THE END OF THE LINE
I've often wondered, what happens to old cars when their time is up. Well, today I found out.
After a stop at the hobby store, I ventured by the I&O "yard" here in Lancaster, planning to take some more photos of the seemingly abandoned CSX covered hopper, filled with sand.
As I drove by, I saw that the car wasn't alone anymore. It was being cut up for scrap. Why?
According to the two men from Indiana, the car had derailed, the bottom had split and the railroad had decided to sell the car for scrap instead of repairing it.

Here are some photos of the process of the car.

The man with the torch (on the top of the car at the left of the photo) has cut a hole in the side of the car.







Here is all the sand from that hole in the side. The cutter told me there was still more inside! The sand was destined for the Anchor Hocking glass plant in town.










Ever wonder what the inside of a covered hopper looks like? Well, here is your chance. Take a look! At the top you can see the bottom of the hatch where the sand was poured in.











Here is one of the chutes that the sand would have been emptied out of the hopper through.










Looking behind the brake wheel, is the date of manufacture. It says 1966. The car is 41 years old! One of the workers told me that it seems that railroads will scrap cars when they get this old. With the wear and tear on the cars, the life is basically over. One car they cut up for scrap had just broken into two pieces as the train started off!



Here is the front truck. Look closely and you can see the damage from the derailment that started the downfall of this car. The wheels are full of dirt from the derailment.








It was time to go, so I said goodbye to the workers and started home. One asked me if I wanted some sand. No thanks! I replied and drove away.
Here is one more shot of the covered hopper. The next time I drive by, there probably will be only a pile of sand left.
So goes the life a of railroad car.

A Railroad Tour in Lancaster

Running around Lancaster the other day, visiting the hobby shop to get a few things for my model railroad, I decided to take a "tour" of my hometown and see what the local Indiana and Ohio (I&O) railroad was up to. It being Saturday, I didn't expect to see anything, but you never know!
So sit back and enjoy my little tour.
Once upon a time, Lancaster, like a lot of towns in Ohio was a town with two railroads, lots of track, a large yard, frequent trains that came from somewhere and went somewhere. And, as we all know, economy changes, times change and today, all Lancaster has is a short line that serves two industries, a glass plant and a cereal making plant. Let's see what is left.
First is the glass plant, here are two shots, one shows (top photo) the cars waiting at a siding near the plant (in the background). I've posted two shots, one distant and one close.

On the other side of the plant is another siding, this one descends into the plant. Here are a couple of cars waiting their turn. Some days this siding is full of cars, but not today!

After visiting the glass plant, I drove out to the plant's warehouse. Maybe I will catch the switcher pulling some boxcars out of the warehouse? Let's see. Nope, looks like no one is here either. Here is the switcher, a leased MP15AC (ex-TVFM)(via http://www.ole.net/~rcraig/MPR.html, The Diesil Shop).


To the left of the photo is the warehouse. The engine goes inside the building to retrieve its cars.
Now its turn to check out what is left of the yard downtown. Once upon a time, there were two railroads running through this area. Today, one is gone and the other has passed on (It was Hocking Valley Railroad, then C&O, now I&O). What will we find?

First we see what is left of a loading/unloading ramp. Someone has made it a home! (Right click on the image and open in another window to see who!)

Look here! Here is a CSX hopper, just sitting and it looks like it has been sitting, sitting and sitting here for a long, long time. Look at all that sand under the wheels! Did it leak out? Why is it sitting here?


Here is a full shot of the hopper. As you can see, its been here awhile. Does anyone remember me? Here is a view of the yard with the old C&O freight house in the background. It is now a FOP building.

Next photo is the cereal plant just outside of town. Here you see the grain cars waiting to be unloaded.
Well, we've come to the end of the line, so to speak. Where I stood to take the photo above, I just turned around and took the last photo below. This is the end of the line east from Lancaster. Once it went to another town and west to Cincinnati. But now no more.
Thanks for taking a tour with me!

Went south to visit my son, daughter-in-law and grandson in Louisville this weekend and my son and I went off to visit the local CSX yard. Osborn yard is very large and as we found out, hard to see. There are a lot of trees or buildings between you and the tracks. Unlike the Portsmouth yard in Portsmouth, there is no convenient parking lot near the throat of the yard.
But if you drive around for awhile, you can see lots of interesting things. And a journey down this little side street, tucked away between to buildings produced some photo ops!
In the first photo, we had just pulled onto the street and here comes a very slow moving freight. Then right behind the first freight was a smaller one. I have never seen two trains moving so close together.
After taking photos of the "train tag" team, we went across to the other side of the tracks (via a road way of course) and caught another two more leaving the yard!
I got a few more shots before my camera's batteries started to go and the rain started to come again, so off we went, back towards home. But along the way I caught sight of this old, beat up B&O gondola. The photo is back lit, so it is hard to see the faded emblem, but it is there! On the left of the car. On the right is the Chessie symbol. That was the last photo, as the batteries finally quit and with the rain, this one was taken from the car window. Not the best photo, but then the day wasn't the best day for photos. You take what you can have. It still was a fun afternoon!

