Awaking to the Trains

So I stayed at the Best Western in Fostoria for the night.  It was a pretty nice hotel and the staff were very friendly to me.  The breakfast bar looked decent but I'm not much of a breakfast person, so I didn't partake of it too much.  Anyway, if you end up going to Fostoria, I highly recommend the Best Western there.

 So the morning brought me back to the trains.  I will have to say one thing about the rail park, the layout was pretty well thought out.  Granted, it was pretty much determined by where the tracks already were but it seems they went to great lengths to make sure the views are pretty good.  But that wasn't what I really wanted to say here.

Remember, when you see the flashing lights and the gate going down, don't try to beat the train.  You only have to miss once.

 It's hard to believe that a place in Ohio would get so many trains but when you think about it, it makes some sense.  It's almost in line for trains going from Pittsburgh to Chicago.  It's also in line with some other major rail routes.

Just to give you the lay of the land.  This line is to the south of the park and it runs east to west.  At one time, it was owned by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.  They are now part of the CSX empire.  As far as I can tell, just about any train runs on it though as evidend by this BNSF engine.

 I was pretty amazed by some of the grafitti on the train cars but I think the railroads don't like it.

 It's still pretty cool though.

 But I think I like some of the other types of grafitti.

 To the east of the park is a north-south line.  This line used to be owned by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad.  When they merged with the B & O, they became the Chessie System.  Later they merged with the Seaboard Atlantic and became CSX.

 A monkey.

 To the immediate north of the park is another east-west line.  This line used to be owned by the Nickel Plate Railroad.  In 1964, they merged into the Norfolk and Western Railroad and later the N&W merged with the Southern Railroad to form Norfolk-Southern.

 The California Raisins live on in train car form.

 A BNSF Engine wearing Santa Fe regalia occupying the B&O track.

 A Union Pacific engine.  It's amazing but Union Pacific is the only railroad that has managed to keep its name over the years.  Yes, it's merged with others but it ended up absorbing those others.

 A Norfolk-Southern Engine passing the other train.

 A CSX engine heading up the C&O line.

 Another Norfolk-Souther engine.

 The Interstate Railroad operated in Southwest Virginia and served the Appalachian Mountains.  Over time, it became a subsidiary of Norfolk-Southern.  One of the things that I like about Norfolk-Southern is that they honor their heritage with some engines painted in the scheme of railroads that are now a part of them in one way or another.

 A CSX Engine heading south.

 The trailing engine.

 A grain car from the Canada Wheat Board.

 Here's something you don't see everyday.  I wonder if they played the bat for the lead engine.

 Another CSX pair.

 There's a spot in the park where you can get a pretty decent headshot if you have a pretty decent lens.

 That same engine.

I think the sun was starting to take its toll on me, so this was my last train of the day.

I think I am really starting to like Fostoria.  I ended up getting myself a scanner so that I can hopefully figure out where the trains are going to be coming from.