My son Edwin and I took what was supposed to be a two day train watching trip to Indiana and Ohio last weekend (July 1 & 2, 2012). In years past, I would have these trips planned out well in advance - packing list, routes marked on maps, lists of places to visit, etc. Now, my preparation usually consists of throwing some stuff in a duffle bag the night before I leave, and then plan on the run.
I worked my usual Ace Hardware shift on Saturday. When I finished at 4:00, I headed directly down to Edwins, picking him up around 6:30 PM. After some dinner and shopping, we headed for our first stop, Durand, MI.
Durand has a wonderful, large, restored depot, that sits on the junction of two rail routes, the former Grand Trunk Western and Ann Arbor railroads. I was looking forward to finally being able to see the eastbound Amtrak train stop at the station. After a hot day, the evening, with accompanying breeze, was perfect for relaxing and watching trains. The Amtrak arrival was impressive. Many people got off the train there, and there were a good number of townspeople there to witness the arrival and departure. After that, things died down until only a handful of people were left. We stayed until 1:30 AM! - the only other person there being a local fellow, who had worked for the railroad years earlier. He passed the time regaling us with stories featuring the evils of railroad management. We finally left, and drove through the night down US-127 into Ohio.
Daylight found us trackside in Bryan , Ohio. We were at the Amtrak station parking lot, where you can park within 25 feet of the main tracks. Bryan is right in the middle of a straight stretch of track (called "tangent" by railroaders) that stretches from Butler, IN, almost to Toledo. And the trains do not slow down one bit. There is nothing like being awaken from a nap by the rumbling vibrations of an approaching train, and then watching it blow by at 50-60 MPH just a short distance in front of you, all the while knowing that just one ill-timed broken axle, or similar mishap, would reduce us to oil spots on the pavement!
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| Bryan, Ohio Amtrak station, looking west. | |
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| Bryan, Ohio, facing east. |
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| Old New York Central Railroad depot, Bryan, Ohio |
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After leaving Bryan, we headed west to the Indiana state line, Just into Indiana is the town of Butler. You won't find Butler on anybody's list of favorite train watching spots, even though there are a lot of trains going through the junction there. This is the crossing of the former New York Central's New York to Chicago main line with the former Wabash main line from Detroit to St. Louis. Both lines are now Norfolk Southern. The problem is that there are no good spots to watch the trains there. Not planning to be there very long, we just decided to park on railroad property a respectful distance from the junction. The thought is that if officials come on the scene, we are far enough away to feign ignorance, apologize, and move on. What we weren't prepared for was a nosy neighbor. After watching several trains pass by, including a westbound Amtrak, I saw this guy coming our way down the tracks. He was yelling something at us, so I approached him to hear what he was saying.
He asked me if I knew I was trespassing. This sets up a problem. Yes, I knew we were, in reality, trespassing, so I said answered yes. This guy was a real jerk! Finally, I just told him, "Look, I know we are on railroad property, but what I want to know is what concern is it to you?" Then I got a whole sob story of drug deals and rampant crime, and I guess Edwin and I just looked like typical drug dealers. When the guy started talking about calling the police himself, I just said save your breath, there are other places on our itinerary. I'm secretly hoping that this guys pokes his nose into the affairs of the next train watchers to come upon the scene, and gets his ass kicked, because I know plenty of people who would do just that.
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| Eastbound NS freight, Butler, IN |
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| Amtrak train, westbound, Butler, IN |
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| Southbound NS train, Butler, IN |
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Just down the road from the decidedly "train-watcher-unfriendly" atmosphere of Butler, is Waterloo, Indiana. This is one of my favorite locations. Three Amtrak trains make stops here, and there is a paved parking area right next to the tracks, where nobody bothers you, even if you are there all night. Like Bryan, the trains come through here at full speed, and shake the ground. The platform is also well lit all night, so that pictures of night trains are possible. It was here, however, that we discovered what was to be our mode of operation for the rest of the day. That discovery was that it was much more comfortable to be driving between locations, with air conditioning on, than to endure the terrible heat while sitting at any one location. So after, just a short visit, we were back in the car, headed south.
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| Westbound train at Waterloo, IN. Taken on earlier trip. |
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| Night Amtrak stop, Waterloo, IN. Taken on earlier trip. |
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After a short trip from Waterloo, we arrived at St. Joe Junction, a few miles to the south. This is where the old Wabash line that went through Butler crosses the former Baltimore & Ohio main line from Chicago to Baltimore. Now St. Joe has always been notorious for being a bad train-watching location, mainly due to another elderly dork, who used to call the police any time somebody showed up. In reality, it appears that a local road was barricaded at one of the track crossings, so that you can drive down this dead-end road, turn around, and sit in your car on the right-of-way of the road, and watch trains all you want.
One thing we did notice is that the signals and crossing gates in this area were all being powered by generators. It seems that a bad storm had come through within the past few days, and a large area of Indiana and Ohio was without power. I don't know where the railroads came up with all of these generators, but there were tons of them, powering every crossing gate, signal, and junction. After seeing a couple of trains, it was getting hot, so we decided to follow the old B&O line east toward Deshler, Ohio.
Driving back roads in an effort to stay close to the tracks, we ventured through the small towns of Hicksville, Mark Center, Sherwood, around Defiance, Holgate, to Hamler. At Hamler, we decided to look for a park where we might be able to fix some lunch in the shade. Fortunately, we found a fairgrounds in Hamler, that had a covered pavilion offering some shade - right next to the railroad tracks!!! Lunch really hit the spot, along with a passing CSX freight train. In no time at all, we were back on the road again.
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| CSX eastbound train at Hamler pavilion. |
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The next town to the east was our destination of Deshler. Deshler features the busy junction of two well-traveled CSX main lines: The Chicago to Baltimore line with the Detroit to Cincinnati line. This town is very train-watcher friendly, and they have even set up a train-watching park across from the old depot. Power was slowly being restored at this time, as the lull between trains allowed us to watch CSX equipment and workmen putting generators into the back of trucks, to be stored until the next power outage. I managed to snap a few pictures in Deshler, before Edwin and I made an important decision.
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| Deshler, Ohio, looking north. The Chicago - Baltimore line is in the foreground, the Detroit - Cincinnati line to the right. | |
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| Old B&O depot, Deshler, OH |
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| Union Pacific engine, interlocking tower, Deshler, OH |
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It was at this point that Edwin and I had just about all the heat we could tolerate. We decided to not spend the night down there, and start heading toward home after only about a half-hour in Deshler. We back-tracked through Hamler to Holgate, and then turned north, through Napolean up to Waseon. We paused a few minutes at the Waseon depot to photograph our final train of the trip, a westbound freight on the old New York Central main line. We did see a couple other trains on the way back through Michigan, but were not able to get photos of them.
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| Westbound NS freight, Waseon, OH |
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Leaving Waseon, we decided to head back to Durand to complete a circle tour. So we headed northeast of Waseon, and traveled on M-52 all the way from the state line, to Perry, just west of Durand. Arriving at the Durand station, we were disappointed to discover that the temperature there was just as bad as it had been in Ohio. After just a few minutes in Durand, we were ready to get home. The trip was successful in that we saw a good number of trains on all of the lines we visited, but the heat was truly miserable.
