The wind was calm and so was the water in the Attica reservoir during a visit there on the Memorial Day weekend.
That set up some nice conditions for a reflection image of an eastbound Norfolk Southern manifest freight on the Sandusky District.
This train would not go much farther. A malfunctioning switch at Colsan in Bucyrus had traffic stopped in both directions on the Sandusky District.
I wasn’t at the Attica Reservoir to go fishing, but if I had been I could also have watched some trains on the adjacent Sandusky District of Norfolk Southern.
An eastbound manifest freight gets underway after waiting for a while north of here at Attica Junction for CSX to allow NS to run traffic.
But this train would not be going to much further. NS traffic had halted due to a stuck switch in Bucyrus that a maintainer was working on and traffic was backing up.
On some days railroading, like fishing, calls for an abundant amount of patience.
My original plan for railfanning on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend was to drive down to New London and “recreate” a memorable Akron Railroad Club outing of 2006.
I remember that outing for a number of reasons, starting with the fact that it was billed as a trip to Greenwich but started out in New London because that is where Marty Surdyk wanted it to begin.
We did get to Greenwich, eventually, but not until mid to late afternoon.
I had never been to either location so I had to rely on Marty for directions on getting there.
My memories from that day include seeing the CSX executive train headed westbound through Greenwich, seeing a caboose on an eastbound manifest freight at New London and catching a BNSF warbonnet leading a train at New London.
There was also the emphatic manner in which the late Tim Krogg suggested that it was time to get some bleeping lunch and how Peter Bowler schooled us in how a flock of buzzards is known as a kettle.
I enjoyed that outing so much that I suggested in 2013 that we do it again. It was scheduled, but I was the only person who showed up.
As I was heading west on Interstate 480 I decided to modify my plans.
I would make this a reservoir circle trip with stops in Wellington, New London and Attica. By day’s end I wanted to have photographs of trains and water at four reservoirs, three of them located above ground.
This would hinge, of course, on the cooperation of CSX, which since the onset of scheduled precision railroading has reduced the number of trains it operates. Those that do run tend to be much longer.
Sure enough, CSX was dead when I arrived in Wellington. I would wait 45 minutes before finally hearing an eastbound stack train calling signals on the radio.
Making images of an above-ground reservoir and trains is a challenge because of the distance between the shoreline and the tracks.
If you feature the shoreline that is closet to the rails, you have to use a wide-angle lens, which guarantees you’ll only get a portion of the water. In proportion to the scene the train will be small.
The latter doesn’t bother me but it does some railfan photographers.
You can also try to shoot across the water with a telephoto lens but you might not get the train. Remember, these are above ground reservoirs.
My first catch of the day in Wellington was an eastbound stack train with a pair of BNSF locomotives running elephant style. Not bad.
It was late morning so I decided to move on to New London. But as I was walking toward my car I heard the westbound Q163 stack train calling signals and decided to wait for it.
I tried a different angle, going for the north shoreline that is perpendicular to the tracks. The downside of this view is that I could get very little of the train into the image. Interestingly, the Q163 also had BNSF motive power.
I arrived in New London during another CSX lull that also lasted about 45 minutes.
I could hear other CSX trains on the radio, but nothing that would be coming through New London.
I also heard a Wheeling & Lake Erie train get track authority from Hartland to Spencer, meaning I would have seen it had I stayed in Wellington.
I finally got a train just before noon, an eastbound crude oil train with three BNSF units.
Hmmmm. I’m starting to see a pattern here. Did BNSF buy CSX and I didn’t know about it? Fat chance of that.
My idea was to shoot this train in the same manner that I did the Q163 at Wellington. It would have worked had I been paying more attention to the water and less to the locomotives.
I managed to create an image that didn’t show any of the water.
That would not be the case with the next train, a W&LE train off the Carey
Subdivision carrying stone in gondola cars and a few covered hoppers.
I heard this train get permission from the IP dispatcher in Jacksonville to enter CSX track at Greenwich at GN Tower.
At the time time, I thought this was fantastic news. I would be getting a Wheeling train after all.
Yet when the train showed up, it’s locomotives were both running long hood forward.
