We Got the Tribute Unit and Then Some

This nd the three photographs below illustrate the dispatching on CSX in which the Q009 passes another train west of Fostoria and then that train crosses over and proceeds westward.

Second of two parts

We arrived in Deshler to find the railroad fairly busy with east and west traffic.  

There was an interesting lash-up of an un-rebuilt SD40-2 leading an un-rebuilt GE Dash 8 that had been recently reactivated from the dead line.

It was still in YN2 paint but pretty shoddy looking. Unfortunately, I did not get a photo as I had left my camera in the car.

Another westbound, this time with BNSF power and flying two small USA flags, showed up. I did get this one having learned my lesson.

Finally the Q016 came but stopped west of town.  We didn’t know why but found out that North Baltimore yard was congested and he needed to wait for room.

We went to Ohio Route 65 crossing and got him there about 7 p.m. When he got underway we raced ahead to Hoytville where he again stopped.

 He finally got into the yard just before 8 p.m. and the dispatcher said he didn’t have any work here today. He would just re-crew and since that crew was on duty we hoped he would quickly get underway again.

Alas those hopes were dashed by some of the strangest dispatching I have seen or heard of.

Just west of Fostoria a westbound double-stack train was stopped on Track 1. The Q009 passed him on Track 2 and crossed over to Track 1 ahead of him.

So far so good but when the other train got going it crossed over from Track 1 to Track 2 and proceeded west.

We were extremely befuddled and annoyed knowing that any hopes of getting the Q016 again in daylight were not good.  

I found out later that North Baltimore was having issues with switches not working. This could be the reason why the trains were crossed over outside of Fostoria. 

We continued to Fostoria and saw a garbage train turn south on the former Chesapeake & Ohio. This took a good 15-20 minutes after which we went to dinner. The Denny’s in Tiffin was the only sit-down restaurant still open.

The Q016 did come through Fostoria just after 9 p.m. and didn’t have any more delays as it headed east but our chase was over.

As we drove home through Attica we saw a signal for a southbound Norfolk Southern train.

We waited and soon heard a northbound climbing the grade with two Union Pacific engines led by another old GE Dash 8 pulled from the deadlines with about 200 cars behind it.

After he cleared, the southbound came with another almost 200-car train. This ended our day and we drove home.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon

Seeing Blue in Lake County

It was a star spangled start to the railfanning weekend in Lake County with three locomotives focusing on the color blue passing through on Friday and Saturday.

Ed Ribinskas missed the first passage of CSX 3194, the “pride in service” locomotive that pays tribute to law enforcement. It ran east on Q020 on Friday and returned on Saturday afternoon on the Q017.

Ed writes that on Saturday he then saw an online report that this unit was at Ripley, New York at 2:40 p.m.

“I predicted it would be by the Painesville station about 4:10 p.m. Based on that I would have to go to mass at 5 p.m.

He got it in Perry at 4:07 p.m. so his prediction was not that far off.

On Friday, Ed saw on HertageUnits.com that the Norfolk & Western heritage unit was leading Norfolk Southern train 23K.

He called his friend Jeff Troutman to see if he was available. Several years ago the two of them got skunked when they tried to photograph NS 8103 in Bedford at the tot lot on a westbound. But an eastbound blocked it.

Although Ed was fortunate a few years ago getting good photos of the 8103 on two occasions, Jeff still needed it for his collection.

They got it at about 6 p.m.  the Giant Eagle at the U.S. Route 20 crossing in Painesville.

“What was strange were the auto racks on the front of the train. Is 23K now a combined train or was this just an isolated incident? I’m not sure.”

But Ed said when he spotted the 23K with the N&W heritage unit leading as it went past the Elkhart, Indiana, webcam, the auto racks had been removed.

Early on Friday morning Amtrak’s Midnight Blue P42DC No. 100 passed through in the motive consist of the eastbound Lake Shore Limited.

No. 100 was the fourth of four units assigned to the train.

Photographs by Edward Ribinskas