CSX manifest freight Q561 rumbles southbound on the Toledo Subdivision in Hamilton, Ohio. It is passing the former Baltimore & Ohio passenger station that now sits abandoned. City officials have proposed saving the depot by moving it to another location and renovating it. The track veering off to the left is the Indianapolis Subdivision, which is used by Amtrak’s Cardinal. The image was made on April 23,.
Photograph by Craig Sanders
I usually don’t make photographs of rail car with graffiti on them, but I made an exception for this auto rack car rumbling southbound in Hamilton, Ohio, on the CSX Toledo Subdivision. The train is Q205 and its crossing Walnut Street. In the distance can be seen the former Baltimore & Ohio passenger station, which lies at the junction of the Toledo and Indianapolis subdivisions.
Photograph by Craig Sanders
Most rail lines in Ohio are oriented east-west and are dispatched as such. But even some rail lines that physically operate on a north-south orientation are dispatched as east and west rather than north and south.
This can be seen in Marion where former Chesapeake & Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad routes come through town on a north-south orientation but are dispatched as east-west routes.
In western Ohio, a couple of rail lines are dispatched north and south. Shown above are some images made on the CSX Toledo Subdivision (former Baltimore & Ohio) and the Indiana & Ohio (former Detroit, Toledo & Ironton).
In the top image a southbound CSX auto rack train, the Q203, is approaching Hook-Watz Road north of Cairo, Ohio. It has just passed beneath a signal bridge visible in the distance that still holds a B&O color position light signal.
Next up is southbound steel train K596, which is moving from the north end of a lap siding at Cairo to the main.
Moving farther south, we find southbound manifest freight Q509 rolling along south of Wapakoneta. Note the B&O position signals in the distance. These are still several of them on the Toledo Sub.
Skipping even further south, we find the Q561 in Hamilton, Ohio, on the joint track used by CSX and Norfolk Southern.
Now let’s check out some I&O trains starting with a southbound that has just left the yard in Lima. It is crossing the former Pennsylvania Railroad’s Fort Wayne Line at Sugar Street.
We head back north to Ottawa where we find an I&O train getting off its own rails and onto the CSX Toledo Sub. The former DT&I is abandoned between here and Lima.
Not far down the road that same I&O train is passing the grain elevator complex in Columbus Grove. At one time, the Akron, Canton & Youngstown crossed the B&O here although the crossing was farther south from the grain elevator.
Finally, we end the series with an oldie. This southbound I&O train was captured on its own tracks south of Hamler on July 19, 2009, and was scanned from a slide.
You wouldn’t know this was the I&O from the motive power being used. In fact you might not think you were even in Ohio.
All the other images in this series were made this past April.
Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders
CSX has removed some of the lap siding on the Toledo Subdivision that the Baltimore & Ohio installed years ago, but it kept the one in Cairo, Ohio. Shown is steel train K596 coming out of the northern end of the siding and onto the main.
If you look carefully, you will see that the dwarf signal is giving a train in the southern end of the siding a clear signal to come out onto the main.
Out of view is CSX manifest freight that is meeting the K596 here.
Note that lead unit SD40-2 No. 4008 has one of the square cabs CSX gave some of these units when they were rebuilt. This locomotive was originally built for the Seaboard Coast Line.
A southbound Indiana & Ohio manifest freight rolls southbound past the grain elevator in Columbus Grove, Ohio. The train is on the Toledo Subdivision of CSX.
It will leave CSX tracks in Lima and get back onto the original Detroit, Toledo & Ironton where it will tie up in the yard.
The original DT&I track between Lima and Leipsic has been abandoned except for a short stretch in Ottawa.
The image was made on April 13.
It may not be obvious but you are looking at two Louisville & Nashville heritage units.
No, CSX GP38-3 No. 2031 and SD40-3 No. 4065 are not wearing any L&N markings. But both units were purchased by the L&N decades ago.