At least I got some water in this image and the lead unit is a former BNSF locomotive still in its BNSF colors. That sort of kept my BNSF motive power streak alive.
That streak was snapped when the Q348 showed up with CSX motive power. It stopped at CP 47 to allow the Q008 to pass.
I got the Q008 passing the manifest freight and some water.
The chatter on the radio indicated that more trains were coming, including the Q010 so I stayed a little longer at New London.
That paid off when a westbound auto rack train came past with a CREX (Citirail) ES44AC in the lead.
I’ve always like the color scheme of these Citirail units, but I’ve seldom been able to catch them leading a train.
The trailing unit of the auto rack train, by the way, was, you guessed it, a BNSF unit, which would be the final binsiff I would see on this day.
After the passage of the Q010, I set out for Attica but distractions along the way kept me from getting to the Attica reservoirs until late afternoon.
First, I stopped in Greenwich to photograph an eastbound CSX auto rack train whose headlight I saw in the distance as I crossed the Mt. Victory Subdivision tracks on U.S. Route 224.
Upon crossing the Sandusky District tracks of Norfolk Southern in Attica, I saw the rear of an eastbound and decided to check it out.
It turned out to be a grain train with three Canadian National units for motive power that I wound up chasing to Bucyrus where I got it going around the connection to the Fort Wayne Line.
I made further stops near Chatfield to photograph across a field a stopped eastbound NS manifest freight and to make some non-rail photographs in Chatfield of a hardware store that is going out of business.
By the time I got to the lower Attica reservoir, the Sandusky District had been turned into a parking lot because of a malfunctioning switch at Colsan in Bucyrus.
I waited a while before catching the eastbound 188 passing the reservoir, which had surprisingly smooth water for a windy day. That yielded a nice reflection image.
I had heard the 20E calling signals and thought I’d get it at the upper Attica reservoir a short distance away.
The dispatcher had told the 188 to stop at County Line Road and maybe the 20E would stop behind it.
I drove up to the top of the upper Attica reservoir, but there was no 20E. It was getting late and I didn’t want to get home too late, so I decided to forgo getting an image from my fourth reservoir of the day.
Although I looked, I never did see the 20E. Either the train I photographed at the lower Attica reservoir had been the 20E or it slipped past me as I was driving through Attica.
No injuries were reported after a westbound Norfolk Southern stack train derailed late Monday near Attica on the railroad’s Sandusky District.
The Chicago-bound train derailed at 10:45 p.m. near Township Road 122. NS and R.J. Corman crews spent much of Tuesday cleaning up the derailment site.
NS spokesman Jonathan Glass said nine rail cars derailed. No hazardous materials were spilled during the incident. The train had three locomotives and 53 cars. No cause for the derailment has been released.
With traffic backing up on Ohio Route 162 in Attica, the Ohio Department of Transportation set up a detour that was expected to be in place through Wednesday morning.
One lane of the road was blocked during the derailment cleanup.
For a short time the water was calm enough to get a decent reflection shot. Shown is NS westbound manifest train 180.
I’ve driven past the Attica resevoirs at Caroline along the Sandusky District of Norfolk Southern many times, but I’d never stopped at the southernmost one.
I had seen photographs that Marty Surdyk has taken over the years at Caroline, but never made any images there myself until last June when we stopped there while chasing trains during the Akron Railroad Club’s longest day outing.
Nearly two months after that outing, I returned to Caroline with fellow ARRC member Peter Bowler.
Our goal was to get some reflection images of NS trains on the water of the reservoir. That was a challenge due to the windy conditions that whipped up the water and that direct sunlight was a hit and mostly miss proposition.
But we had not driven all this way to go home empty handed. We worked with what we had.
We had a situation in which NS had trains backed up waiting to cross the CSX diamonds at Attica Junction.
That junction is controlled by CSX and I can only imagine some of the telephone conversations that went on between CSX and NS officials as they tried to look out for the interests of their respective employers.
It was during the midst of the service issues that CSX was having last summer.
Not only were NS trains getting backed up at Attica Junction, but so were lesser priority CSX trains and/or those that Willard was not yet ready to handle.
