Rail Travel Time From Swanton, OH to Elkhart, IN

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Rail Travel Time From Swanton, OH to Elkhart, IN

Unread post by rail_watcher »

Hello all, I have recently discovered Virtual Railfan and I love watching the Elkhart Live Cam. My typical spot to watch trains is downtown Swanton, OH. My question is, typically, how long does it take trains headed west to get from Swanton to Elkhart? Also, how long is it eastbound from Elkhart to Swanton? I only ask that second part in case there is different processes for each direction. Also, what is the probability that a train I see head East out of Elkhart will go through Swanton? Thanks!

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Re: Rail Travel Time From Swanton, OH to Elkhart, IN

Unread post by David Collins »

It honestly really depends on the type of train, intermodal obviously moves faster. I can’t really help with Swanton precisely since I do most of my railfanning east of Toledo, but for me, it normally takes about 3 hours for an eastbound hotshot intermodal to get from Elkhart to where I railfan (CP 281).


So doing the rough math, it should take about 3 and 1/2 hours for a normal manifest to get from Elkhart to Swanton, and roughly 2:45-3 for intermodals.

Once again, that’s just guessing from experience, a lot of other factors could come into play.
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Re: Rail Travel Time From Swanton, OH to Elkhart, IN

Unread post by ~Z~ »

As for the probabilities of seeing a train at Elkhart and then seeing the same train at Swanton, most trains leaving east out of Elkhart will go by Swanton. The CP trains will divert at Butler and go to Detroit, while some will divert right away at Goshen and go south. Grand Elk trains go north out of Elkhart, and locals won't go far at all. Everything else should go by you though. There's a few trains that go west out of Swanton that turn south at Butler, but otherwise, everything else should show up in Elkhart.
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Re: Rail Travel Time From Swanton, OH to Elkhart, IN

Unread post by Saturnalia »

Elkhart is milepost 421. Swanton is milepost 307. That's 114 miles. The absolute fastest stuff would theoretically be Amtrak at - for estimating's sake - 80 mph the whole way. 85 minutes. Now they have stops and the whole line isn't 79 mph, so you know everything will take at LEAST that long. Most trains, I would figure in the 40-50 mph average range, for about 2 hours for most stuff to be getting close.
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