Ohio Central/LTEX 7 Unit lashup in Columbus

[strugglin]

Today OC 4023 & 3329 brought 5 units, which I think are bound for LTEX, through Columbus and dropped them off at CSX Parsons Yard. 531, 7063, 7064, 3613, & 3616 were all left at the SE end of Parsons Yard, all of the Ohio Central logos had already been patched up with black paint on 4 of the engines, 531 is still in ex-UP paint. 4023 & 3329 then left the yard with a CSX ballast train, which first forgot to cut the last 2 cars off the train and had to push back into Parsons, then crapped out on the hill just east of downtown off 670.

Does anyone know why those engines would have been moved to Columbus if they are bound for LTEX? I had thought that previously OC power bound for LTEX would go north from Sugar Creek to Clinton, where it would be picked up by CSX?

[midland sub]

Interchanged at Parsons means they will be moving to Texas I believe like the last group of former Ohio Central GE locos. Should be exports to somewhere in South America.

[sd70accsxt700]

Could be but also just could be a diffrent CSX routing. Willard is a holding area for LETX equipment. Might take Q635 to Waillard and then the local to New Castle.

[bdconrail29]

Could be but also just could be a diffrent CSX routing. Willard is a holding area for LETX equipment. Might take Q635 to Waillard and then the local to New Castle.

Hey that's an interesting point. Didn't that unit you shot at Willard on Saturday go back on D750? Thanks.

[midland sub]

I was thinking back to a convo with someone from the Ohio Central about the future of the C30-7s. But that was before the swap with LTEX for the old CP SD40s.

I'll miss seeing the OC painted C30-7s sitting in east Columbus waiting for the next NS coal train.

[strugglin]

Could be but also just could be a diffrent CSX routing. Willard is a holding area for LETX equipment. Might take Q635 to Waillard and then the local to New Castle.

When does Q635 run? I'd like to catch them headed north with the 5 engines on board. We missed them coming into Columbus, heard them on the scanner as they were pulling into Parsons.

[Y@]

Q635 is a daily Willard to Russell train, running westbound on the B&O, turning the corner in Fostoria, and running eastbound down the C&O. I have seen them a few times recently...usually out of Willard around 4 or 5 in the afternoon I believe.

[cbehr91]

Could be but also just could be a diffrent CSX routing. Willard is a holding area for LETX equipment. Might take Q635 to Waillard and then the local to New Castle.

When does Q635 run? I'd like to catch them headed north with the 5 engines on board. We missed them coming into Columbus, heard them on the scanner as they were pulling into Parsons.

Usually pulls into Columbus after dark, after 2100 or so and hangs around for a couple of hours before departing. Q-634 too.

[sd70accsxt700]

Ok I always get those two mixed up. Q634 is what they would be on to Willard.

[midland sub]

According to the CSX Huntington Div Yahoo group all 7 went east out of Russell last week on a grain train for somewhere in North Carolina.

[strugglin]

Oddly enough, I ended up seeing my old friends from Ohio Central one last time in CSX Acca Yard in Richmond, Virginia, on my way back from Virginia Beach. They have been sitting next to the engine house there for the past two weeks.

I'm not sure what was more odd, seeing Ohio Central engines in eastern Virginia, or seeing the KCS Southern Belle/TFM Grey lashup in the NS South Charleston Yard after it came through Columbus on Saturday and headed south down the NS West Virginia Secondary. Any railfans who were along the WV Secondary must have gotten a pretty nice surprise when they saw those engines leading a coal train through the foothills of Southern Ohio.