RRE Cancels October Meeting, Will Hold Railfan Outing in Vermilion on Oct. 10 Instead

The Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts has canceled its October meeting but instead will conduct a railfan outing in Vermilion.

The Cleveland-based group had been set to meet on Oct. 9 but will go to Vermilion on Oct. 10 weather permitting.

Norfolk Southern has two routes through Vermilion, the busy Chicago Line and the far less busy Cleveland District.

Plans are to meet in the morning at the boat launch on the Vermilion River and then move to the railfan platform downtown on Main Street in mid afternoon.

The boat launch is located off West River Road with parking in either the upper lot or at river level.

The railfan platform is located in Victory Park on the south side of the Chicago Line.

The FCD/RRE also announced that it will hold its annual turkey shoot on Thanksgiving morning in Berea.

However, rather than meet at a local restaurant for breakfast as members have traditionnaly done they plan to get coffee, donuts and breakfast sandwiches at the Dunkin’ Donouts on Front Street in Berea if it is open that day.

NS Put on Its Usual Show in Vermilion

The classic eastbound crossing the Vermilion River on the Chicago Line image.

Before anyone had left home we missed the Conrail and Monongahela heritage locomotives of Norfolk Southern and the GoRail commemorative unit.

All three had passed through Vermilion before dawn.

But there was plenty of other NS traffic to watch during the Akron Railroad Club’s fourth annual day in Vermilion hosted by ARRC member and Vermilion resident Todd Vander Sluis.

Six ARRC members and guests made the trek to the Vermilion on Aug. 27.

ARRC President Craig Sanders was the first to arrive at 10:30 a.m. and was joined by the day’s host not long after that.

The group soon included Rick Houck and Todd Dillon. We set up folding chairs on the grassy strip near the boat launch along the Vermilion River.

It was a warm, sunny day and there was a steady parade of boats in both directions during the time we hung out by the river.

The NS Chicago Line was its usual self with an array of intermodal and manifest traffic with a few unit commodity trains added to the mix.

We saw just two trains slip through town on the former Nickel Plate Road mainline, both of them eastbounds.

At about 2 p.m. someone noticed on his smart phone that a heavy band of rain and thunderstorms was about to slam Toledo.

It looked like it was headed our way and Todd wanted to go to the barn where he and his sister keep their horses and bring them in.

The four of us piled into Todd’s Dodge Ram truck and off we went.

That gave us a chance to meet Todd’s horse Fancy (registered name: I’m a Fancy Chip) whose stall includes a nameplate on the door.

After Todd took care of business at the barn, we headed west of town to check the status of the connection NS is building between the Chicago Line and the Cleveland District.

When finished, it will enable eastbound trains to diverge from the Chicago Line west of Vermilion and go either east or west on the Cleveland District.

Reportedly, such intermodal trains as 22K and 206 will use this connection rather than the Cloggsville connection in Cleveland to access the former NKP mainline.

The right of way for the connection appears to be finished and track panels were stacked up nearby. But no ballast has yet been laid and it had yet to be brought in.

We had ideas of catching a train on the Chicago Line and started scouting for photo locations.

As we did Marty Surdyk sent Todd a text asking “where are you guys hiding?”

Todd’s truck can link to his cell phone and read out loud a text to him.

Marty’s text triggered a round of joking and laughter about us being underwater in nearby Lake Erie.

I sent Marty a reply text reading, “glub, glub,” which he didn’t get because he wasn’t in (yet) on the inside joke.

With nothing apparently moving on the Chicago Line we headed back into town. Of course that was when something finally moved on the Chicago Line.

We joined Marty at the railfan platform at Victory Park in downtown Vermilion.

That storm that passed through Toledo was approaching Vermilion and Todd and I went to Sherod Park west of town to see in coming in off the lake.

But other than gale force winds and dark clouds, the storm skirted Vermilion.

Back we went to the railfan platform where we hung out until about 6:30 p.m.

There was another storm coming from the southwest that had passed over Dayton and that one did hit Vermilion.

We decided that would be a good time to head over to Quaker Steak and Lube for dinner.

It was dark when we finished, but Marty, Todd and myself spent some more time at the railfan platform where we saw five trains pass by in about an hour’s time.

We had heard a 20E calling signals west of town. Or so we thought. But 20E wasn’t showing up.

