Trip to Summerail in Marion, OH - 1

Hi, Friend Jim Mixter and I attended Summerail in Marion, OH on August 12. We spent three days getting there visiting a number of railfan points of interest along the way.

Our first stop was on the west side of Pittsburgh, PA where we arrived about 11:00 AM on August 9. I had photographed Conrail coming across the Ohio River on the Ohio Connecting Bridge and wanted to do it with NS. This was my second attempt. Alas, all we saw in almost two hours were these two eastbound stack trains (above and below).

Stack and auto rack trains use this route to bypass Penn Station in downtown Pittsburgh due to clearance problems. They will cross the Monongahela River upstream of Pittsburgh at Port Perry and reenter the mainline at East Pittsburgh.

Eastbound coal trains out of Shire Oaks Yard take the left leg off the bridge and get on the mainline until just across the river from Penn Station at CP Penn. From here they continue on the Connemaugh (low grade) Line crossing the Allegheny River at Freeport, PA and rejoining the main at Conpit Jcn., west of Johnstown, PA.

After lunch we stopped at Leetsdale, where an eastbound came along after a short wait.

Our final stop of the day was at the east end of Conway Yard. One of the most interesting things to come along was this pair of tow boats running together; somthing I have never seen.

After awhile an eastbound arrived (on the right in the above photo),

the power cut off and ran east (above and two below),

and then ran back to the shop.

The next day we started out looking for the Ashland Railway. After getting some info at their yard in Mansfield, OH we headed over to Ashland where we finally located their crew switching the Packaging Corporation of America facility.

Based on some information heard on the radio we headed downtown where we got a few photographs as the crew moved around to switch cars so a weed sprayer could treat sidings (above and two below).

We were able to photograph the train three times on its way back to Mansfield (above and two below). This photo is just west of Ashland.

The location shown on our DeLorme Atlas for this photo is near Five Points.

The early afternoon was spent searching for Ashland Railway's 2:30 PM yard job; unfortunately to no avail. After giving up on the Ashland Railway we finished our day at Willard. In the photo above a local is backing east into the yard.

The local backed in past a westbound manifest waiting to depart.

Soon the westbound got the signal and accelerated out of town.

We ran into some railfans who told us the Ashland Railway job that runs from Mansfield to Willard was sitting on the east side of Willard waiting for a crew so we headed over there.

This is the Ashland Railway's other paint scheme. I don't know which is the most recent.

Thanks for looking.