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10/27/11. A BIG SURPRISE! WB LIFW at 10:43am with a transformer load behind the 2 engines. It was a red heavy duty flat with several axles. I was not close enough to see reporting marks or number of axles. Leading were IORY 4036/4034 and 16 cars. 1 transformer load, 9 boxes, 5 tanks, 1 empty steel flat and 1 gon.

EB FWLI through Van Wert at 4:25PM. IORY 4034/4036 leading the charge at 35-40mph with 93 cars. Very heavy on grain cars with 70 covered hoppers: BNGX, AEX, CSYX, several NOKL, A SURPRISE on this train an Ex-Spencerville & Elgin grainer with NOKL reporting marks with the old lettering clearly visible, 10 box cars: TTX, YKR and others, 6 FMLX covered hoppers not included with the grainers, 4 tanks for Bunge and 3 plastics hoppers not for CSP in VW.

PW

10/28/11. WB LIFW at 11:45AM with IORY 4034/4036 and 26 cars. It had 16 grainers, 5 gons, 3 tanks 1 empty steel flat and 1 ballast hopper.

Also that night LIVW rolled into Van Wert light and picked up 14 or so grain hoppers from the Scott Equity. Then left EB as VWLI with 14 loads. May very well have worked the VW Terminal LLC also.

10/31/11. WB CFE train at 12:45PM. Had one I&O orange striped unit and 1 CFE unit both short hood forward. Too far away and low on the other side of Lincoln Highway to see all of the units or train. Only could see the top half of the power plus the tops or top third of the cars. LIFW had a very good size train as you could hear the units pulling. Sounded GOOD! Train had 110-115 cars with 20 or so box cars upfront plus another 20 or so throughout the train. Lots of empty steel flats, loaded gons, grain cars and tank cars. Train was easily over 100 cars. Could hear it hammering the the old CN diamond.

There are around 25 soda ash hoppers at the VW Terminal as of today 11/1/11. They are on both tracks there, 8 on one with the rest on the unloading track.

Also, last Thursday saw a NS heavy duty Hirail truck at the Scott Equity by the siding/loading track there. Don't know if he had just got off the siding or not. Guy was just getting back in truck when we went by. Definitely NS logos on cab doors. Who knows?


PW

11/1/11. WB CFE train LIFW at111:04AM . Just east of Van Wert at the Gilliland Rd. crossing. Running solo was IORY 4036 and 43 cars. 35 covered hoppers: including 7 FMLX from the VW Terminal empty soda ash hoppers and 28 grainers, 4 empty steel flats, 2 TTX box cars, 1 tank and 1 Procor plastics hopper. Within 5 minutes of the local CFE Hirail truck went WB also.

EB FWLI at 4PM through Van Wert With IORY 4036 and a loaded welded rail train. I believe 29 cars all welded rail cars.

Since this morings LIFW worked the VW Terminal there shoul be around 16-17 hoppers there now.

PW

PW, what are the odds of a Crestline eastbound out of lima on Saturday?

Beall99 it's hard to say if anything will run east out of Lima on Saturday. The local is called on an as needed basis. Occasional grain trains with CSX power go through. But through Van Wert which is west of Lima I haven't been seeing any grain trains in a while. East of Lima the traffic is so sparse. You need one of the others: Redside20 or Brakie to chime in on this. Too far east for me to know much about it. I believe the CFE isn't running on the weekend at times.

PW

Beal99 wrote:PW, what are the odds of a Crestline eastbound out of lima on Saturday?

I live in Bucyrus within view of the CF&E tracks and Saturday its usually dead unless the CSX grainer runs or CF&E has cars for Transco or Westside Feeds.I have seen CF&E in town on Sundays evenings.

Several days can pass without seeing anything on the CF&E.

The odds of seeing a grain train along the line with CSX power out of Crestline are good...you just gotta be in the right spot when it comes by..Besides the obvious P&G traffic at Lima and Sunrise Elevator at Crestline and what Brakie just mentioned..Online grain, chemical, and fertilizer sources along the route can be found in Ada, Dola, Kirby, Upper Sandusky and North Robinson..There is a possibility that Dlubak Glass in Upper Sandusky could see some traffic because there is a spur there and the unknown of interchange traffic with CSX at Upper.

11/3/11. WB CFE train LIFW at 11:18PM. In the lead were CFE 3886/3882 and 83 cars. In the freight were 35 grain cars: NOKL, CP/SOO, 26 loaded gons, 11 box cars: TTX, MRL among others, 6 empty steel flats, 3 coil cars and 2 tank cars. Rolling along at around 40 mph.

11/3/11. WB LIVW was working in Van Wert this afternoon around 12:15PM. Went out to CSP on the southside of VW. Most likely worked the VW Terminal also considering the amount of cars that they get there. Left VW EB in the middle of the afternoon.

11/2/11. WB LIFW with CFE 3886/IORY 4036 and 6 cars. It had 3 plastics hoppers for CSP, 2 coil cars and 1 loaded gon.

