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Railfanning At Crossroads Park - Deshler, OH
Fall Amtrak Vacation 2006
Railfanning At
Crossroads Park In Deshler, OH
Sunday, September 24th, 2006
 
   I woke up around 10:15am and decided to make the drive out to Deshler, OH to check out the place since I’ve been told it’s nothing short of incredible there. After a near 80 mile drive from Sandusky, I arrived there and met up with several members of Trainorders.com along with several other railfans. Deshler is located South of Toledo, OH and features a diamond where the Double Track CSX Ex-B&O Garrett Subdivision that handles all of the former-Conrail traffic from Buffalo crosses the CSX Toledo Subdivision, another Ex-B&O line. There is an abandoned passenger station along with a non-operational switch tower at the diamond. The railfan park known as Crossroads Park features a small picnic pavilion, along with a good sized grill, 2 pop machines, speakers broadcasting the railroad radio transmissions along with a Porta-Johnnie bathroom. Be sure to bring your laptop along as there's also free wireless internet (Wi-Fi) available. There is ample parking available and you definitely won’t be disappointed when it comes to traffic! The following photos were taken during my visit there, enjoy...

 

The first train that came by at 2:22pm was coming off the Toledo Sub and heading West.
It was CSX Train Q-500. Seen with GCFX Lease Unit #3077, an SD40-2 on the lead.
 

Next up is X-245 heading South on the Toledo Sub with AC6000CW #697 on the lead at 2:48pm.
The second unit appears to be a British Columbia Railway unit. Note the original B&O signals still in use here!
 

With AC4400CW #501 on the lead, Westbound T-926 rides past the
no-longer-operated switch tower at the Deshler Diamond.
 

The long abandoned Ex-B&O Passenger Station in Deshler. The boarded up section
(far left side) was boarded up due to a derailment here a few years back.
 

Ok, living proof I visited Deshler. That's yours truly standing in front of my 2005 Mitsubishi Galant rental car!
 

The old B&O interlocking tower at Deshler, located next to the diamond where the 2 lines cross.
 

At 3:12pm, CSX Train S-389 heading West with GCFX SD40-2 #3047 on the main.
 

Here's something you don't see everyday, a CSX caboose! This was seen on the end of a local train.
 

With a former Conrail C40-8W on the lead, this Eastbound manifest passes by the park at 3:58pm.
 

Here's a Multidimensional 1-car train headed by BNSF C44-9W #4958 turning West
off the Toledo Sub just before a nasty rainstorm hit the area at 4:16pm.
 

Here's an unusual meet. We have a UP unit leading B-771 at 4:21pm passing the BNSF
unit on the train pictured above this photo. All of this on CSX track, how often does that happen???
 

Now here's a few photos of the park itself. Here is the picnic pavilion where you can enjoy a sub
from the local Subway restaurant or check your e-mail thanks to free Wi-Fi internet access!!!
 

A wide view of the park area. There is a grill available for a cookout as well as picnic tables.
 

One of the benches available for train viewing. There's also 2 pop machines available along
with radio broadcasts 24/7 of the CSX channel in the area. A bulletin board behind
the bench shows park info along with menus from local restaurants in the area.


   This place is awesome, you'll never be bored here since all the conveniences of today's railfan are available! The weather didn’t cooperate very well for photography today or the prior 2 days at Cedar Point, but I guess no one can control the weather! I'm beginning to wonder if I should have planned this trip later in the Fall. I visited CP last year on Halloween Weekend and the weather was better than this year's visit in late September, weird! I left Deshler around 4:30pm and headed back to Sandusky, since I had laundry to do and wanted to get a few hours sleep before embarking on Leg #2 of this trip. I stopped by a local Meijer's Grocery Store in Sandusky to pick up a few things and called the local Pizza Hut restaurant to order dinner. They must have picked up my cell phone number on caller-ID and matched it up to their computer system as they knew who I was before I was able to complete my order!!! The last time I ordered anything from this restaurant was a year ago on my last Cedar Point trip! Gotta love technology! I then headed back to my hotel for dinner, turned on NBC’s “Football Night In America” and ate dinner then started laundry and worked more on this travelogue. I decided to do laundry on this trip as I’ve done so in the past so as to not pack so heavily. As I did laundry, I watched some more football and started to pack up my stuff to prepare for the next leg of this journey. And so ends today…