In time, trains finally moved even if not as efficiently as everyone wanted.
The water wasn’t quite still enough to get a sharp reflection.
Once NS trains got the OK to go through Attica Junction they tended to run in pairs. Here the eastbound 195 passes the westbound 29G.
Detroit-bound stack train 29G cools its heels south of Caroline waiting for CSX to allow NS to run trains through Attica Junction.
At last NS stack train 29G has heard the word from the dispatch to come down to Attica Junction looking for a signal.
A westbound CSX manifest freight has the signal at Attica Junction. The view is looking northward to the east of the diamonds.
Norfolk Southern Train 18M at CP Shriver near Flat Rock with the Virginian heritage locomotive on the point.
Despite some meandering clouds, I wanted to get out and enjoy some warmer weather last Sunday.
So I headed for the Bellevue area, where the Virginian heritage unit of Norfolk Southern was leading an 18M east out of Bellevue after changing crews.
He had to wait for some traffic to clear, which helped me as I got a late start from home.
While waiting at CP Shriver in Flat Rock for the 18M to depart the siding on the ex-Wheeling & Lake Erie/Nickel Plate Road Toledo main back in Bellevue, a westbound freight with a Union Pacific-NS combo showed up.
The good news was he didn’t block the shot of the 18M, which showed up about 10 minutes later.
I caught the 18M just out of Bellevue at Flat Rock, at the CP Shriver crossovers
After waiting for two CSX trains to clear the diamonds at Attica Junction, he finally came around the curve at the old Sunrise elevator in the town of Attica
Then it was back to Bellevue where I lucked into a 2-for-1 photo op as a westbound 941 work train, led by the NS 3535, departed toward Toledo, while an eastbound set of light power, with NS 7596 on the point, was coming by on the ex-Pennsylvania Railroad’s Columbus main.
The 18M rounds the curve as it cruises into Attica.
The UP-NS combination of this train did not block the 18M
A light power move headed for the Sandusky District passes a work extra on the Toledo main in Bellevue at the mini plant in Bellevue.
Norfolk Southern train 52V passes the grain silos in Attica with the Central of New Jersey heritage unit in tow.
There are few things more pleasing when railfanning than lucking into a find you weren’t expecting, particularly when it involves a Norfolk Southern heritage unit.
It hasn’t happened to me often, but it occurred late on a Saturday morning in Bellevue.
I had seen at a distance a pair of trains that appeared to be waiting north of the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum, so I went up there to have a look.
One of the trains was a grain train — the 52V it turned out — and there was some color behind the lead locomotive.
Upon closer inspection I realized I had just stumbled onto the Central Railroad of New Jersey heritage locomotive.
I walked along a city street to get a closer view when the train started moving. That was all right because I had made all the photographs I wanted to make of it in Bellevue.
Fellow Akron Railroad Club member Todd Dillon was railfanning in Bellevue with a friend and he waved at me as they drove off.
Was the 52V going out on the Sandusky District or the Fostoria District?
I had to wait for the 52V to clear before I could cross the tracks, get in my car and give chase. While crossing the Ohio Route 269 bridge over the NS tracks I could see the train taking the Sandusky District.
I gave chase and my first effort to get it ended in failure at Flat Rock. There was not enough time to get out to make a photograph at the crossing where I was.
I was able to catch up and get ahead of it, turning down a rural road and getting it at a crossing. I’m not sure of the name of the road, but it is just south of milepost 88.
I resumed the chase and caught a break because the train had to wait for a signal at West Attica. That enabled me plenty of time to go into Attica and scout photo locations.
I finally settled on an across-the-field shot from the grass parking lot at the fairgrounds.
The dispatcher told the crew of the 52V that it would meet one at Chatfield. That turned out to be a rolling meet.
Satisfied with what I had, I broke off the chase and went on to other pursuits.
What’s that color behind the lead unit of NS train 52V? Why, it’s a heritage unit.
Here comes the 52V at milepost 88 on the Sandusky District.
A crew member is either striking a pose or trying to see if he can get me to fall for the old “look over there” trick.
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