PW

11/8/11. EB FWLI at 10:15PM through Van Wert. Leading were IORY 4036/CFE 3882/IORY 4034 and a HEAVY 142 cars. The train had 101 covered hoppers: NOKL, DME, AEX, CSYX, BNGX, FMLX, 19 steel flats: mostly loaded, 15 box cars, 4 gons, 2 plastics hoppers and 1 coil car. Rolling along around 25 mph. This train did hammer the old CN diamond.

WB LIFW through VW around 12:20PM with an IORY unit and a CFE unit. The train had around 35-40 cars. Several grainers upfront, several empty steel flats and some box and tank cars.

Also there has been a regulator on the CFE around Van Wert and east of here. MY friend Chuck heard this on the scanner.

PW

bnsf8000 wrote:This train did hammer the old CN diamond.

Is this CN diamond on an old IC line?

AARR wrote:

bnsf8000 wrote:This train did hammer the old CN diamond.

Is this CN diamond on an old IC line?

CN=Cincinnati Northern.

cnw8835 is correct it was once the Cincinnati Northern. After that it was the New York Central, then Penn Central and lastly Conrail til it was mostly pulled up. I can remember as a youngster 2 NYC F units hauling coal trains north through Van Wert at the West Main St. crossing. Still remember the PC locals running the line and even Conrail. Those were the days. Plus, remember the Pennsy 2 track main and things were really good.

PW

Reporting marks for Cincinnati Northern were CINN, not CN.

I was under the impression that most of it was abandoned effective day one of Conrail.

railohio wrote:I was under the impression that most of it was abandoned effective day one of Conrail.

The only considerable stretch that remained after the Conrail merger was the portion between Carlisle Jct. (the connection with the Big 4) and Ansonia, most of which in itself was abandoned in the early 80s.

And obviously the small portions in Van Wert and Bryan were retained as well, but were only served by local freights like WIFW-30 and WDBR-whatever.

railohio it lasted into Conrail for awhile. I actually knew an engineer: he's since passed, that did the last run on this part of the line north and south of Van Wert. The last train he was on brought back 8 cars to Van Wert for interchange. He was one bummed railroader that Conrail was abandoning most of it. I don't remember when this was.
There was still traffic on the line but not in Conrail's plans. I don't know if it could've lasted til today, but there was enough traffic that a shortline nowadays could probably make it. Changing times at the times. Downsizing and all.

Mr Tops, I think we have pictures in our Van Wert County Historical Society that show cars with just CN reporting marks. We've just always called it the CN: Cincinnati Northern around here. I'm not doubting you but now I'll have to check some of the pictures out again. The Cincinnati Northern also had a division point here with roundhouse and shops and a yard. They even built freight cars here and I just saw a photo of one the cars there outside the shops. Wasn't a great photo but at least it still exists. The shop building just this last summer was destroyed by fire and is considered arson. The last building in Van Wert of the Cincinnati Northern. SAD!

PW

bnsf8000 wrote:that did the last run on this part of the line north and south of Van Wert. The last train he was on brought back 8 cars to Van Wert for interchange.

I thought that this portion was still in use.

cbehr91 it is still in use in Van Wert. It's probably 2-3 miles long. CF&E services Scott Equity elevator on the north side of the old Pennsy and Continental Structural Plastics on the south side of Van Wert. Back in the day, there were quite a few customers on the line in VW. Including at times: Carter Lumber, the grain elevator, Borden's, Continental Can, an anhydrous dealer, the Budd Company, Republic Steel and there were a few more sidings that I don't remember. Would make a very nice switching layout--don't think I haven't thought about this.

PW

bnsf8000 wrote:Mr Tops, I think we have pictures in our Van Wert County Historical Society that show cars with just CN reporting marks. We've just always called it the CN: Cincinnati Northern around here.

CINN would be much easier for us dummies to know it was Cincy Northern

cbehr91 wrote:

railohio wrote:I was under the impression that most of it was abandoned effective day one of Conrail.

The only considerable stretch that remained after the Conrail merger was the portion between Carlisle Jct. (the connection with the Big 4) and Ansonia, most of which in itself was abandoned in the early 80s.

And obviously the small portions in Van Wert and Bryan were retained as well, but were only served by local freights like WIFW-30 and WDBR-whatever.

Just for my 2 cents, when the Panhandle was still in use, up until 1982 under CR, traffic would also be routed up the Cincinnati Northern to West Manchester, where they would then turn west to Indianapolis and beyond. Some symbols off the top of my head were CIIN, CIEL, INCI, and ELCI. At one time there was a DeCoursey Yard set, LNIN/INLN but I can't remember for sure.

As the Panhandle west of Dayton was phased out, this same traffic then made the trek up to Ansonia, like Cory said, to turn west that way. Unusually, WB's off the Bradford side would turn north at Meeker, then west at Ansonia. It's odd that CR took the trouble to single track the line east of Union City from CP EAST STATE LINE to Meeker, only to abandon the line a few years later.

Oh well I'm off topic now, sorry.
Lukas, the odds aren't actually good at all in catching a train from Crestline to Lima on CF&E. In fact, as far as CF&E goes, Crestline to Upper is about the worst stretch of track for any luck catching anything. I don't know about the elevator at North Robinson, but it doesn't look like that siding has been used in years. During a two week stretch during the late summer, CF&E ran NOTHING from Crestline to Upper, in 14 days.