Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Anything pertaining to railfanning in Ohio.
User avatar
Bellevue_Guy
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Bellevue, Ohio

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

I saw Rio Grande 302 (GP40-3) as part of a lashup leading an EB manifest from the yard out of Bellevue around 10:30 tonight. The other 2 units were WLE 6349 and 6356, which I saw on Monday night backing cars toward Solae.

The train had 85 cars, as usual mostly covered hoppers and tanks, though it did have quite a few more boxcars than normal. It also had 4 white refers, 2 of the CryoTrans ones I see all the time and 2 that had Union Pacific logos and a reporting mark of ARMN

Also, the new distant signal on the Lakeshore track is working.

User avatar
Bellevue_Guy
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Bellevue, Ohio

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

This afternoon I was walking around Bellevue reservoir #4 and saw 2 WLE engines in the distance moving EB out of Bellevue. The lead was gray and the other was in orange and black, and I watched them until they went out of sight beyond section line 30 and heard them whistle for Young Rd.

Then about 15-20 minutes later I saw what I am 99% sure were the same 2 engines coming back toward town with a bunch of hoppers. So apparently these hoppers had been left without power somewhere between Bellevue and Monroeville, which seems odd.

I was able to get to Praire Rd just in time to grab this pic

Image

There were about 40 hoppers, all older looking ones and there were a couple Rio Grandes

Image

This train went down the Brewster track and stopped at McKim St, likely waiting to go out to Parkertown.

User avatar
Bellevue_Guy
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Bellevue, Ohio

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

It was still waiting at McKim on the Brewster track at 11:30 last night, but now it's full of stone and back on the Brewster track facing east and waiting at Praire Rd. There was an EB manifest disappearing in the distance that had just left Bellevue, which is probably what the stone train is waiting for.

I'm pretty sure that train in the distance was the Toledo train, or KL94 as it was called in the other thread. Is KL94 what NS calls it? Anyone know what WLE calls it?

User avatar
Bellevue_Guy
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Bellevue, Ohio

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

Tying these down facing east for many hours at a time is getting more common. Seems like this rather close to a crossing to park one. On a side note, they've definitley fixed the problem with these crossing signals at Bauer Rd. They used to be triggered by anything on the tracks in the general area, even it was the end of train that had cleared the crossing by a few hundred yards and then stopped. Here you can see they're not on even with a train sitting less than 100 feet away.

Image

Image

Image

Here you can see the new distant signals

Image

Here are the switch indicators at Bauer Rd. The one on the left is just like the one at Young Rd, which like this one is for a Hartland main/Yeomans siding switch. The one to the right is for the switch where the Lakeshore track ties into Yeomans siding, and it's different looking and much shorter. Any particular reason why they're different?

Image

Prairie Rd gets blocked like this quite a bit these days. This particlar train has been siting here since at least 9:30pm last night, so going on at least 19 hours now.

Image

There is also an EB WLE train with 20 or so covered hoppers sitting on the Brewster track down near the water works. So there are 2 east bounds currenlty waiting to leave Bellevue, not sure why. Anthing going west would have to stop east of town and let one of them by Maybe it's a crew availibilty issue?
Last edited by Bellevue_Guy on Thu Mar 29, 2012 11:21 am, edited 2 times in total.

bdconrail29
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 1346
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:43 pm
Location: Wadsworth, OH

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by bdconrail29 »

Wish they were better but the sun was terrible. At Greenwich on the connection, Z394 from Carey:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdconrail3 ... 395821663/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdconrail3 ... 395821663/
Brett

User avatar
Bellevue_Guy
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Bellevue, Ohio

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

That BNSF coal train didn't leave until sometime between 4:00pm and 6:30pm today, so it was there at least 43 hours, possibly more than 2 days.

Now there's an EB manifest lead by 3 NS engines (all safety cab units) sitting just west of Prairie Rd on the Lakeshore track.

Seeing west bounds sit there for hours at a time like that is very common, since they have wait to get onto the NS main.....but seeing east bounds sit there for hours at a time waiting to enter WLE home tracks, not so much.

User avatar
Bellevue_Guy
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Bellevue, Ohio

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

There's a WB manifest on the Brewster track waiting to get into the yard. It has 4 engines, 2 blue and 2 black and orange. The blue ones were 7375 (GATX blue) and 6347 (EMD blue)

And an EB just headed out on the Lakeshore track

User avatar
AARR
Ann Arbor RR Nerd
Posts: 37905
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:39 pm
Location: Washington, MI

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by AARR »

Bellevue_Guy wrote:on the Lakeshore track
What is the Lakeshore track?
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

User avatar
Bellevue_Guy
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Bellevue, Ohio

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

It's what I call the 1+ mile of track that runs through eastern Bellevue from the Lake Shore connection out to Yeomans siding. It's the only section of the former NYC Norwalk branch that's still in service to through trains. That line was abandoned by PC in the 70s and now most of it either is or will be rail trail. But apparently the N&W took over the small section I'm talking about to give themselves a way to get onto the WLE without going into the yard, which would have been real handy in the alphabet route days.

I'm not sure what this track's official name is, perhaps they just call the whole thing the Lake Shore connection. Though on here I only use the term Lake Shore connection to refer to the newer curved section from the switch off the NKP to where it goes onto the old NYC ROW, and "Lake Shore track" to refer to the rest of it.

Similarly, when I say "Brewster track" I'm referring to the 1+ mile of original WLE track from the Brewster connection out to Bauer Rd, where NS ownership ends at it becomes the Hartland sub.

