Fostoria Station

 After taking pictures of the train here, I decided to get a picture of the train station.

This station was opened in 1907 and it serviced the Baltimore and Ohio railroad.  Baltimore and Ohio services ended in 1971 and the station sat idle until 1990 when Amtrak rerouted the Broadway Limited.  The city pledged some money to renovate the parking lot and platform.  The Broadway Limited ended in 1995.  The stop was reactivated two years later for the Three Rivers service but that ended in 2005.  I don't think there is going to be passenger service on this line again.

Trainwatching

I has been a while since I've gone down to Fostoria.  It's been even longer since I've been down to Deshler, so I decided to head down to both before continuing on another part of my adventure.

 After Bettsville, I continued onto Fostoria.  It was a pretty hot and humid day, so I didn't feel like doing too much trainwatching there.  They had the track laid down for this caboose but they did not have it here.  It is a Baltimore and Ohio Caboose.

 It wasn't too long before the first train appeared.  It had two Norfolk-Southern and one BSNF engine leading.

 It was heading towards the west.

 And then it continued on.

 Happy that I caught a train,  I decided to head for my next destination but before doing so, I always check the signals to see if there may be another train approaching.  And there was.

 I decided to stop at the parking lot for the Fostoria depot to catch it.

 I wanted a shot of the depot with a train in it.  Not sure if I wanted random folks though.  Oh well.

 It wasn't too long before it passed.

 I decided to head over to Deshler next.  It has been well over a year since I was there last.  Well at least there where I could catch some trains.  This one sort of snuck up on me.

 It wasn't too long before another train appeared.  It was coming from the south.

 It gave me a chance to get some pictures of the signals with the train in it.  I think at some point these signals are going to be replaced by the more universal set.  It's kind of a shame but I guess I can understand why.

 This train was making a turn to start to head west bound.

 The quarter view.

 A nice side shot.

 And it continues on its way.

 As I was heading west to start the next part of my journey, I caught the train one more time.  It was kind of cool.

The other part of my journey took me up through central Michigan.  While doing that, I caught this train heading east through Perry, MI.

 Well it turns out that it had to stop there for a bit.

 Another angle of it.

 Before continuing on, I decided to get a side shot of it.

And one more shot before leaving Perry.

I'll have to admit, I kind of missed trainwatching in Deshler.  Fostoria is not bad but the fact that trains come from many different directions makes it a little more difficult.  I'll have to make sure I get back there more often though.

Post from Today

So today I went down to ride on the Nickel Plate 765 as it went through the Cuyahoga Valley.  I took this ride last year and I enjoyed myself, so I figured I would do it again.

 A few minutes before the Nickel Plate appeared, one of the trains from the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad appeared.  I know it's an older style diesel but I don't remember it's designation.  I like this style of engine.

And then the Nickel Plate appeared.

I will post more pictures when I get my cable back.

What's in a Name

Chessie is my third cat.  My first cat was named Floyd and I had him for a little over a month, he had an enlarged heart and died.  My second cat was named Zappa and I had him for thirteen years and just lost him.  When I got Chessie, I was trying to think of a name for her.  I didn't want to continue the rocker theme and was thinking of naming her after a ship.  I couldn't think of any feminine ship names so I went with the next best thing....naming her after a railroad.

 She's technically not named after a railroad but a railroad's mascot and advertising icon.  The railroad is the Chesapeake and Ohio which was founded in 1869.  It's main source of revenue when it was founded was coal.  That enabled it to stretch from Chicago and parts of Michigan to the East Coast.  Eventually it would expand into other cargos and passenger service.
During the 1930's, it introduced an air conditioned passenger train with the slogan of "sleep like a kitten".  The literature featured a picture of a sleeping kitten.  That kitten would later be known as Chessie.

 The Baltimore and Ohio was founded in 1828 and is one of the oldest railroads in the United States.  It was the first carrier to offer freight and passenger service to the public.    It was also the first railroad to use a telegraph line.  While it wasn't in direct competition with the C&O, it served many of the same areas.
In 1960, the C&O started to buy B&O stocks and in 1962 the B&O stockholders approved C&O control of the railroad.  In 1972, the Chessie System was formed while it wasn't quite a merger of the two railroads it was pretty close.

 In 1987, the C&O, B&O and Seaboard Atlantic were formally merged to form CSX.

 And with that, I give you more cat pictures.  Here Chessie is watching my railroad.

 She was not an easy subject to take pictures of but then again, I suspect no kitten really is.

 I had to move my hand around to get her to look towards the camera.

And I leave you with one more shot of her.  Isn't she a pretty kitty?