W&LE unit in Toledo

Last week on my way to Canada, along I-75 in Toledo, I saw a W&LE GP35 at GT's yard. Is the Wheeling running a train to the GT at Lang or is the unit on loan to someone?

This is not an uncommon sight. I've seen a lot of W&LE power at Lang Yard. I've never seen them in motion, but I've seen them waiting to be switched into Lang on the old tracks that cross New York Ave. I'm not sure if they come in from the bridge from the Ironville yard or not.

I apologize for the sketchy details. I'm just getting reaquainted with the lines around Toledo.


Burp

Since the break-up of CR in 1999 W&LE has had trackage rights from Bellvue to Homestead. About 2 years ago they started running to Lang to pick-up a run through ore train from GT.

The Wheeling is also running a train for CN from Lang to Clariton, PA (not sure but somewhere in PA) consiting mostly of paper and wood products.

If you want to see W&LE power regularly then visit their yard in Carey. Yesterday I was there and saw five units, four SD40s and a GP35.

Yesterday thru Fremont was a 150 car manifest train with an ex-LMS Dash 9, an old NS sd-40, and an ex-Conrail Dash 9. Now the interesting thing about the W&LE daily to Toledo is that it often features one flat with 2 containers on it, along with a general mix of other stuff.

This huge train I saw yesterday had indeed 1 flat with 2 containers on it leading me to believe that the Wheeling train had been combined with an NS train. Not likely though. Maybe some of our Fremont posters can help with this one.

Also in Clyde was a 30 car grain train with an NS Wide Cab and between the two towns was a short manifest led by:

MRL 302?
CR dash 9
NS High Nose
CR dash 9
NS sd 45???

All three trains eastbound in 45 minutes.

My question remains is there any intermodal traffic on this line and when does it run? Not during the daylight it would appear.

matt wrote: My question remains is there any intermodal traffic on this line and when does it run? Not during the daylight it would appear.

Matt, that is an interesting question. Last summer after work, I would drive the few short blocks to downtown Fremont and watch a track crew install new ties and a few areas of new ballast.

An interesting sight I did notice was that they lowered the rail underneath the old NKP bridge that crosses the river, which is now used by the NS local in Fremont to reach the Heinz plant on the opposite side. The track under the bridge used to have a rather noticeable bank as it makes a turn starting right under the bridge deck. This bank allowed trains to come through town a little faster and make that turn a little sharper.

Now after last summer's construction work, the turn is a slight bit wider and the bank is gone. I wondered why they had done this and asked one of the workers. His reply was that they were trying to increase the clearance for new trains.

A couple weeks later I did indeed see a train come from Bellevue with a few double stack cars (roughly 10-12 of them). And when poking my nose around NS's Intermodal website, I did indeed find that the connection at Oak Harbor to the yard at Bellevue was shown on a map of their intermodal "capable" routes.

While I can't say that a full-blown intermodal train runs through Fremont, I can say that there have been trains that are partially double stacked. I've done my share of night time fanning here in my hometown and I've never seen a complete stack train. The largest I've seen is a half intermodal, half auto rack train that barrelled through one night at track speed toward Bellevue with a couple BNSF units on the lead.

However, with the NS doing all that work on the line, I would imagine anything is possible now. Perhaps they wanted to be able to use the line as a run around in a case where the Lake Shore Line was fouled up. I know that there are wind restrictions on the Bay Bridge when it comes to Roadrailer trains. A couple winter's ago they had a stack train/roadrailer derail on the Bay Bridge between Port Clinton and Sandusky. Since this was before they lowered the Fremont line, the intermodals had to sit on the Lake Shore Line and wait. If that were to happen now, they'd be able to run from that connection at Oak Harbor through Bellevue to Sandusky or possibly Lorain (although NS wants to abandon that line) in order to by pass any problems on the Bay Bridge.

NS and W&LE have sent a good number of filings to the STB today. They aren't posted yet, but the announcement of them is made on the filings page. It appears that the Wheeling is acquiring the Toledo Pivot Bridge, leasing the Huron ore dock, and acquiring trackage rights in Cleveland as well as reaffirming/improving the rights between Toledo and Bellevue. In return NS is gaining trackage rights between Bellevue and Clairton.
BPW

Well I checked my NS train symbol list and couldn't find any thru intermodal trains on this line. I would imagine the containers that appear mixed in with the manifest trains are for the east/west dedicated intermodal trains thru Bellevue and Toledo.

Thanks.

With the Wheeling bridge thing, I am reminded of the CP trackage in southern Indiana that requires CP to use foreign rails from Chicago southward to access their own line. I wonder how many examples there are out there of a railroad purchasing (trading for?) something so far away from their own property.

23N Columbus to Chicago double stacks, 26N is the e/b counter part both run daily often with BNSF as sole power

An interesting sight I did notice was that they lowered the rail underneath the old NKP bridge that crosses the river, which is now used by the NS local in Fremont to reach the Heinz plant on the opposite side. The track under the bridge used to have a rather noticeable bank as it makes a turn starting right under the bridge deck. This bank allowed trains to come through town a little faster and make that turn a little sharper.

Yeah I remember riding through town there following the river. At night was the best it looked so cool and the crossings were pretty close together so it seamed the horn was sounding almost constantly. With the bank gone it would probably be about 10mph slower making the whole different. The engineer told me "gotta watch that crossing (rt 20)..... lots of cars dont see ya, so you gotta keep on the horn". So it hopefully made the grade crossings through town a little safer.