Question about trains around Great Lakes

Hello,

my name is Ronny Quaß, I´m from Germany and I´m new in your very good forum.
I would like to spend my holiday in autumn at the Great Lakes. I´m looking for informations about railwaylines with best action. I´m interested in long frigthtrains, railway museums and E and F units. On which lines can I spot the most trains in this region? And also where are good photo points?
I hope you can help me.

Best regards from Stuttgart - Germany

Ronny Quaß

Welcome aboard, Ronny.

The greatest volume of traffic is along the southern shore of Lake Erie between Buffalo and Toledo. There are parallel and adjacent mainlines of CSX and NS most of the way between Buffalo and Cleveland, and at Erie they are on the same right-of-way through the city.

There are railroad museums at North East (just east of Erie) and at Bellevue, Ohio (just south of Sandusky).

If you enjoy model operating layouts, there are several clubs such as the one in the Olmsted Falls station just west of Cleveland.

The busiest single location is probably Berea on the southwest side of Cleveland where the mainlines of both CSX and NS are adjacent.

Hopefully, the economy will pick up and train volumes will increase by autumn.

There are busy mainlines all the way from Chicago to Buffalo. Your best bet, however, is to stay in northern Ohio, near Toledo and Cleveland. There are numerous locations for railfans, like Berea, Deshler, and Fostoria with eighty or more trains a day. Berea is very near Cleveland's airport making it convenient to travel from overseas to. There are also a number of hotels and restaurants nearby. Deshler and Fostoria are further west near Toledo and both have a number of restaurants in town; many hotels are available in nearby Findlay.

There are a couple museums near Cleveland and Toledo, but I'm not sure what kind of equipment they have. There are at least two operating passenger lines, the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic near Cleveland and the Toledo, Lake Erie & Western near Toledo. The only museum I can remember with an E-unit is the National New York Central Museum in Elkhart, Indiana, about 220 miles west of Cleveland or 130 miles west of Toledo.

If send me a private message on here and I can go into more detail and answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for your help!

Ronny

Ronnie, I'd also suggest a visit to Chicago. It's known as the railroad capital of the world. There are plenty of mainlines, freight, and passenger trains. There are also many good museums within driving distance - I would estimate 20-30 F and E units are within 2-3 hours of Chicago.

R. Quaß wrote:I´m interested in long frigthtrains, railway museums and E and F units.

National Railroad Museum at Green Bay , Wisconsin has about 3 F units, and 1 E unit. Plus it has a 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, biggest steam in the world, among other old railroad equipment and engines. Duluth, Minnesota has a lot of ore trains for both BNSF and CN and also a railroad museum with a E and F unit plus a lot of old engines. And of course Chicago.