Safety, Safety, Safety! - Toledo, Ohio 8/13/23

[David Collins]

For my last big railfan outing before college, I chose to go big or go home. Toledo and spending quite awhile around town catching trains. This video is part 1 of that adventure, where I managed to catch 2 pretty rare trains.

https://youtu.be/zav9sd4gNno

0:00

I arrived at Union Station at around 6:30 AM, the NS operation awareness and response trainset was sitting across the platforms at Union Station, however the capitol limited was already at the station, with some REALLY good power.

One of Amtrak’s new ALC42’s (first time I’ve caught one leading), and Amtrak 203, the 50 year anniversary Operation Lifesaver P42. I’ve never been a fan of the 203 until I saw it in person, and now I REALLY like it. It certainly looks different and I think the guys over at the Beech Grove paint shops did a killer job painting it.

1:19

The westbound capitol limited departs Toledo after sitting for about 45 minutes due to PTC problems, I think the warm white LED headlights on the chargers look pretty cool if I had to be honest.

2:35

What I had been hoping to see that day happened to be sitting pretty much right at Union Station, NS’ Operation & Awareness response trainset, alongside the GP38-2 that pulls it, NS 5642. For some reason though, the other first responders engine (#911) wasn’t there. I had seen this trainset before, but it was in storage at the North Carolina Transportation Museum.

It was pretty cool to see 5642 as well, which adorns probably the coolest looking First Responders livery on the rails.

I took these videos from the second furthest video from the platform, therefore I was still on station property.

3:25

An eastbound NS intermodal train heads out of Toledo after getting a crew change done at the “pad”.

4:04

I had no time to set up so this was the best shot I could get of Amtrak’s westbound lakeshore limited coming into Union Station. I really dig the hybrid K5L horn on the lead P42, those are getting hard to come by.

5:43

#49 departs Toledo west for Chicago, it had not been a good day for both the LSL and Capitol Limited, as they both got in close to 2 hours late.

That’s all for now, stay tuned for part 2!