Fall Amtrak Vacation 2006 |
Railfanning At Crossroads Park In Deshler, OH |
Sunday, September 24th, 2006 |
| I woke up around 10:15am and decided to make the drive out to Deshler, OH to check out the place since I’ve been told it’s nothing short of incredible there. After a near 80 mile drive from Sandusky, I arrived there and met up with several members of Trainorders.com along with several other railfans. Deshler is located South of Toledo, OH and features a diamond where the Double Track CSX Ex-B&O Garrett Subdivision that handles all of the former-Conrail traffic from Buffalo crosses the CSX Toledo Subdivision, another Ex-B&O line. There is an abandoned passenger station along with a non-operational switch tower at the diamond. The railfan park known as Crossroads Park features a small picnic pavilion, along with a good sized grill, 2 pop machines, speakers broadcasting the railroad radio transmissions along with a Porta-Johnnie bathroom. Be sure to bring your laptop along as there's also free wireless internet (Wi-Fi) available. There is ample parking available and you definitely won’t be disappointed when it comes to traffic! The following photos were taken during my visit there, enjoy...
|
 The first train that came by at 2:22pm was coming off the Toledo Sub and heading West. It was CSX Train Q-500. Seen with GCFX Lease Unit #3077, an SD40-2 on the lead. |
 Next up is X-245 heading South on the Toledo Sub with AC6000CW #697 on the lead at 2:48pm. The second unit appears to be a British Columbia Railway unit. Note the original B&O signals still in use here! |
 With AC4400CW #501 on the lead, Westbound T-926 rides past the no-longer-operated switch tower at the Deshler Diamond. |
 The long abandoned Ex-B&O Passenger Station in Deshler. The boarded up section (far left side) was boarded up due to a derailment here a few years back. |
 Ok, living proof I visited Deshler. That's yours truly standing in front of my 2005 Mitsubishi Galant rental car! |
 The old B&O interlocking tower at Deshler, located next to the diamond where the 2 lines cross. |
 At 3:12pm, CSX Train S-389 heading West with GCFX SD40-2 #3047 on the main. |
 Here's something you don't see everyday, a CSX caboose! This was seen on the end of a local train. |
 With a former Conrail C40-8W on the lead, this Eastbound manifest passes by the park at 3:58pm. |
 Here's a Multidimensional 1-car train headed by BNSF C44-9W #4958 turning West off the Toledo Sub just before a nasty rainstorm hit the area at 4:16pm. |
 Here's an unusual meet. We have a UP unit leading B-771 at 4:21pm passing the BNSF unit on the train pictured above this photo. All of this on CSX track, how often does that happen??? |
 Now here's a few photos of the park itself. Here is the picnic pavilion where you can enjoy a sub from the local Subway restaurant or check your e-mail thanks to free Wi-Fi internet access!!! |
 A wide view of the park area. There is a grill available for a cookout as well as picnic tables. |
 One of the benches available for train viewing. There's also 2 pop machines available along with radio broadcasts 24/7 of the CSX channel in the area. A bulletin board behind the bench shows park info along with menus from local restaurants in the area. |
This place is awesome, you'll never be bored here since all the conveniences of today's railfan are available! The weather didn’t cooperate very well for photography today or the prior 2 days at Cedar Point, but I guess no one can control the weather! I'm beginning to wonder if I should have planned this trip later in the Fall. I visited CP last year on Halloween Weekend and the weather was better than this year's visit in late September, weird! I left Deshler around 4:30pm and headed back to Sandusky, since I had laundry to do and wanted to get a few hours sleep before embarking on Leg #2 of this trip. I stopped by a local Meijer's Grocery Store in Sandusky to pick up a few things and called the local Pizza Hut restaurant to order dinner. They must have picked up my cell phone number on caller-ID and matched it up to their computer system as they knew who I was before I was able to complete my order!!! The last time I ordered anything from this restaurant was a year ago on my last Cedar Point trip! Gotta love technology! I then headed back to my hotel for dinner, turned on NBC’s “Football Night In America” and ate dinner then started laundry and worked more on this travelogue. I decided to do laundry on this trip as I’ve done so in the past so as to not pack so heavily. As I did laundry, I watched some more football and started to pack up my stuff to prepare for the next leg of this journey. And so ends today… |
 |
   |
