hudson on Saturday with a cream and green SD70MAC on a coal train.

Photographs by Todd Dillon

Willard Gets State Grant for Railfan Park

The city of Willard has received a $50,000 state grant that will be used to establish a railfan park in the north central Ohio that is home to a major CSX classification yard.

“Train watching has become a popular activity and this facility could bring as many as 20,000 visitors annually to Willard,” said City Manager Brian Humphress.

The city-owned park is expected to be built within the next two years at an unnamed location. Humphress told the Willard City Council that the city has a site in mind and is hoping that the property owner will donate the land to the city.

Willard city officials have been talking about establishing a railfan park for at least the past five years, but were waiting for some seed money to come their way.

State funds are expected to pay 60 percent of the expenses of establishing the railfan park while local entities must pick up the remaining 40 percent. The state’s share will come from the State Capital Improvements budget.

Colorful Outing on CSX

I had to toss in a little BNSF orange into the Crayola box. Here is a westbound at Attica Junction.

 

I made a trip to the Willard area the other weekend and was treated to quite the color variety along the CSX main. In no particular order here is what I was able to get.

Photographs by Roger Durfee

Road slug looking nice and clean.

A remote GP-38-2 works the west end of Willard as that NS/CREX set we saw earlier cools it’s wheels in the distance.

An in your face eastbound at Boughtonville.

CSX 8357, Clinchfield 3023 in a former life, leads an eastbound mixed freight into Willard.

A K train departed with a Kansas City Southern retro Belle leader, seen first at the Boughtonville Road crossing.

. . . and then at the Route 13 crossing on the former Big 4 near Greenwich.

As I arrived in Willard an eastbound was departing with NS and CEFX for power. Let’s see, the first two CSX moves had NS leaders, what a way to start the day.

I chased this train to get multiple shots of this WP covered hopper.

A westbound is stopped at the 191 signals just east of Greenwich in the last light of day.

Beyond the Open Gate

There is something about an open gate that seems to invite passersby to come in, even if they are not welcome there. Maybe it’s because a gate indicates a sense of the forbidden. After all, there wouldn’t be a gate there if someone didn’t want to let just anyone in or didn’t want to let something out.

Back on Dec. 28, I was in Willard photographing this eastbound CSX manifest freight with a BC Rail trailing locomotive. I couldn’t resist the lure of stepping inside to get a photo before moving on to my next photo location east of town.

Photograph by Craig Sanders

Oh, the Trains It Has Seen

So, fellow Akron Railroad Club member Roger Durfee tells me that we can do some winter railfanning without snow. “How is that?” I asked. And he says we can look for other things that say winter, e.g., bare trees and fields. And that led us to this slumbering field along Boughtonville Road just west of its namesake village east of Willard, Ohio.

Who knows why this lone tree still stands. It probably has survived because it’s next to a drainage ditch and thus not on a spot where the farmer wants to plant crops. Perhaps during the warm weather months the farmer working in this field takes a break and sits beneath the shade of this tree.

Of course the tree also has a good view of the nearby CSX mainline. Imagine the thousands of trains that have passed by this tree over the years.

Shown is the westbound Q015, whose crew is a just a few miles away from ending its day and going off the clock. They’ve the lucky ones, for this train will pass three parked manifest freights on Track No. 1 waiting to get into Willard. An eastbound is sitting at East Willard waiting to get a route to Greenwich and beyond.

Article and Photograph by Craig Sanders

A ‘Draper Taper” Weekend on CSX

A down on view of BCOL 4620 that shows the taper of the Draper behind the cab.

Despite less than ideal weather conditions, I headed out to Willard last weekend, mainly in hopes that a British Columbia Railway unit would lead CSX train Q634.

It turned out that the BCOL unit was trailing into Willard, but the train made for some nice photos anyway.

I did manage a clean nose photo of the BCOL on the Willard service tracks after the train had been put away in the yard.

These are GE C40-8Ms with a full “Draper Taper” cowl car body, which is a Canadian only version designed by William L. Draper of Canadian National. The BCOL units are essentially the same as the first CN order with the high bell mount above the windows.

I returned to Willard the next day in hopes of finding some sun, but it was hard to come by most of the day. As luck would have it, the first train I photographed was a CSX K train lead by CN 2444, another Draper Taper GE from the second CN order. The main difference is the bell was now mounted below the frame and not up top.

There were all kinds of foreign power units running over CSX, including the above mentioned CN and BCOL power along with DM&E, BNSF, UP, W&LE, and even NS. The oil business is making for more moves on CSX as well as NS these days with most of the trains appearing to use run through BNSF or UP power.

Article and Photographs by Roger Durfee

Sitting at the service area in Willard.

CSX Q634 arrives at Willard.

 

A trio of newer NS GE’s power westbound empty oil cans on CSX, just about to hit the NS diamonds at Attica.

 

BNSF 9844 leads K040 eastbound past the NS powered train on CSX at Attica.

 

The same set of power the next day came back west on Q381, seen passing GN tower in Greenwich.

 

Back to Attica. Fresh out of Altoona 6943 leads 15V west (north) for Bellevue.

 

CSX gets stabbed at Attica Junction by NS going one direction . . .

 

. . . and then another.

 

A CSX K train departs Willard eastbound with a clean UP pair.

 

The same train as seen from the Old State Road bridge.

 

The Wheeling made an appearance at GN in Greenwich with a matched trio of painted units coming off the former AC&Y.

 

The W&LE stone train passes GN Tower.

 

CN 2444 leads a CSX K train at Edwards Road near Greenwich.

 

Same train, now on the ex-Conrail Big 4 Route to Cleveland just east of Greenwich.