Bellevue Questions, Sightings & Whatnot

[Bellevue_Guy]

Driving back from Sandusky tonight I decided to swing by the Triple Crown loading yard and was lucky enough to see one heading south as I drove by, so I chased it to Bellevue. It had to wait for a while before it went though town, and when it finally did it didn't glide by at 25 as most Triple Crowns do though Bellevue, but rather creeped by at 10 tops.

While the TC was waiting I saw what I think was either a really short version of 26N or maybe an second section of it? It had 23 wells, with only about 14-16 of them being double stacked, 2 singles and the rest empty. It came around the Mad River connection and then stopped about 100 yards shy of Slaughterhouse road with the end at Cemetery St and sat there for over 10 minutes before proceeding down the Sandusky district.

Then after the TC had gone I saw an east bound manifest come out of Klines and use the crossover by the railraod museum onto the main Toledo connection track and head into the yard. It had 4 locos, the 2nd of which was a white Indiana Railroad unit numbered in the 6000's.

[ns8401]

Driving back from Sandusky tonight I decided to swing by the Triple Crown loading yard and was lucky enough to see one heading south as I drove by, so I chased it to Bellevue. It had to wait for a while before it went though town, and when it finally did it didn't glide by at 25 as most Triple Crowns do though Bellevue, but rather creeped by at 10 tops.

While the TC was waiting I saw what I think was either a really short version of 26N or maybe an second section of it? It had 23 wells, with only about 14-16 of them being double stacked, 2 singles and the rest empty. It came around the Mad River connection and then stopped about 100 yards shy of Slaughterhouse road with the end at Cemetery St and sat there for over 10 minutes before proceeding down the Sandusky district.

Then after the TC had gone I saw an east bound manifest come out of Klines and use the crossover by the railraod museum onto the main Toledo connection track and head into the yard. It had 4 locos, the 2nd of which was a white Indiana Railroad unit numbered in the 6000's.

CEFX 6011, ex INRD 6011 exx SOO 6011 on lease to NS.

[esprrfan]

that was 344, a I95 (eye nighty five) also went through town last night heading south to the FEC

[redside20]

that was 344, a I95 (eye nighty five) also went through town last night heading south to the FEC

Why is that running through Bellevue and where is it going?

[esprrfan]

Its heading to the FEC, not sure why this route instead of Ft Wayne-Cinninnati

[Bellevue_Guy]

This was sitting facing west on the Toledo district just east of Kilbourne St at 1:00 today. There were several NS trucks sitting nearby and I witnessed a crew change that was preformed by a silver mini van instead of one of the white shuttle vans that normally do it.







Those foundations in the foreground are where several grain bins once stood at the Sunrise elevator. Of the 7 that stood in a line north of Nickel Plate St. across from the end of Prospect there are only 2 left standing. Of the ones that stood in a clump at the corner of Nickel Plate and Woodward the only things left fully standing are the 2 tall concrete silos next to the spur.

[Bellevue_Guy]

Lots of autorack activity between 11:30 and 12:30 today.

One autorack train was heading into the yard while the WLE was backing covered hoppers to Solae. Then a bit later I was out on Garder Rd and saw 2 autoracks on the Fostria district, one facing west that was stopped and another moving slowly east with one engine that was slowly approaching the end of a stopped tanker train. Then while going back though town a few minutes later I saw 2 engines pulling about 10-15 autoracks from the Fostoria district around the Mad River connection toward Toledo.

Update - just saw another short rack train with about 10 cars head to the yard at 1:50

[Bellevue_Guy]

This EB manisfest came in from the Toledo district around 2:00 today





Manifest from the Sanduksky district heading around the Mad River connection toward Toledo. It had 8 total engines.



This pic was taken from from Bellevue Reservoir #3, looking southeast at the Brewster and Lakeshore tracks that NS owns and WLE uses. I'm wondering what the deal is with that trailer and those utility boxes, they haven't been there too long. They are located just to the east of the Bellevue sludge ponds near the end of Madden St.

[AARR]

This EB manisfest came in from the Toledo district around 2:00 today

The first car looks like one of those carbon black covered hoppers. Seems like most every train out of Port Huron/Sarnia has a few of these cars.

[Bellevue_Guy]

Saw something slightly odd tonight.

At 9:55pm a manifest lead by NS 9353 left the yard and went west on the Fostoria district. I was watching it from Monroe St, on the opposite side from Bellevue tower. As the train was going by I could see between the cars that another train that had been waiting on the Toledo district at Kilbourne St was now moving forward. This had me wondering what was going on since the manifest on the NKP was on the north track and blocking any movement that the Toledo district train could have done. Yet it kept coming and started around the Mad River connection very slowly. Soon the end of the manifest cleared Monroe and I could see that the other train was a double stack intermodal, so likely 26N.

