Bellevue Questions, Sightings & Whatnot

[Bellevue_Guy]

Hello, I'm a casual rail fan from Bellevue and new to this board. I've always had an interest in railroads and I have a pretty good general knowledge of Bellevue's rail history (for someone my age anyway.) Recently I've been doing a lot of looking around on the internet to find out more about my hometown and railroading in general. My googleing has lead me here several times and I found this site interesting, so I've decided to join in the discussion. I'll probably have several Bellevue related questions in the near future, and I'll continue to use this thread when I post them.

Alright, time for the questions, these ones referring to track names.

I now know that New Haven Connection is the name of where the Sandusky district and Fostoria district meet. My question is, does the term "New Haven Connection" refer to the whole wye? or just 1 leg of it? or 2 legs of it?

Also, I have a slight bit of confusion when it comes to name of that mile or so of former NYC that the Wheeling uses. I've seen it referred to as both the Lakeshore connection and Yeomans siding (on a caption of a picture.) My best guess is that Lake Shore connection refers to the part I'm talking about (from the main line out past Bauer Rd) and that Yeoman's siding is the name of the siding it ties into (that runs from Bauer Rd to Young Rd.) Is that correct?

[redside20]

Hello..former Bellevue resident here, born and raised..and welcome to the board

New Haven Connection is the west leg of where the wye off the Sandusky side meets the Fostoria side, the wye furthest to the Sandusky side by Tower Automotive is called Flat Rock. The Lakeshore connection is the point where that track comes into the Bellevue Tower and yes Yeomans Siding is the 5000 foot siding from Bauer Road to Young Road.

[Bellevue_Guy]

Thanks. Couple more questions...

What's the late evening double stack intermodal train that comes down the Toledo district around the mad river connection and then south on the Sandusky district?

Is there any normal pattern to the Triple Crown traffic though Bellevue? How many a day? I've seen them so often it's hard to tell.

[redside20]

Thanks. Couple more questions...

What's the late evening double stack intermodal train that comes down the Toledo district around the mad river connection and then south on the Sandusky district?

Is there any normal pattern to the Triple Crown traffic though Bellevue? How many a day? I've seen them so often it's hard to tell.

That is 26N. It is a BNSF connection intermodal that used to originate in Tacoma Washington and was handed off to NS at Ashland Ave in Chicago..It started running about the same time I started railfanning Bellevue about 10 years ago (2002) It often had BNSF power on the train with single containers, trailers and double stacks. But for some reason, BNSF moved the train to Los Angeles as it originating point and stuck NS power on the train most of the time when it got to Chicago and most double stacks about five years later when I moved away. The trains shows any time at night. It's westbound counterpart is 23N and it is handed off to BNSF at Corwith Yard.

The one triple crown trains you are guaranteed to see is 262, which runs in the morning. The westbound of 262, 261 will run in the afternoon. 256 runs towards the end of the week and saturday and can be seen in the evenings. 260 runs in the early morning hours, and 242 runs anytime plues extras

[Bellevue_Guy]

A little while ago I saw train of all empty BNSF well cars with CSX power (I think the lead was 9039.) It came up the Sandusky and around to the Toledo and wasn't very long. This is one of the very few times I've ever seen CSX power in Bellevue in person. Would that have been the 23N you mentioned or something else?

Also, I like what they've done with the new track layout and interlocking. Looks like there are 3 previously impossible moves that are now possible:
- WB around the Brewster to NB on the Sandusky (For WLE Parkertown quarry trains)
- EB on the Toledo district to NB on the Sandusky (Haven't sen it, do any trains do that now? Guess it would only make sense for triple crown or coal trains)
- 2 trains using the double track Toldeo connection curve at the same time (Haven't seen that yet either, looks like a way to ease backups if needed)

