Hello everyone! On Saturday, July 15th, I ventured on up to the Marion Union Station in Marion, Ohio, with a group of friends including fellow KZfaqr Cincy Railfan Productions. This day of railfanning was a bit of an unusual yet overall productive day of railfanning with both railroads providing a good number of trains. In a span of ten hours, we caught a total of 21 trains; twelve Norfolk Southern and nine CSX.
The day did get off to a bit of a slow start as the morning featured a mere four trains in the first three hours, and all four trains were Norfolk Southern. Three southbound trains on the NS Sandusky District kicked off the action with a grain train followed by manifest 179 from Bellevue and intermodal train 266 from Chicago. The northbound NS train was a very short intermodal train 273 heading north to Detroit. The first CSX train of the day finally showed up around 11:30 with a rather long and very late westbound I007, the daily intermodal train to St. Louis on the Indianapolis Line. This is only the second time I have seen I007 in Marion as it typically runs early in the morning and typically passes through before dawn.
It was not until after I007 passed through that traffic finally started to pick up. Norfolk Southern sent another two southbound trains with intermodal train 271 to Norfolk, Virginia, and manifest 18M to Roanoke, Virginia. CSX sent a pair of trains through Marion, first eastbound intermodal train I008 to New Jersey (I007's counterpart) and westbound CSX I131 heading to Indianapolis off the Columbus Subdivision connection. I'd like to give a big shoutout and thank you to Cincy Railfan Productions for the footage of I131; he and I agreed to do a "footage swap" in which I filmed the NS trains passing on the east side of the station while he caught the CSX trains on the west side of the station, particularly on the connection. After I131 rolled through, northbound manifest train 170 rolled through en route to Conway, Pennsylvania, and shortly after southbound intermodal 28N passed at the same time as I132, the CSX counterpart of I131. Cincy Railfan Productions was able to catch I132 with a pretty good combo of BNSF and Union Pacific power, including a UP ACe DPU.
The afternoon action continued with one of the rarest moves I have seen in Marion; an eastbound CSX coal train on the Indianapolis Line Subdivision. Coal trains are no strangers to Marion, but I have never seen one on the east-west line and almost always see them on the north-south Columbus Subdivision. The coal train began a long-awaited period of heavy traffic in Marion, as CSX would send two autorack trains on through shortly after; M217 westbound to Louisville, and its eastbound counterpart M216 to Philadelphia. M216 did its daily switching action at the Marion yard, allowing time for both Norfolk Southern and CSX to build up their fleets of late-afternoon trains. Norfolk Southern sent two northbound manifest trains destined for the Bellevue Yard, first 178 from Cincinnati and 19M from Roanoke. CSX then sent a pair of manifest trains with westbound M363 to Avon Yard in Indianapolis, and eastbound M332 eastbound to Cumberland, Maryland. Today's M332 manifest was by far the longest train of the day with over 10,000 feet in length and a mid-train DPU. After M332 pulled through NS sent northbound manifest 119 up to Bellevue, Ohio, and southbound intermodal train 276 to Norfolk, Virginia.
On the whole, despite the slow traffic at times throughout the day, this day of railfanning in Marion was a rather productive one. The total of 21 trains in one day of railfanning makes this day one of the busiest days in Marion and the busiest day since my previous trip up to Marion back in March in which I caught 22 trains, albeit in eight hours instead of ten. Cincy Railfan Productions and I plan on making one more trip to Marion before the end of the year. Until then, keep on the lookout for my other videos from other places I will be visiting between now and my next visit to Marion.
Thanks for Watching, and I hope you enjoy the video!
-N&W475.