It turned out the 20E was stopped near CP 222 where the connection from the Cleveland District joins the Chicago Line.

We were amazed to learn that NS had held the 20E, which carries trailers for UPS and thus is a higher priority train, for the L13, the daily Bellevue to Rockport Yard turn.

The L13 was a very long train for a local and we speculated it had been combined with another manifest freight that goes to Bellevue.

The L13 had been sent west on Track 2, the same track the 20E was using.

Other westbound traffic was running on Track 1 and the 20E was the train that got stabbed.

About 10 p.m. things got quiet on NS and it was time to head for home.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

The only set of all foreign power that we saw was pulling train 23K.

The first of two trains that passed through Vermilion on the former Nickel Plate Road mainline. If there were others we missed them.

We saw plenty of boats during our day in Vermilion.

An NS tanker train probably had barely gained the attention of the boater on the Vermilion River returning to the dock.

An eastbound auto rack train crosses the Vermilion River on the Cleveland District.

The L13 noses by the railfan platform in Vermilion.

We never did learn the symbol of this one unit wonder that was pulling stacks and racks past the railfan platform in Victory Park.

Work is well along on the new connection west of Vermilion from the Chicago Line to the Cleveland District.

The storm over Lake Erie ended up passing by Vermilion.

Fancy does some fancy stepping as she heads for the barn.

4th Vermilion Outing Set for Aug. 27

The Akron Railroad Club’s fourth annual outing to Vermilion to watch Norfolk Southern trains on the Chicago Line has been set for Saturday, Aug. 27.

The host for the day is ARRC member and Vermilion resident Todd Vander Sluis. As at past gatherings, we’ll initially assemble by the public boat launch on the Vermilion River just south of the Chicago Line.

The boat launch is located just off West River Road. There is ample parking in the lot above the launch site, although there are usually spaces available along the river to the east of the boat launch ramp.

We might get lucky and get a train or two on the NS Cleveland District, which is the former Nickel Plate Road mainline located south of the boat launch.

Sometime during the afternoon, we’ll move over to the Vermilion Mainline Rail viewing platform in downtown Vermilion in Victory Park between Main and Exchange streets.

As the shadows get long in early evening we’ll then go have dinner at Quaker Steak and Lube on Liberty Avenue (U.S. Route 6) just east of the river.

We can expect to see a wide range of traffic on the Chicago Line, including intermodal trains, manifest freights and unit trains.

With any luck at all, we might even catch an NS heritage locomotive during the day. During the 2013 outing, we spotted the Central of New Jersey heritage unit, but had to go to Avon Lake to photograph it during daylight.

After having dinner that night, we saw Miss Liberty going west on the Chicago Line in darkness.

In 2014, the NS GoRail unit came through in late morning.

In the event of inclement weather, the Vermilion outing will be rescheduled to a later date as occurred last year when it wound up being held in October.

Vermilion Eyes Creating Railfan Park

A Vermilion group is seeking to establish a railfan park that it hopes will attract the region’s railroad enthusiasts. The proposed park would be located near downtown Vermilion within the city-owned Victory Park.

The north end of Victory Park is located adjacent to Norfolk Southern’s busy Chicago Line, which sees about 60 trains per day. The park is currently separated from the tracks by a row of trees that would have to removed or thinned out. A viewing platform with electrical outlets would be built next to the tracks.

Leading the effort to establish the railfan facility has been Vermilion Main Line Rail, which has approached the city for support. The group hopes to establish as many as five railfan friendly parks in the Vermilion area.

The head of the group is Coletta Kubik, who has served as a director of All Aboard Ohio, a rail passenger advocacy group. Kubik, who is affectionately known as Vermilion’s “train lady,” has also pushed for commuter train service on the former Nickel Plate Road route that runs through Vermilion to Cleveland and for making Vermilion a quiet zone for train horns.

Vermilion Main Line Rail is seeking cash donations, which can be sent to the group at 685 Main Street, Vermilion, OH 44089. The group also is asking for donations of building materials, signs, a web camera and speakers for a built in scanner. All would be used to construct the viewing platform at the railfan park. Vermilion Main Line Rail is in the process of setting up a website.

For an article about railfanning in Vermilion, see the Vermilion page on the Akron Railroad Club blog. The page is listed at right under the heading “Ohio Railfan Hotspots.”