Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Recently my nephew and I journeyed to Fostoria to watch the trains! If you want to see trains, then this is the place to be.

But first you have to get there. As we were driving north to Fostoria, we passed a large stone quarry and had to wait for the "stone" train to back into the quarry. Here is a shot out my windshield.

After waiting a while, we resumed our trip. Soon after arriving, we saw the first of many freights roar by. Here is one coming toward us as it passed F tower. We were standing at the future site of the Fostoria observation area. You cannot get near the tower as it is on railroad property. So all shots were through a telephoto.
We saw several trains the few hours we were there, make note of number 8704 heads south, we will see it later.
After lunch, we headed down to Marion to visit the station and tower located there.
Again, we were rewarded with several trains passing by, and watching from the vantage point of the tower was great. A gentleman was working on the station and was a wealth of information about the railroads of the Marion area.
After visiting for awhile, I was heading towards AC tower when here comes 8704!
I dashed back inside and snapped this shot of it running under the signals through the stationmaster's window.
I then climbed up to the tower and caught a NS freight (on the left) and 8704 on the right, both heading south. My nephew pointed out that I could have gotten a better shot right outside the station! Oh well! It did come out ok, but through the station would definitely have been better.






My last shot is of 5414 splitting the signals as it heads west. So ended our day of watching trains. Marion and Fostoria are great sites to visit. The visit at the station and AC tower make Marion a better site to visit, plus the sound of those freights hitting the diamond is awesome!