A Tie Back to the 2010 Longest Day in Bellevue

Life has a way of circling back to previous events in our lives at times when we’re not expecting it.

I found myself in one of those moments during a June 15 trip to Bellevue where the Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts held an annual outing that takes the place of the monthly meeting.

I had gone over to the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum grounds to see the group’s latest acquisition, Nickel Plate Road Berkshire-type No. 757, which is on display in the coach yard by Southwest Street.

It was not a great day for photography with overcast skies and periodic rain showers that became a more steady rain later.

The lighting was so iffy that Marty Surdyk proclaimed it one of those WWTF days. That’s “why waste the film” for those who were wondering.

I made a couple of images of the 2-8-4 and was ready to head back to the Kemper Railfan Park when a headlight on the Toledo District got my attention.

It was an inbound ethanol train that would take the Mad River Connection to continue its journey on either the Sandusky District or Fostoria District.

I noticed a large puddle next to the tracks and thought a reflection photograph might work. It did.

Seeing that image reminded me of another railroad club outing to Bellevue on June 27, 2010, when the Akron Railroad Club held its longest day outing there.

That day began with ample sunshine and an activity report written at the time noted that it was a sultry day with many members spending their time in the shade of some large trees at the foot of Cemetery Street to escape temperatures in the high 80s.

By contrast, the weather this year saw temperatures hovering in the high 60s with a southwest wind that at times made it seem colder.

Going back to 2010, by afternoon the first of a series of thunderstorms passed through, leaving a puddle in about the same location as the one I saw during this year’s RRE outing.

Back in 2010, there were two signals standing next to the track and I remember trying to make a reflection shot using those signals and a reflection in the puddle. The results were satisfactory.

We didn’t get a hard count of how many people attended that 2010 outing, but the report published on the blog said it was at least 20.

Those thunderstorms ultimately brought the outing to a close about 7 p.m. when those still there decided to head for dinner at a Bob Evans restaurant in Norwalk.

This year rain and cold combined with hunger prompted Marty Surdyk and I to call it a day around 6:15 p.m. and head for that same Bob Evans restaurant.

Back in 2010 when we walked out after dinner we were greeted by a rainbow to the east. This year as Marty and I left there wasn’t a rainbow, but there was a hint of the sun trying to peak through the clouds off to the northwest

This year the ARRC plans to return to Bellevue for its longest day, an outing that has been set for June 23.

Unless something dramatic happens to tie up the mini plant for long periods of time, those who make the trip should expect steady train action throughout the day.

A Place Time Forgot on the Toledo District

One in a periodic series of images that I made last summer.

I wound up at this rural grade crossing on the Toledo District of Norfolk Southern by happenstance.

We were checking out potential sites to photograph a train even through there were no trains that we knew of to photograph on this line.

The crossing is near Williston, Ohio. I immediately liked this location because it had that quality of a place that time forgot.

The block signals in the distance guard the east end of Williston siding and are the search light type signals once common on the Nickel Plate Road.

Off to the side of the tracks is a pole line. Yes, the wires don’t seem as connected as they once were, but along many mainlines the pole line has been removed altogether.

Searchlight signals and pole lines remind me of another time. I have memories of riding in the backseat of my Dad’s car going and the road running parallel with railroad tracks.

I remember seeing searchlight signals and pole lines. You can still find those in some places, but they are not as common as they used to be.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

The NS Toledo District Parking Lot

This Norfolk Southern train on the Toledo District is stopped short of a grade crossing north of Kingsway where the double track becomes single track.

Back in July, fellow Akron Railroad Club member Peter Bowler and I headed west along the Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern.

Our journey took us to Oak Harbor and we ended up pursing three eastbounds on the Toledo District.

We noticed that all three of those trains stopped and waited a while just north of Kingsway where double track goes to single track.

I don’t know if this is standard operating procedure or was just an aberration on this particular day.

I’m not sure if I had the correct radio frequency for this line so I never heard any chatter between the trains and the dispatcher.

My first guess was that the trains were stopped because of congestion in Bellevue, which isn’t that far away. It wasn’t for opposing traffic. Someone else suggested later that it could have been because the Fremont local was working and had the mainline tied up.

The first of the three trains we had initially spotted in Graytown. We didn’t realize it was taking the connection at Oak Harbor to the Toledo District until we heard it call the signal for the connection.

We gave chase and thought we had lost the train, which had a pair of Union Pacific units pulling it.

About to give up, I spotted the rear of the train, which appeared to be slowing. It came to a halt just north Kingsway and short of a rural road crossing.

We waited around a while, thinking an opposing train was coming. But that didn’t happen and back to Oak Harbor we went although that for very long.

A grain train on the Chicago Line called a signal that indicated it, too, was diverging onto the connection to the Toledo connection.

We moved over to Union Cemetery in Oak Harbor and got this train crossing the Portage River.

Then it was on the road to see if we could catch it. Like the train we had seen earlier, the grain train stopped short of Kingsway.

We made some more photographs once again headed back to Oak Harbor. To my surprise, I spotted a third eastbound on the Toledo District.

We turned around and intercepted it at a crossing where the gates were going down as we arrived.

The crossing was at the west end of Sewell and the train was headed into the Kingsway siding.

For the third time, we motored to that crossing north of Kingsway where the grain train was still sitting.

After making some photos of the trains sitting side by side, it was back to Oak Harbor as time was getting short and we still wanted to photograph the lighthouse at Marblehead and then get the sunset from Catawba Island State Park.

Somewhere in there we also needed to get something for dinner.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

Crossing the Portage River at Oak Harbor.

A barn or shed pays tribute to America.

There are lot of grain hoppers behind that motive power.

The home on the west side of the tracks had an expansive and well-maintained lawn.

That home on the other side of the tracks did not appear to be occupied.

The third eastbound that we saw on the Toledo District.

One advantage of being on the wrong side of the light was being able to make this image of the train passing a nearby field.

Almost into the siding at Sewell.

A long string of boxcars on the rear.

The manifest freight we had seen earlier pulls up alongside the still waiting grain train.

Waiting side by side.

A parting shot of the grain train.

Sunset on the NS Toledo District

You could sit trackside for hours on the Toledo District of Norfolk Southern northwest of Oak Harbor and not see a train.

Although an important route to NS, it is not the railroad’s major traffic artery in and out of Toledo. But it is the only route into Toledo used by the Wheeling & Lake Erie, which has a pair of trains each day on the line that interchange traffic with Canadian National.

That the route is important to the Wheeling seems appropriate because it is part of the original W&LE route between Toledo and Wheeling, West Virginia.

It fell into the hands of the Nickel Plate Road when that railroad acquired the W&LE in 1949. Of course the NKP was acquired by the Norfolk & Western which evolved into Norfolk Southern.

For a few days in July, the sun sets right down the Toledo District tracks near Oak Harbor. But you need to know when that is in order to gt it.

Photographer Peter Bowler was a little late this year, but he still came home with a very nice image.

Photograph by Peter Bowler