User avatar
Bellevue_Guy
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Bellevue, Ohio

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

Here's one of WLE's former KCS SD40-2's stopped at Slaughterhouse road today with 10 covered hoppers for Solae. It came off the Lakshore connection onto the NKP, stopped briefly to let the conductor off, then started down the Sanduksy district leg of the New Haven wye and stopped here. Right after I took this pic it started backing up, heading for the northern Sanduky district to get to Solae's spur.

Image

User avatar
AARR
Ann Arbor RR Nerd
Posts: 37905
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:39 pm
Location: Washington, MI

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by AARR »

^^^^^ SD45 rebuilt to SD40-2 standards. I admire you guys that know which engines were converted because if it were me I would be posting all over the internet W&LE had SD45's :lol:
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

bdconrail29
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 1346
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:43 pm
Location: Wadsworth, OH

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by bdconrail29 »

I'll have some photos posted shortly, but wanted to report what I had today. Believe it or not, I caught TWO Wheeling trains west of Plymouth to Carey this afternoon. The first was a ballast work train with a unit on each end of it, and the second was the empty westbound Carey train, #735. 6349 led the 735 while 6354 led the work extra. I caught the work extra at Plymouth, Chatfield, and Rt. 100 east of Sycamore. I caught #735 at New Washington and Lykens. While at Chatfield had I3N and #234. Going back through Chatfield chasing the 735, caught #578 eastbound on the NS. After chasing the Wheeling at Lykens, caught the Spore Run on the T&OC leaving eastbound with stone loads. But then it was too good to be true, and the leader, 449, would not pull. So we went into Colsan and saw #116 and O-54. O-54 was a train of small military vehicles on flats, heading eastbound.
Brett

User avatar
Bellevue_Guy
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Bellevue, Ohio

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

AARR wrote: I admire you guys that know which engines were converted
Ha, I just know from looking at the nsdash-9 roster site that all the WLE 6300s are listed in the SD40-2 section. I know very little about engine types and can't really identify them myself. If I post an engine type on here it usually means that I looked it up first, because I know some like that info.

bdconrail29
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 1346
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:43 pm
Location: Wadsworth, OH

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by bdconrail29 »

Brett

User avatar
Bellevue_Guy
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Bellevue, Ohio

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

Good pics bd, nice to see some Carey sub action. Of all the times I've crossed that track in my life I've only seen a train 3 times, twice in Chatfield and once in Plymouth.

Today I caught one of those BNSF coal trains doing the turn around to get trough Bellevue today, and it had an interesting looking power combo.

First, here it is on the Fostoria district at Kinney St, backing EB towards the New Haven wye at about 3-5 mph, just before an EB rack train passed it doing about 15-20.
Image

Several minutes later the power came into view, blue and orange
Image

Image

Image

After it had completed the turn around move and sat on the Sandusky district for over an hour, it began moving again towards the Lake Shore connection. This was taken from Bellevue reservoirs 1/2 as it went by EB on the Lakeshore track
Image

This train was 120 cars or so. I was thinking it might stop and sit out at Bauer or Prairie Rd like some of theses trains have recently, but it continued EB on the WLE.

One thing I'm wondering is, where were these two WLE SD40-2's added to the train?

bdconrail29
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 1346
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:43 pm
Location: Wadsworth, OH

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by bdconrail29 »

BellevueGuy,

Oh man, I can remember way back when N&W was still operating this line. When I was little I used to watch my cousin at Buckeye Central football games in New Washington and man I can remember those black N&W engines chuggin' eastbound with a huge stone train. Do you remember the seperate right-of-way between GN in Greenwich and New London? We used to sit at the diamond in New London and very early in the morning was the first eastbound stone train, with the second one running in the evening as it does now. Of course back then, the Big 4 through New London was very light, so it made for some long days, but memorable photos.
Brett

User avatar
Bellevue_Guy
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Bellevue, Ohio

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

bdconrail29 wrote:BellevueGuy,
Do you remember the seperate right-of-way between GN in Greenwich and New London?
Not that I can recall, though I didn't cross that section all that much when I was growing up and probably wouldn't paid too much attention to it.

What year was that abandoned?

redside20
i don't give a fark about your PM
Posts: 3513
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2005 11:44 am
Location: Columbus Ohio
Contact:

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by redside20 »

Bellevue_Guy wrote:
bdconrail29 wrote:BellevueGuy,
Do you remember the seperate right-of-way between GN in Greenwich and New London?
Not that I can recall, though I didn't cross that section all that much when I was growing up and probably wouldn't paid too much attention to it.

What year was that abandoned?
I remember it and even saw a WLE train on it at one point. It was taken up in early 2000 right after the Conrail takeover.
Exit stage left

User avatar
Bellevue_Guy
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Bellevue, Ohio

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

Today another BNSF coal train went east out of Bellevue at 4:00pm with about 130 cars. It was lead by 2 BNSF engines, and it also had 2 WLE engines at the end.....first time I've seen that

User avatar
Bellevue_Guy
Railroadfan...fan
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Bellevue, Ohio

Re: Wheeling & Lake Erie stuff

Unread post by Bellevue_Guy »

Today around 2:00pm I saw 2 engines heading WB into Bellevue on the Brewster track by themselves. They turned out to be the same 2 engines I saw tacked on to the BNSF coal train yesterday, WLE 6357 and WLE 3016.

Later I was walking on the North Coast Inland Trail and saw the same 2 engines going east with 11 covered hoppers that were likely from Solae. 3016 was leading and 6357 was at the end of the train. They passed me at Seymour creek just east of Sand Hill Rd around 4:00.

Post Reply