SIGNALS!

I have read about signals in trying to learn about railroads, and this I have learned, you have to know the railroad and its system! Fortunately, green still means go and red still means stop. But the mysterious yellow (or white) signal means maybe?
So when I see a green light! Hey a train is coming! Then you have to ask? When?
Here are some signal photos.






Near Portsmouth with NS getting the green light. Click on the photo and notice that the lights on the photographer side are red.
Here in Fostoria are some more signals. Experts in railroad yore can tell you the type etc. I don't have to know what they are to know that red means stop! Green means go! But I think they are old B&O signals?















Here is a NS freight near Chillicothe.













Back to Fostoria, it isn't hard to figure out that red light!

























That's all for signal lights. The top photo is in Fostoria.

Fostoria, Ohio
Having read about Fostoria, I decided to take the time and visit the city. It was worth the drive. CSX, NS both run through this town. But that wasn't all! UP! BNSF with brand new cars westbound for the coal mines! I mean these cars were right off the lot-well from the factory. My nephew could read the date on the fast moving hoppers and he told me it read 06-06. That is fairly new!
So enjoy the photos! From top to bottom: UP with coal heading east. BNSF with those new cars heading west. NS heading west. To the right, out of the photograph, is the Fostoria station (not open) which has a parking lot between the CSX and NS lines. Good location. The bottom photo was taken near the F tower, near the CSX diamonds and NS. The CSX is heading east. Go to http://www.trains.com/trn/default.aspx?c=a&id=529 for more info.

Down on Route 104.

Going back to Chillicothe, my nephew and I looked around town and decided to head south on 104 towards Portsmouth. Route 104 parallels the NS line south and has some good photo spots along the way. If we could get ahead of the train! NS engineers sure don't drive slow! Try to follow a NS train on a twisting, curvy, dipping road!
After taking some shots of the NS we headed back north, took off to Route 35 (Old 35) and stopped to view a CSX heading north with a load of coal. Enjoy the photos!

West Virginia Secondary
My nephew is visiting and we have been busy looking around at various Ohio railroads. These photos show some of the West Virginia Secondary, a NS line that runs from Columbus to Charleston, WV.
We started at New Lexington and ended up on the Ohio river.
About half way down the line, on Ohio route 13, near Glouster, we stopped to look at the coal conveyor crossing the highway. While there were no cars being loaded, it was interesting to look at. Possible modeling idea here.
The off we went on our jaunt and eventually we stopped where the line crosses the Ohio river.
Across the river is Point Pleasant, WV and on the Ohio side we are near Kanauga, OH. Also nearby is the CSX railroad.
Unfortunately, we didn't see any trains on our little jaunt. To railfan this line you will need a scanner to listen for movements. Or just plain luck.

Tunnels! Tunnels!
The top three photos are of the tunnel on the West Virginia Secondary Line (NS) at Moxahala (OH). The top photo shows the NS line looking down on from the top of the tunnel, reached after a 15-minute hike across the land of a nice farmer who actually escorted us through the greenbrier, blackberry bushes, old pasture and hillsides to show us. Very nice of him!
The second photo shows the air exhaust for the tunnel and the third shows the well worn face of the Moxahal tunnel. If you go to look at this tunnel, be sure to ask permission before hiking to the tunnel. I doubt you would find it anyway on your own.
The bottom tunnel is the famous (at least locally) Moonville tunnel. The B&O main from Parkesburg, WV, Athens, Cincinnati to St. Louis used to go through here. Now it is just a hiking trail near Lake Hope State Park. It is an easier walk to get to, just watch out for the poision ivy!

Down at the tracks

It is a rainy day in Ohio-first at Chillicothe and then at Portsmith. Here is the old station in Chillicothe. NS no longer owns the station and it is all boarded up. There used to be a business there, now it is gone.
Just down the way, the old B&O main to St. Louis connects to NS's main from Portsmouth. The B&O mains is mostly gone now, bits and pieces still exists here and there. CSX and NS still run North-South through the town.
The first photo shows the station, the next one shows the same train approaching the station, and the last the next a NS coal train passing the station.
Just to the left of the NS line in the second photo is where the old B&O line connects. CSX now owns this piece of track.
After the coal train passed by, I decided to head down to Portsmouth on the Ohio River to checck out the NS yard. On the way it started to rain, so photo opportunities were very poor.
In the next two shots you see NS power waiting to leave. There is heading out the gate and north towards Chillicothe, Columbus and on with many, many trailers hold containers and semi-trailers.
The last shot is of a coal train. It sat there the entire time I was watching and never moved. Quess it wasn't time for it to leave yet. Then the rain started coming down and it was time to head back home.