For anyone who hasn't seen the new setup, here's what they did (as best as I can tell)...
- moved the northern Sandusky turnout from between Monroe and Center to all the way up by the Harkness signal, eliminating a section of track and the diamond with the Toledo connection.
- changed the northern Toledo connection track (I've heard it called the #7, that right?) so that instead of terminating into the main connection track before Center St it now crosses Center St where the Sandusky district used to and connects into the main line all the way up by the Main Street Underpass.
- rearranged the crossovers so that there's one favoring yard/Toeldo traffic between where the 2 Toledo tracks come in and one favoring Sandusky/Brewster traffic a bit further up

[Bellevue_Guy]

Browsing through this site I've seen several train count stats, and that has me curious. Anyone have an average train count for the lines in and out of Bellevue? I'd be really interested in seeing the general numbers the following:

Fostoria District
Toledo District
Cleveland District
Sandusky District south of Bellevue
Sandusky District north of Bellevue
WLE Hartland

Basically, take the idea of this pdf map of Toledo and apply it to Bellevue: http://www.railfanguides.us/oh/toledo/toledoyards99.pdf

and any more detailed info would be great if possible (stuff like how many use each of the possible routes though town or a total number that pass by any certain spot)

[redside20]

Fostoria District..20-30
Toledo District..10-14
Cleveland District..8-15
Sandusky District South 30-40
Sandusky District North 3-5
WLE Hartland 4-7

[Bellevue_Guy]

Thanks for that.

Next question, one thing I have noticed about the new EB signals near Center St is that they tend to start off as red over yellow over red and then change to red over flashing yellow over red (which I now know is diverging approach to diverging approach diverging) before the train gets there. Why is that? Because the 2nd switch isn't lined up at first and then does line up a bit later?

[Bellevue_Guy]

I'm going to start using this thread as a general place to post about any train movements I see in and around Bellevue that I feel like reporting here. Since I very rarely take pictures and don't have a scanner/knowledge of train symbols, I figure here would be a better place to put these posts rather than trip reports or location updates.

I wasn't expecting to railfan tonight, but then on my way though town I noticed a train coming in and decided to watch it. The activity didn't stop there and I ended up seeing 7 trains in an hour (10pm-11.) Here's what they were, with as much info as I can provide:

- all loaded silver top gons, NB on the Sandusky to WB the Toledo, lead by NS 9268
- all auto racks, EB on the Fostoria to SB on the Sandusky, lead by NS 7702
- manifest, yard to WB on the Fostoria
- WLE manifest, WB on the Hartland to the yard
- all auto racks, yard to WB on the Fostoria, lead by NS 9508
- all covered hoppers, EB on the Toledo to SB on the Sandusky, lead by NS 7596. I was expecting this to be 26N when I saw the signals
- intermodal, NB on the Sandusky to WB on the Fostoria. First half of the train was a mix of double stacks, single stacks and a few empties, the second half was all empties

I thought this string on constant activity was going to keep going since I saw an EB Fostoria district train waiting at at SR 18 and another waiting to come out of the yard. But for whatever reason nothing happened for over 15 minutes, and it was cold, so I went home.

[redside20]

The autoracks ulitizing the Flat Rock Connection off the Fostoria side was most likely 272, A Kansas City-Winston Salem train. The westbound that came out of the yard and headed west on the Fostoria was probably NS 307 and the intermodal that came off the Sandusky and onto New Haven Connection was probably 233

[Bellevue_Guy]

Took advantage of the nice weather and went for a walk downtown and on the way I caught a local coming in from Toledo





It had 13-14 cars, including 6 boxcars and 6 tanks and either 1 or 2 covered hoppers. In the third picture you can see the new Center Street signals, and that high concrete slab on the right is what's left of a demolished building and is supposed to become a railfan platform.

On my back I saw this come in from the Sandusky district, though I was already well past the crossing and this was the best I could do:

[sd70accsxt700]

Wow intresting new place for the handbrake on the new Admral cabs.

[ns8401]

Wow intresting new place for the handbrake on the new Admral cabs.

That's actually a manual override for the Electric Parking Brake. From what I understand they are supposed to use the ECB and not the hand brake whenever possible.