By the time the manifest cleared the Mad River connection switch the intermodal was under 100 yards from the same spot. It stopped very briefly then continued on and went south on the Sandusky district at about 10:03pm. It was rather long, and the last 20% or so of it was empty wells.

I've never seen 2 moving trains that would have potentially been occupying the same track come that close together before in Bellevue. Normally in that situation the stopped Toledo district train would not have moved from Kilbourne until after the traffic on the NKP had cleared.

[Bellevue_Guy]

I likely prevented a train/car collision tonight.

I was out for a walk and was standing at Monroe St watching a train head into the yard. The train was on the track nearest to me, and I could see that the other track had a clear signal in the opposite direction. I was hoping the first would clear before the 2nd train got there, but as the end of the first approached I could see the glow of the other train's headlights between the cars and it looked like it was going to be close.

Right about then a car approached from behind me and slowed to a crawl and I began to sense that he was going to go as soon as the first train ended. I turned back and saw that the 2nd train was getting very close now (doing about 20mph) and had begun to whistle. Then sure enough, as the 1st train ended the car started to go, so I held out my hand to wave him off and luckily he stopped.

The time between the first train clearing the crossing and the 2nd one entering it was probably about 4-5 seconds. If he had continued it would have been real close, he would have had to react quick and punch it to make it. When he stopped I could see that it was a teenager. He gave me a little wave of thanks then headed down South Buckeye street to detour around the train.

In other news, earlier this evening while driving over the overpass I saw 2 trains using the Toledo connection curve at the same time. This was the first time I've witnessed them doing this previously impossible move. One train was EB into the yard on the main track and the other was WB on the track that becomes Klines yard.

And last night I saw another rarity (in my experience), back to back trains coming off the northern Sandusky district. The first was a triple crown that went west on the Fostoria district at 10:50pm and the 2nd was a hopper train that went south on the Sandusky district at 11:20

[AARR]

I likely prevented a train/car collision tonight.

You would have become famous if you would have let the car go and video'd the collision You made the right decision though

[redside20]

Hey Josh, Does Flex N Gate, formerly Visteon ie Ford still get rail service in Sandusky?
http://www.sanduskyregister.com/margare ... -ach-plant

[Bellevue_Guy]

I'm not sure, though I think I know someone who works there. I'll see if I can find out.

[ssnk79]

I don't know all the names of the branches down there, but The Wheeling doesn't uses the EX-NYC, there one spot that it does and it the southern wye that connect to wheeling branch east of the ex-NKP and PRR north/south line, NYC had its own line that ran parallel with the wheeling from Fremont to Norwalk i believe, Other than that section that the wheeling still uses, I think another part of the NYC line is Still There where the Mad River Train Museum has a lot of there equiment sitting on the south side of the tracks

[Bellevue_Guy]

Luke, talked to him today and he said they don't get rail service anymore

I don't know all the names of the branches down there, but The Wheeling doesn't uses the EX-NYC, there one spot that it does and it the southern wye that connect to wheeling branch east of the ex-NKP and PRR north/south line, NYC had its own line that ran parallel with the wheeling from Fremont to Norwalk i believe, Other than that section that the wheeling still uses, I think another part of the NYC line is Still There where the Mad River Train Museum has a lot of there equiment sitting on the south side of the tracks

Was this post meant for the WLE thread? Anyway, yes, part of the NYC line still exists where the museum has some equipment stored. That part continues west from the museum past the former grain elevator it used to service, then crosses route 18 and ties into the Toledo district a little bit west of there. And that section the WLE does use is a little over a mile long, running from Monroe St out to Bauer Rd (which are the same road.)

The NYC line did parallel the WLE from Norwalk to Fremont. Most of that line from Lorain to Walbridge is being turned into a rail trail called the North Coast Inland Trail (http://www.firelandsrailstotrails.org/i ... p_2012.pdf)

[Bellevue_Guy]

Caught a rail train lead by a BNSF unit late on Tuesday afternoon. This came up the Sandusky district and went into the yard.





And here's something I took about a month ago:

[Bellevue_Guy]

Yesterday around 6:30pm I saw an intermodal train that had some JB Hunt containers rounding the Mad River connection, heading from the Sandusky district NB to the Toledo district WB. I can't recall ever seeing JB hunt containers on the trains that take that route, only on the ones that use the Fostoria district.

Was this train probably a re-route due to the storm damage, or am I wrong about JB hunt containers not normally taking the Toledo district route?

[redside20]

It was probably 233

[Bellevue_Guy]

Today around 6:45pm there was a double stack intermodal heading south out of the yard, which is not normal as far as I know. It was heading for the new haven wye, though I was going the other way and didn't see which way it went.

Any idea what that might have been?