Ohio Hot Spots, Marion, Defiance and Fostoria

Travel to three Hot Spots in the State of Ohio. This action is fresh with footage captured in 2022. Berea is our first location where CSX Transportation (CSX) and Norfolk Southern (NS) main lines come close together before continuing their way towards Chicago and the mid-West. Up to 80 trains per day pass on this ex-Conrail line. We catch long Manifests (mixed goods), Stack (Container), grain as well as an NS local with a GP38-3 as motive power.

It is the busy twin diamond crossings at Marion – some 100 miles to the south-west – that we visit next. Three main lines cross each other here and traffic is almost constant with 70 movements to be seen in a 24-hour period. In our late afternoon visit we position our cameras around the old Union Station, now preserved as part of a heritage centre. Coal, Oil, Grain, Stack, Automotive and General Merchandise all appear with various examples of CSX and NS modern road locomotives, but also some older types including an GP40-2 on a local.

We then take a break to visit Defiance where a GP20U is seen spotting cars. This is local railroad action. Our third Hot-Spot takes is to the ‘Iron Triangle’ that is Fostoria. Again, a major NS and CSX crossing point – a whole host of trains can be seen here. We were lucky enough to catch foreign power from UP and KCS aswell as CSX and NS road power.

We conclude with a short ‘taster’ visit to Deshler, which we will feature in a future American Railroad series show.