[Bellevue_Guy]

Today while driving south on route 4 I saw something interesting on the Sandusky district just north of Attica. It was 3 engines by themselves going south and the middle one was in Soo Line paint, though it looked like there was a black line painted through the word Soo. The lead engine looked like it was in blue EMD paint and the 3rd was NS.

[Bellevue_Guy]

Took a walk down to the Bellevue tower area and watched trains for over 2 hours. Here's what I saw:

7:51 - From EB Fostoria into the yard, manifest.
7:53 - From yard to WB Toledo, manifest. This had some of those white refers I see on WLE trains, name on the refers is Cryo Trans.
8:18 - From yard to SB Sandusky, manifest lead by NS 2687.
8:21 - From EB Fostoria into yard, manifest lead by NS 3322 along with NS 5090 (a pair of engines I saw going the other way on the Fostoria district yesterday and got a pic of), mostly covered hoppers.
8:38 - NS genset 3850 to yard with 7 empty flats likely from Tower Automotive spur.
8:50 - From NB Sandusky to yard, 3 piece power move lead by NS 8052, with a little orange switch engine marked "Camp Chase" at the end.
9:26 - From EB Toledo to SB Sandusky, all covered hoppers. It had stopped at Kilbourne for a crew change at 9:17.
9:41 - From yard to WB Fostora, manifest lead by NS 8376. Block of racks near middle, long block of tanks at end.
9:42 - From EB Fostoria to SB Sandusky - couldn't tell what it was, too far away in the dark.
10:00 - From EB Toledo to yard, manifest lead by 9340. Some more of the Cryo Trans refers.

[Brakie]

A interesting train on the Sandusky line South(at Bucyrus) was a loaded coal train heading East.From my vantage point (about 2 blocks) the cars looked to be top gons.

I don't recall seeing this train before..

[redside20]

A interesting train on the Sandusky line South(at Bucyrus) was a loaded coal train heading East.From my vantage point (about 2 blocks) the cars looked to be top gons.

I don't recall seeing this train before..

Supposedly these are the coal drags that previously ran on the OC to Mingo and are now running a different route.

[Brakie]

A interesting train on the Sandusky line South(at Bucyrus) was a loaded coal train heading East.From my vantage point (about 2 blocks) the cars looked to be top gons.

I don't recall seeing this train before..

Supposedly these are the coal drags that previously ran on the OC to Mingo and are now running a different route.

Now this was East as in toward Columbus-I should have clarified that since there is two East...

[Bellevue_Guy]

Trying to pin down how many rail customers there are in Bellevue. Is this list about right...not sure what some of these are or if they still use rail service

On the Sandusky district:
- Great Lakes Packers
- Sunrise Agronomy
- Solae's west access
- A. Shulman
- Tower Automotive

also, down at Franks there is something on CR 46 with a rail spur, any idea what that is?

On the Toledo distrcit:
- Something next to (or belonging to?) Precison Automotive Plastics
- Amcor
- Something with tracks going into a building on Wolfe St
- Sunrise Elevator (though I heard this has closed)
- Railroad Museum (if you want to call them a customer)

On the NKP:
- Solae's east access
- Some agricultural facility on Prairie Rd

also, I see that there's a grain elevator with a spur in Kimball. That still in operation?

[redside20]

The place next to Precision Automotive was supposed to be a venture for AJM Packaging but never materialized. The place at the corner of Kilbourne and Wolfe is a car repair shop annex of some kind for some of the members of the Mad River Museum. The agronomy place on Prairie Road is Crop Production Services. The Elevator in Kimball is called Central Erie & Supply and sees sporadic traffic, but has probably seen more traffic now that the Prout (Bloomingville) Elevator on Mason Road has shut down.
The place out at Franks is also a Sunrise facility and was previously known as Country Springs Coop. Before it was known as CPS, it was Royster Clark, and Mid Ohio Chemical before that.