Hello everyone. About a month ago in early September, I visited the Fostoria Iron Triangle on my way up to Detroit. This day in Fostoria was the latest I have stayed at the Iron Triangle Railpark in a good bit and had a pretty good time while here. In a span of about 10 hours, I saw 30 trains, which is about the right amount of daytime traffic here.
It was both a very average yet somewhat unusual day here in Fostoria. While the traffic levels were on par with the average, the timing of some of the trains was rather off. Three regular daytime trains for Norfolk Southern were quite late compared to their normal times. These three trains were manifest 148 to Conway, manifest 304 to Bellevue, and manifest 303 to Elkhart. 148 and 304 typically roll on through Fostoria between 6:30 and 9 a.m., but for whatever reason, both came through rather late. 148 did not show up until the early afternoon, and 304 did not roll into Blair Yard until after westbound 303 left. Speaking of 303, even that train was late (and it was a long one) until around 5 p.m., nearly two hours after its regularly scheduled departure time. Norfolk Southern would send a pair of surprise trains on this day, first a westbound ballast train in the late morning and second eastbound manifest train 36N to Conway making a rare daytime appearance. It was my first time seeing a ballast train ever on the Norfolk Southern Fostoria District and my first time seeing manifest 36N. All other regularly scheduled Norfolk Southern trains, namely morning intermodal 28N, afternoon intermodal 272, the steel special to Leipsic, and the local trains, did show up at their expected times. Total train count for Norfolk Southern was eleven, with is notably high for the Fostoria District. On an average day, NS shows only about eight trains, so it was nice to see NS busier than expected.
As for CSX, it was an all-intermodal showing for CSX for most of the day until the late afternoon when a quartet of manifest trains rolled on through. These manifest trains were the usual afternoon quartet of M560 and its counterpart M561 from Selkirk to Cincinnati, and the other two manifest trains were M558 and M559 from Willard to Cincinnati. The only other non-intermodal trains on the day were manifest M507 from Walbridge to Cincinnati and B157, the westbound Coke Express to Gary, Indiana. The most noteworthy catches on the day for CSX were the plethora of YN2 locomotives for CSX, and almost all of them were in great shape. My favorite YN2 catch of the day was the thumbnail of today's video with one of the YN2s leading manifest M507, and my other favorite catches were the Kansas City Southern power on the CPKC intermodal trains I165 and I166. It is not too common that I catch both the eastbound and the westbound CPKC intermodal trains on the same day; typically, I see just I166. Total train count for CSX today was 19, with thirteen of those trains being intermodal trains. 19 trains is right around the typical level of activity in a ten-hour window for CSX, though the lack of coal trains and unit trains was noticeable.
Overall, this day at the Fostoria Iron Triangle Railpark was a solid one, though I wish we had a bit more diversity in action when it comes to train consists on CSX. That said, there is always next time to catch the unit trains and more manifest trains here in Fostoria. As always, thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoy today's video!
-N&W475.
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