Neither unit, though, came from the EMD factory looking like they do in this photograph of CSX southbound manifest freight Q561 in Hamilton, Ohio.
They were delivered as, respectively, a GP38-2 and an SD40-2. A few years ago CSX rebuilt each locomotive and in the process gave it a new squared-off cab that some wags have described as SpongeBob SquareCab after a children’s cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.
In case you were wondering, the 2031 was built in April 1972 as L&N No. 4061. The 4065 emerged as L&N 8074.
The train they are helping to pull will soon complete its journey from Selkirk Yard near Albany, New York, to Queeesgate Yard in Cincinnati.
The image was made last Friday on the joint line used by southbound CSX and Norfolk Southern trains in Hamilton.
Article and Photograph by Craig Sanders
The money shot of the day was this classic Tipp City color position light signal image with CSX 509 coming southward.,
As part of its installation of positive train control, CSX has removed vintage block signals on most of its mainlines in favor of modern signals.
That has meant Baltimore & Ohio color position light signals have been removed from the New Castle Subdivision through Akron and Youngstown.
But B&O style CPLs still stand in many places on the CSX Toledo Subdivision between Dayton and Deshler.
I’m not sure why that is. I was told the crew that was replacing the CPLs on the Toledo Sub had their work interrupted when they were re-assigned elsewhere.
Whatever the case, several CPLs continue to provide signal protection on the moderately busy Toledo Sub.
Back in early March I met up with Dayton railfan David Oroszi and we went looking to photograph trains and CPLs on the Toledo Sub.
The first train we saw was a northbound at Tipp City where a pair of CPLs stand at the south end of the siding.
The Toledo Sub is a north-south railroad which means that photographing northbounds is challenging.
The best I could do was get a going away image of the manifest freight with the CPL in the distance.
We heard on the radio that the southbound Q509, another manifest freight, was meeting the northbound at Troy.
So we waited a while in Tipp City and got what I consider my best image of the day with a CPL.
The northbound signal sits next to an old red brick building that casts a shadow on the signal in the morning.
As luck would have it, by the time the Q509 reached Tipp City the shadows had started to give way on the upper half of the signal, including the signal head.
The front and east side of the building was well illuminated. It might have been a better image about an hour or later but trains don’t always show up when lighting is ideal.
After the passage of the Q509, we headed north to Troy where another set of CPL’s sit at the north end of the siding.
The northbound signal is one of most picturesque CPLs on the Toledo Sub because it is mounted on a classic stand that at one time held two signal heads.
Now there is just one signal head and a dwarf CPL signal on the ground is used for the siding.
Dave had a friend who was railfanning in Lima on this Saturday so we knew there were two southbound trains headed out way.
The first of those was the J983, which is a long local. The second was Q143, a stack train.
They were running a few minutes apart which gave me the opportunity to shoot the J983 on the west side of the tracks and the Q143 on the east side.
With the Toledo Sub likely to be quiet for awhile we continued northward to Sidney. We did see another set of CPLs in the countryside, but it’s tough to photograph them without trespassing on railroad property.
It turned out the Toledo Sub wasn’t as quiet as we expected. Two northbounds caught us by surprise and there wasn’t anything we could do with either of them.
Also, it turned out CSX wasn’t done running southbounds. Both northbounds were waiting at the north end of Sidney siding for a southbound parade, all of them manifest freights.
The first of those, Q507, we bagged south of Sidney at Kirkwood. There is a pair of modern signals here and this was the best we could do.
The second southbound was the Q351, which we got in Sidney passing beneath Michigan Street near where the passenger station used to be.
Our plan was to head north to Wapakoneta where there is still a B&O passenger station standing.
But as we were cruising northward we saw yet a third southbound, the Q355.
As luck would have it we spotted this train just before reaching a ramp for Interstate 75.
We made a split-second decision to call off the trip to Wapakoneta and instead try to get ahead of the Q355 and get it passing a CPL in at Tipp City.
