Exploring the NS Chicago Line - Toledo, OH to Butler, IN 

Hey neighbor greetings from Butler

I never knew that stretch was the longest piece of straight line double main, interesting. I took my first trip, to this portion of the Chicago Line, last year, between Waterloo and Toledo, but I went all the way to Cleveland. The longest stretch of straight track in this country is in North Carolina on CSX...

This spring I'm hoping to make a similar video to this one, but I will head east out of Toledo instead of west. I'm in the planning stages now, but my goal is to film the area from Toledo out to Sandusky (or somewhere around that general area). In the past I have spent most of my time railfanning the area west of Toledo, so I'm excited to see what's out to the east!

yes

Apparently I need a more reliable place to obtain origins, destinations, and train numbers. What's a good place to get that information?

Thanks for watching! If you're going to explore the Chicago Line, I would recommend visiting Wauseon, Swanton, or Toledo. Wauseon and Swanton both have really nice parks next to the tracks, and they're just nice places to relax and watch trains. If you're up for going into Toledo and exploring some of the action in the city, I'd recommend starting in Northwood, where the NS Chicago Line intersects CSX. Deshler and Fostoria are fantastic places to visit. I have videos on my channel about those places too, along with a video I made in Dayton which you may like. My wife grew up in Beavercreek, so we used to spend a lot of time in the Dayton area. Now her family has moved, so we don't go to the Dayton area as much anymore.

@@DavidLauback Thats really funny! I live in Germantown, so close to Beavercreek. I have watched your other videos as well. I thought Wauseon looked like probably the nicest location. Is it worth driving to Butler? Is there a spot close enough to catch the diamond action that one could spend the better part of a day?

Wauseon is really nice. I now live in Southern Michigan and my dad and brother both live in the Toledo area, so we often meet up in Wauseon to watch trains. It's a good halfway point for us to meet at. We were actually just there earlier this week! In Butler it's a bit difficult to get right up to the diamond on foot without trespassing. I was glad I had a drone to use because that helped me get a good shot of the diamond, but if I just had a typical camera I'm not sure I would have been able to get many great shots. If you look back at my drone video, you can see that there's basically a road that leads to a few houses back by the diamond. You can see where I parked my red car, and by looking at the video you should be able to get a decent idea of where you can go on foot. We just parked right off that road back there. Some of the people who lived back there didn't seem to appreciate that we were there, but we weren't on their property or anything like that. As far as diamonds go, the Vickers diamond in Northwood seems like a much more friendly place to watch trains, although the problem with Vickers is that you can't get anywhere near the diamond. I've only been to Butler once, so I'm not super familiar with the location.

I think in the 1970's??

Norfolk Southern's paint scheme was originally no horsehead, from it's inception in 1982, after Norfolk & Western and Southern Railway merged. The "Horsehead" scheme didn't come around until the 2000s... That means NS had the exact same paint scheme for almost 20 years, before they made any change lol...

@@tjtrainzCSX Thank you so much! Finally I have an answer to something I have always wanted to know, Thank`s again! Regards Kev

According to Amtrak's website, to travel from Cleveland to St. Louis you would use the Chicago Line to go from Cleveland to Chicago and then switch trains to head from Chicago to St. Louis. That appears to be what it is today. I'm not sure if there was a more direct route back in the day...

Thanks! There's a section of Airline Avenue that runs parallel to the intermodal terminal. Here are the coordinates to that location: 41.637675, -83.582721. If you copy and paste those coordinates into Google Maps it should show you the area where we recorded those videos. Let me know if that doesn't work.

That's a great question! I'm not 100% sure.

Great question! It's tough to say because it fluctuates some, but on average you can probably expect 2 or 3 trains per hour. There are times when it's quiet for an hour or more and there are other times when trains are lined up one after another, but I'd say on average expect 2 or 3 per hour.

It’s no longer homestead yard, it’s evans yard or something.

@@nick-cb6dl yup. I was surprised to see that.

That is correct.

I really enjoyed Wauseon! The park by the station is a really nice place to sit and watch trains.

@@DavidLauback Good spot for sure. Have you ever gone east of Toledo?

Yeah! I'm originally from Perrysburg, so we often went to Northwood at the Vickers Diamond. Further out east Oak Harbor is a neat place... This year I want to make a video like this one but heading east from Toledo instead of west.

@@DavidLauback Vickers is a good spot. You can see a lot of trains there. Oak Harbor is a neat place too. Sandusky Bay might be my favorite spot to watch trains at.

Yeah, I definitely want to explore the area around Sandusky and Port Clinton where the tracks are near/go over the water. Hopefully I can get some cool drone shots out there.

My video claims that the section of track from Toledo, OH, to Butler, IN, is the longest section of straight _double track_ railroad in the world. The section of track in Australia you mentioned is primarily single track, so while it is a longer section of straight track, my video is correct in claiming that the part of the Chicago Line stretching from Toledo, OH, to Butler, IN, is the longest section of straight _double track_ railroad in the world.