Hello everyone, and welcome to Muncie, Indiana! Located in East-Central Indiana, Muncie is home of the busiest railroad crossing in the Eastern side of the state as three railroad lines converge within three blocks of the city. Near the downtown area of Muncie, the Norfolk Southern New Castle District crosses the CSX Indianapolis Line. The Indianapolis Line is the CSX mainline to Avon Yard, one of the busiest yards on the CSX system, and the New Castle District is the NS mainline between Cincinnati and Fort Wayne, Indiana. Just west of this crossing is the Norfolk Southern Frankfurt District to Lafayette. Between the three railroad lines, Muncie sees over 35 trains a day, and most of the trains pass through the junction of the Indy Line and New Castle District.
This day of railfanning in Muncie was night and day compared to my first time in Muncie back in February 2023. Cincy Railfan Productions and I ventured up here on Tuesday, June 10th, after we mutually decided to return to this location in hopes of a better time this time around. To say this was a far better day is an understatement thanks to the increased action from the two railroads and thanks to a couple great locomotive surprises.
The day started out with a rather surprising all-intermodal barrage. CSX I007 to New York kicked things off, followed by I132 to Detroit and I008 to St. Louis. Norfolk Southern sent intermodal train 263 to Cincinnati featuring a pretty cool BNSF duo. In between the trains, a CSX track maintenance gang came through westbound with some equipment and gave us a hornshow. This hornshow was pretty hilarious as Downtown Muncie is quiet zone. After I008 came through, the two railroads sent manifest traffic along with a pair of local trains on NS. M332 came through with a Mac-Attack and a pair of 86-foot boxcars, and 188 rolled on through with a pair of BC Rail boxcars and a decent line of truck frames. The counterpart to 188, train 189 to Atlanta, rolled on next with a shorter than usual train.
After the two locals went through, Norfolk Southern dominated the early afternoon. Gondola train 61C passed on through with a series of fallen flag rolling stock, and intermodal 262 rolled by with a Dash 9 as the second unit. Cincy Railfan Productions then went on one of the more exciting chases in our years of railfanning in pursuit of manifest 123 coming off the Frankfurt District. Today's NS 123 featured an incredibly rare green-and white SW1000 EMD switcher, and we successfully chased it for 20 minutes south of Muncie. After catching the switcher engine, we caught intermodal 29A with a pair of Dash 9s leading the train. Talk about two great catches on back-to-back trains, but the best was yet to come.
Once we returned to downtown, CSX finally started the action on the Indianapolis Line with manifest M313 from Columbus passing west. After M313 we caught two of the best catches on the year; the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac (RF&P) heritage unit and a KCS Grey Ghost! The RF&P (CSX 1836) was the trailing engine on CSX B606 tanker train heading west, and the KCS Grey Ghost (KCSM 4500) was the trailing unit on intermodal I132 to Salem, Illinois. This was my first-ever time I saw a KCS Grey Ghost in action. This great day of railfanning concluded with NS manifest 197 with the classic yet disappearing Dash 9 duo with a Cotton Belt autorack car! The Cotton Belt autorack is perhaps the rarest of the rare when it comes to rolling stock as I cannot recall the last time I spotted (if ever) a Cotton Belt rolling stock. Talk about four great catches in a single day of railfanning. After 197 passed, we headed back home as there were no other trains expected through the junction.
Overall, this was an epic day of railfanning at a location that, in all honesty, was not too impressive the first time I visited. Today was certainly a day of railfan redemption and I now understand the hype local railfans give to this town. I hope that whenever Cincy Railfan Productions and I return to Muncie that day of railfanning will be as exciting as prosperous as this day was.
Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoy the video!
-N&W475.