A week or so ago, we had a good topic on here about CSX & Muncie, Indiana concerning how busy the ex-Conrail, St. Louis line is. Now that I have been in my new office for about three weeks, I am starting to get a pretty good understanding of when trains are at their busiest.
From 7:45 to 9:15 there is a ton of trains on the line in Indy, which probably translates to 7:00 to 8:30 Muncie time. There is a west bound and east bound intermodal train that consistently runs through between 8:15 and 8:30 and there is at least 4 to 5 merchandise trains in the same time slot. If NS runs any trains through Muncie during this time period, it would have to be a near train watcher’s paradise.
From 10 ist to 3:30, the line is not as busy, but I still see a train better than once an hour. Also, from 3:30 to 6:30 seems to be another busy time, although not as busy as in the morning. There has been A LOT of grain coming through lately. I mean really a lot. I probably see 5 - 6 grain trains in the 10 hours I spend in the office.
I see about one train a day with UP power and one with BNSF power. Although there is some rental units, the rest is pretty uniform CSX. I am surprised to see that most of the diesels are EMD rather than GE. There are a lot of SD-70s on the line. Most all of the units are in CSX new dark blue scheme.
However, my favorite is: there will always be about two trains a day with a string of three or four four-axle EMD old power. It is too far away for me to give a precise identification, but some of them appear to be older models than GP-38s, whereas the rest are GP-38s. The trains pulled by these are well over 100 cars. Kind of makes me wonder what is up with that. There also are several locals pulled with such power.
Finally, one of my most pleasant surprises, even though I am probably a half mile from the tracks and roughly twenty stories up, with very thick glass windows, I c
…Anytime we have activity on both NS and CSX here in Muncie one must consider the tracks do cross each other and so we will have a stop signal for one or the other. Specifically, if coming in from the Frankfort line and that train is scheduled to head south…it must cross the CSX line to do so, hence one of them must stop. Maybe that is why while at the Bruner’s restaurant location {at times}, I see eastbound CSX trains stopped there on that double track line.
Same would be true with a NS train coming from the north {Newcastle Line}, and heading south it must cross the CSX line and if activity on both lines one will have to have a stop signal.
I have noticed the more active train traffic on the CSX line early in the morning. The massive plant of BWA that provided my employment {for decades}, is located close to the CSX line and I remember seeing quite a few trains early in the morning even when it was still Conrail.
FYI, in the 25-30 minutes since posting, 9 trains have gone by. Modelcar, there is a train with two lead units of Conrail heading for you, this is the first time I have seen an all Conrail powered train since getting the office. It should be there in 50 minutes or so, judging by its speed.
I am all for the trip to Bruner’s. However, I don’t think my bosses would appreciate a scanner. With all of this train activity, it would be going off 24-7.
My only disapointment is there is a building blocking out my view of the Indiana Railroad enterance into the city. If I could see that, it would be truly a perfect view.
People tend to forget the hard work involved getting to a desired spot. It is always fun to mix a little fun in with the work…there will always be those projects to get done that take the entire weekend, or until 11pm at night.
I had a decent little road trip yesterday (while working). The trip to East Chicago allowed me to photograph a South Shore freight on the CSX. On the way back I saw, but didnt photograph a huge Triple Crown (had to have been over 100 trailers) and then at Valpo the CF&E local was switching. All that and sun. Not a bad morning at work.
And regarding the 2 Conrail engines…Can’t remember seeing 2 of them at the head end on any CSX train. And I will miss the activity there today as we’ll not stop today…Have been there quite a bit earlier this week and one day as we positioned in a booth a train went by within 3 min…But we all know that can happen and the next time it can be dormant the total time one might be consuming to have lunch, etc…
No, the crossing…{diamond}, is not visible from the restaurant. It is east about 3/4 to 1 mi. from that location. A Frankfort NS train can come {east}, into Muncie and route around to the north after going thru Muncie to the east side and then curving around to the north and then west…{where the Triple Crown pulls off}, and then crosses Broadway before it passes the former C&O depot…now Trail Head and then heads north…without crossing over the CSX double east - west main.
Item: Any of you fellows stopping by Muncie to do a bit of railfaning should slip by at Wysor and Broadway {now ML King}, and take a look at the former C&O depot {Now Trail Head}. It is fully restored, {beautifully}, and has some rail and Muncie history artifacts on display inside. It is staffed during the week. Note the concrete RR logos in the platform at the back of it. Also, if you walk north…{left, facing the railroad / Trail}, you can witness 3 railroad bridges that carried rails over White River. It’s just a qtr. mi. walk. One abandoned, one carries the Trail over the river and one still carries the Newcastle District NS line…The abandoned span is double length and has been unused for roughly 35 years. Once was a Pennsylvania route.
A week or so ago, we had a good topic on here about CSX & Muncie, Indiana concerning how busy the ex-Conrail, St. Louis line is. Now that I have been in my new office for about three weeks, I am starting to get a pretty good understanding of when trains are at their busiest.