We got lucky and made it to Tipp City head of not only the Q355 but also the Q351.
That gave me another chance to photograph a southbound passing the CPL at the south end of the Tipp City siding by the red brick building.
For this image, though, I focused on the milepost markers, including a vintage B&O concrete post that gives the mileage to Toledo on one side and to Cincinnati on the other.
The Q355 we got at the CPL for the north end of the Tipp City siding.
That would be our last CPL image of the day but we were able to get ahead of the Q355 and photograph it one last time coming out of the former Dayton Union Railway bridge over the Great Miami River.
This outing would turn out to be my last railfan photograph outing for awhile.
More than a week later Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine imposed a stay at home order in an effort to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dave has suggested we do another trip to get some more CPL images. I’ll be taking him up on that offer but it is going to be awhile.
On the west side of the tracks for the Troy CPL signal as J983 comes through town.
Here comes the Q143. I elected to capture it on the east side of the tracks in Troy.
The mileposts were a main focus with Q351 in Tipp City, but you can see a CPL in the background.
Our first look at the Q355 would out last CPL photo opportunity of the day.
A full day of chasing trains and photographing them is winding down and you’re working your way back home.
It’s been a good day and you’re happy with what you captured.
But the day isn’t over and maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll get one more.
We were driving through Troy, Ohio, a place I’ve never visited. It lies on the CSX Toledo Subdivision, a north-south mainline between Cincinnati and Toledo.
It’s former Baltimore & Ohio territory and a couple of B&O style color position light signals still stand in Troy.
The signal for southbound traffic shows an approach indication. Hmmmm. Something might be coming.
So you hang around for a few minutes and then over the radio you hear the crew of the Q509 calling a signal to the north.
Do you go back to the bridge over the Great Miami River or stay where you’re at and work into the image the town water tower proclaiming Troy’s bicentennial five years ago.
In a way I can’t lose no matter which option I choose because either will be a first. I go for the water tower image.
It turns out that the Q509, a heavy-hauler that originates in Roughmere Yard in Detroit and runs to Queensgate Yard in Cincinnati will have to stop on the south edge of Troy because a local in Tipp City, Ohio, has the main tied up.
We get our photo and that’s it for the day.
Two sets of Baltimore & Ohio color position light signals on the CSX Toledo Subdivision in western Ohio fell this week.
Effective at 7:59 a.m. on Monday (Feb. 22) the home signals at Leipsic Junction (milepost BE 155.7) and the intermediate signals at BE 153.4 between Ottawa and Leipsic were taken out of service.
Safetran signals were turned on at both locations. The signals at 153.4 are back-to-back signal heads on the west side of the track.
Leipsic Junction is where the Toledo Sub crosses at grade the Norfolk Southern line between Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Bellevue (former Nickel Plate Road).
A handful of railfans were at Leipsic on Sunday night to record the last night of operation of the CPLs.
When the fire department in Tontogony, Ohio, was called to the scene of a CSX freight train derailment, its members found themselves more involved than they cared to be.
The derailment damaged the fire station of the town located about 29 miles southwest of Toledo on the CSX Toledo Subdivision.
Also damaged was a township office building. Wood County officials described the damage as minor.
The accident occurred Monday evening. By Tuesday, crews at the scene were cleaning up the derailed cars and rebuilding the track.
Northbound train S324, operating to Toledo’s Stanley Yard, derailed 19 cars at the north end of the Tontogony siding at about 9:40 p.m. The accident damaged the interlocking at the north end of the siding, including the southbound signal.
No one was injured in the derailment and no hazardous materials were involved. The cars involved were empty except for one carrying scrap metal.
Tontogany’s Main Street was blocked for about five hours during the cleanup.
The rail line is a former Baltimore & Ohio Railroad route that passes through Perrysburg, Haskins, and Weston between Toledo and Cincinnati. The line reopened on Tuesday.
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