Spend today trackside in and around Deshler, Ohio with Chris Wehman. We arrived in the Corn City around 1pm and were greeted by a throng of other area railfans. The first train we saw, within a half-hour of arriving, was a westbound grain train lead by two CSX SD40-2's, numbers 8057 and 8865, the latter being an ex-Conrail unit. Within a short while we also saw a westbound ore train, coming north from Leipsic, being led by two Wisconsin Central SD45's, numbers 7501 and 6521. While shooting the ore train, an eastbound general freight crept up behind us. This train was also coming north from Leipsic, but took the wye eastward. This train was led by CSX #7596 and #7734, a C40-8 and C40-8W, respectively. We decided to get adventurous and chase this train east a bit. We setup just east of Deshler at a county road where the tracks curve a bit. We shot this train again before heading back into Deshler. Once back in Deshler, we stuck around chatting to some other local fans. After a while, I realized we were talking to Brad McClelland. While we were chewing the fat, two more trains came through. The first was a westbound general freight, led by a matched set of CSX SD40-2's in the old scheme, numbers 8388 and 8423. The next train was an easbound general freight led by CSX #7385, a C40-8W, and HLCX #567, which I believe to be an ex-Union Pacific C30-7. We decided to call it a day, when we heard of another train coming from the east taking the south wye. We decided to head south a bit to shoot it by a signal. Once we got the shot, we headed farther south to shoot it by a signal bridge. This train consistsed of FURX SD40-2 #3004, CSX C30-7 #7076 (in a rusted Family Lines scheme), and CSX GP40-2 #4419 (a repainted ex-Conrail unit). Heading home we decided to take S.R. 109 north. Just after passing Hamler, we heard a CSX train on the scanner, but decided to skip it. Around midway between Hamler and Malinta, we sighted a southbound Indiana & Ohio train, lead by CORP GP40 #4020. After taking forever to find a place to turn around, we raced the train back to Hamler and waited for it at the S.R. 18 crossing. While waiting, we were suprised by that CSX coal train we had decided to skip, a westbound coal train, led by three BNSF units, two SD70MAC's (numbers 9699 and 9598) and a SD40-2 (#6910). Once we saw this train approaching, we left our post and trekked acrossing a mud field to get next to the CSX tracks. After the coal train had passed, we observed the I&O train crossing the diamonds. After this little incident, we finally headed for home. [ 14 February 2001: Message edited by: BrianS ]
Brian, Thanks for the account! Sounds like a great railfanning day And yes, we'll stay tuned for the pictures Harold
Brian, thanks for the report, I am VERY envious of being able to go out and see that action without having a ten hour plane ride