From 7:45 to 9:15 there is a ton of trains on the line in Indy, which probably translates to 7:00 to 8:30 Muncie time. There is a west bound and east bound intermodal train that consistently runs through between 8:15 and 8:30 and there is at least 4 to 5 merchandise trains in the same time slot. If NS runs any trains through Muncie during this time period, it would have to be a near train watcher’s paradise.
From 10 ist to 3:30, the line is not as busy, but I still see a train better than once an hour. Also, from 3:30 to 6:30 seems to be another busy time, although not as busy as in the morning. There has been A LOT of grain coming through lately. I mean really a lot. I probably see 5 - 6 grain trains in the 10 hours I spend in the office.
I see about one train a day with UP power and one with BNSF power. Although there is some rental units, the rest is pretty uniform CSX. I am surprised to see that most of the diesels are EMD rather than GE. There are a lot of SD-70s on the line. Most all of the units are in CSX new dark blue scheme.
However, my favorite is: there will always be about two trains a day with a string of three or four four-axle EMD old power. It is too far away for me to give a precise identification, but some of them appear to be older models than GP-38s, whereas the rest are GP-38s. The trains pulled by these are well over 100 cars. Kind of makes me wonder what is up with that. There also are several locals pulled with such power.
Finally, one of my most pleasant surprises, even though I am probably a half mile from the tracks and roughly twenty stories up, with very thic
…Carl: If you would be bringing your bike along with a visit to Munice you would not be disappointed. Our Trail is a beauty. Nice and wide and smoothly paved. Total now is roughly 30 plus miles. Trail Head is pretty much right in town too. Lots of paved parking. Roughly 10 miles paved trail northwest of Muncie and the remaining milage southeast. It will eventally be completed all the way to Richmond, In…a distance of 40 some miles from here.
As you seem to know it is the ex C&O line that passed through here from Cinn. to Chicago area. You probably noticed in an above post of praise for the renovation of our depot…{Actually it was a $800,000 plus} project and completed back I believe in 2005. Even has the roof now restored with the original type clay tile roofing…Had to be specially manufactured over in Ohio. The building is lit up at night with lights putting light on it’s brick sides and almost turns the clock back to the point one would think he could pull in and park and board the soon to arrive passenger train.
The NS Newcastle line does parallel the Trail a couple hundred feet right at the depot so there is a “rail line” to watch from the depot too.
Believe our Trail is the longest in the state. It is a nice walking / biking trail. The Cardinal Greenway Trail.
You guys in Muncie do have a beautiful trail. I noticed this while standing at the C&O station. It is plenty wide for bikers and walkers. Would have done some hiking Thursday except the trail was still covered in melting snow. Plan to take my bike up there this spring/summer. It occurred to me that bicycle would be a good way of railfanning around Muncie, it isn’t too big and the lines all come together at city streets.
G Mack: That is a bit surprising of speed through that turn out towards the Frankfort line…That is a sharp curve to take at any speed. But don’t remember of hearing of any going on the ground there in recent past.
Glad you ventured inside of the depot as in my opinion it is pretty nice and if you look around you see some documents, etc…on the Muncie and rail history…I even have a switchmans lantern in there on display and on the glass is embossed, the letters of the “big four”.
It took at least 3 or 4 months to install that tile roof…A speciality company {I believe it was}, from Gas City…{I think}, installed it. Half way through the job they ran out of tile, as someone messed up and ordered just half the amount needed and the company over in Ohio had to make another order. I called attention of the pros installing such roof to the local paper and they came out and actually did an article on the installation.
I have some photos I took of that depot before restortation started and it was really a ramshakle of a mess. The reconstruction work was done by a local company and done well.
The bike trail is a good one…and popular with folks locally and people come from distances to use it. Riding east about a half mile or so gets one in the area where you can get off and ride over to the long sweeping curve I’ve talked about on here that seems to cause trouble for Triple Crown in the past. Check a local Muncie map.
Agree, a bike would allow easy movement about center city and out to the edges where these rail items are we have talked about.
There use to be bikes at the depot for “rent”…Actuall free by just providing a license, etc…for use of bike and return of it upon returning bike, etc…I am assum
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You are right about the morning parade in indianapolis. There are westbounds from toledo, crestline ohio, and cincy . Not to mention the eastbound parade out of avon. The 4 axle consists that you see are yard jobs or transfer jobs. It’s pretty busy on a normal day but when the westbounds are late from the east look out, the other morning there were lik 8 trains between avon and lawrence all running like a heard of elephants. . Oh and at muncie csx controls the diamonds so usually we get to run the only reason we stop is if the ns gives the dispatcher a bad figure and the trains doesn’t quite get there and we have to stop(darn biscuits and gravy at mac’s). . Get ya a scanner and when we start calling our signals on the radio the road channel will be a mess, just plug some headphones in. What building do you work in? There is a engineer who is gone but his daughter works in the pan am plaza building and he would blow the horn and she would wave a piece of paper. Pretty neat stuff