A Great Day of Railfanning in Deshler, Ohio, At the Crossroads of the B&O!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ย. 2024
- Hello everyone! On this day of railfanning, I headed to Deshler, Ohio, for the first time in about three years, and had probably my best day of railfanning in the year 2018 thanks to all the spectacular catches! Deshler is known among railfans as "The Crossroads of the B&O" as it was the junction between two major Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Mainlines: The Willard/Garrett Subdivision (the original B&O mainline between Baltimore and Chicago) and the Toledo Subdivision (the B&O line between Toledo and Cincinnati). Deshler is another great railfanning spot in State of Ohio, and arguably one of the most famous hotspots in the United States. Once a major junction for the B&O Railroad, Deshler continues to be a busy place for CSX on all three subdivisions, seeing upwards of 50 to 55 trains per day.
As I mentioned, as indicated by the title, today was my best day of railfanning so far this year; a day full of great catches and many surprises. In the morning, everything seemed in order, with the exception of a coal train going unusually slow due to a reported problem with the west switch at the Garrett Subdivision connection to the Willard Subdivision. The previous train reported the switch feeling unusually rough going over it, but there were no breaks in the track or any significant damage. The coal train went over it and had no problems, though it did go rather slow. Another interesting catch in the morning was the SD50-2 leading Q507 from Walbridge Yard down to Cincinnati, and a pair of Union Pacific SD60M "Triclops" units, one still in Union Pacific paint on Q091 heading from Willard to Chicago.
The afternoon was when the great catches started arriving. Around Noon, I got word of a Kansas City Southern SD70ACe duo heading east from Garrett, Indiana, on train Q353 heading to Cincinnati. Soon enough, the train arrived, and the train units looked spectacular. This marked the first time I saw a KCS unit in over a year, and my first time catching an all-Kansas City Southern unit pair (engine numbers: 4000 and 4025).
The best catch of the day, by far, came on the BNSF intermodal train from North Baltimore to Chicago. For the first time in my TH-cam career, I finally caught a ATSF (Santa Fe) Warbonnet!! As some of you may know, the Santa Fe Warbonnet is one of my favorite paint schemes and today was finally the day to see one of these great units. As I mention in the video, only about 20 of these units (including the Dash 9-44CW) are still in existence, and fortunately many of these units have been brought out of storage due to power shortage on BNSF. I cannot say how long they will be around, but it's always a great day to see one of these great units. And to add bonus, I also saw a BNSF H1 unit trailing the warbonnet, one of the best duos I have caught in my railfanning experience, and maybe the best engine pair of the year as well (aside from the KCS duo mentioned above).
Those two catches were beyond spectacular, and aside from that, it was an all-around fun day of railfanning. Other catches included an abundance of foreign power (including mainly the likes of BNSF and Union Pacific on the oil trains, the typical BNSF and CP intermodal trains over the Garrett/Willard Subdivisions, and some unexpected CSX EMD power. That being said, the traffic on the CSX Toledo Subdivision seemed slow, at least the northbound traffic was. After Q142, the morning intermodal train for CSX, there wasn't another northbound for CSX on the Toledo Sub until Q350 nearly 6 hours later (not sure if this is typical, but I did find this rather surprising). To be fair, there were a handful of southbound trains as well (Q507, Q351, Q353, Q561, and a pair of oil tanker trains), so it's almost no surprise that CSX is considering double-tracking the Toledo Sub between Hamilton, Ohio, and Franklin, Ohio, and maybe even up to Dayton. We'll have to wait and see what happens though.
Overall, this was one of my best days of railfanning in my life, and I hope you enjoy this video! Thanks for watching!
-N&W475
Awesome!! I missed out on a SantaFe warbonnet, I was close to catching it too. I wish there was the same amount of variety like there was in the 2000s and early 2010s. I loved coming here on Christmas days to see some trains as a little kid while at a party, I still come for them. I can't shake them off me. It's sad that they had to tear down the depot and put the new "doghouse" infront of the diamond, it'll never look the same to me.
Deshler is awesome!
It's always a fun time at the Crossroads of the B&O!
This video is pure awesomeness!! Excellent lash-ups and interesting freight trains. Love the sound of diamonds, as well as the wheel flanges screeching in the tight curves!
Thank you very much! For my first time at Deshler, it was lots of fun. I’ll have to come back at some point.
One of my favorite places to Railfan. Always see good power there.
It's a pretty good place to railfan, right up there with Fostoria and Bellevue.
For sure. We are pretty luck in Ohio.
Those are some nice trains that you caught.
Thank you.
N&W475 Your welcome.
1:30:47 Only 20 in _2018?_ I saw an OG Warbonnet (#691) a few weeks ago! Talk about rare!
That’s awesome, I haven’t seen an OG Warbonnet in over a year.
I saw the same Warbonnet a week prior to the video in Fostoria Ohio.
Very cool! If I recall correctly, the same Warbonnet headed up to Detroit leading an intermodal train via the Pemberville Subdivision.
Great video I would love to go there
Thanks Larry, it's a pretty great spot. It was listed in the 2018 "HotSpots" magazine special by "Trains Magazine." You'd get a pretty good day of action out here.
N&W475 ya I will have to go there when I can start driving on my own
Cool.
There's actually a lot lore than 20 of those left. And if you come back to Chicago, try Hodgkins and you might see a few.
Thanks for the heads up. I got my info about the units from Trains Magazine and they said there were only 20 remaining ATSF units.
In terms of Dash 9s, repainted/rebuilt ones are rare compared to Warbonnets. Dash 8s about 50/50. Maybe they meant 20 of them have been rebuilt to AC44C4Ms?
@N&W475 There are around 20-21 AC44C4M's in existence as of today. Most of the units are still Warbonnets. Due to the quite significant increase in traffic on the BNSF, I'd say at least 80-85% of the Warbonnets on their roster are in full time service now, including on locals.
Nice video!!
Thank you!
Nice
Thank you!
Is this the Baltimore and Ohio rail road?!
This is the two mainlines of the B&O, the line between Cincinnati and Toledo and the CSX mainline between Chicago and the East Coast. Technically, this is the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad successor.
So far so good. Not watch 2 hrs of trains tho...
Well feel free to watch the parts you like best!