Webcam at Fostoria, Ohio

[dave1905]

Could be why they called it Main St.

[stewartingram]

I see on that map "Amtrak Fostoria" but I've never seen a passenger train, when do they run?

[Pugsley]

I've read in the chatroom bit that the last Amtrak train through there was 2005.

[PhilH]

It's been said before but if one had the space, as some Americans do if Model Railroader is to be believed, what a superb layout Fostoria would make, diamonds, industries, interesting track layouts etc.

 

Wonder if anyone has done it?

[298]

It's been said before but if one had the space, as some Americans do if Model Railroader is to be believed, what a superb layout Fostoria would make, diamonds, industries, interesting track layouts etc.

 

Wonder if anyone has done it?

I doubt anyone would, given the space they are more likely to build a route with more operating potential. Modelling one location in order to watch trains go by is very much a British concept.

[Glorious NSE]

It's the kind of town that inspired our RS Tower, I visited Fostoria back in 2000 so there's definately some of that there, but there's also lots of inspiration taken from several other midwest crossings (some of which i've seen in person and others just in photo's) - plus a bit of "imagineering" thrown in there for good measure - there's no shortage of prototype inspiration out there as towns with flat crossings are not at all rare in the bit of the US we're modelling!

 

The sound of a train hammering away at a diamond or a horn in the distance still sends a shiver up my spine more than ten years on...and that to me is what the Fostoria cam brings back when I look at it...

 

EDIT - And yes - RS Tower as a standalone is inherently a "watch the trains go by" layout despite all the bits we've done to try and maximise the potential for stuff other than driving trains round in circles!

[PhilH]

I doubt anyone would, given the space they are more likely to build a route with more operating potential. Modelling one location in order to watch trains go by is very much a British concept.

 

I don't just mean the location where the camera is - if you look at Fostoria on Google earth there are at least 3 different industrial areas, some sort of yard with a wye and that very interesting almost clover leaf track layout. How much operating potential do you want?

 

 

Have to be a big railway room though B)

[Glorious NSE]

I think he means the town as one location.

 

If you built the town as a layout you end up with lots of crews doing nothing but going from fiddle yard a short way to the next fiddle yard, which isn't "operating potential" it's "watching the trains go by" (nothing inherently wrong with either approach btw provided you know what you want out of it!)

 

The lucky crews that draw the local work actually get to operate it a bit.

 

But use that same huge space to do something linear and both main line and local crews get a decent chance to "operate", that's why the majority of US basement fillers aren't a model of one big town but are linear in nature.

[PhilH]

Looks like I have a simplistic view of operating a trainset then - it would do for me.

[Northpoint]

Funnily enough, I was talking to Chris Gilbert last week when he had decided to sell Haston. "How about a model of the diamonds in Fostoria?" says Chris...

 

Says I: "We will definitley need to do a field trip to make sure we get it right!"

 

Anybody else up for it? (the field trip that is!)

[Alcanman]

 

If the guys are in the Rail Bar can they see the trains?

The bar doesn't look like it's got any windows!

 

I got the answer to my question by logging onto the chatroom:

 

'No - it doesn't have any windows, it's one of them Vampire bars'.

 

Looks like they been watching too much 'Trueblood' on TV.

 

 

cheers

 

Mal

[PhilH]

Just watched the

mentioned in the chat room - it looks a bit of a dump to be honest. Amazing how much the loco rolls when it goes over the diamonds.

 

And yep, the bar does look a bit, well, nondescript (to be kind).

[PhilJ W]

There is a cab ride through Fostoria on youtube >>

You go over the crossing about half way through

[trisonic]

it looks a bit of a dump to be honest. Amazing how much the loco rolls when it goes over the diamonds.

 

And yep, the bar does look a bit, well, nondescript (to be kind).

 

I checked on the town's facilities and couldn't find a hotel, not even a Motel6.

Most small town bars look like that over here, Pubs they ain't - although they are usually a bit nicer inside than outside.

 

best, Pete.

 

 

 

[dave1905]

If you want an interlocking with lots of action, try Tower 55 in Ft. Worth, TX. Every railroad in Texas crosses there.

 

Back in the 1980's there was the MP, MKT, SP, ATSF, AMTK, BN. Now its down to the UP, BNSF and AMTK (plus the FWWR shortline). There is heavy industry all around, yards on 2 legs, and now light rail. The N-S route is heavy manifest, coal and grain and the E-W route is heavy intermodal. Unfortunately no webcam.

[Glorious NSE]

Looks like I have a simplistic view of operating a trainset then - it would do for me.

 

I don't think "simplistic" is a helpful way to look at it, it's just a different approach.

 

The UK "one LDE" approach is perfect for instance for exhibition layouts over here. Fostoria would make an awesome exhibition layout, although the shape would be pretty challenging in terms of fitting it into halls and arranging staging tracks!!

 

If you modelled Fostoria as-is you would probably need around 6 crews working it to do it justice - I figure:

* A CSX switch/local crew

* A NS switch/local crew

* An NS road crew

* A CSX (C&O) road crew

* Two CSX (B&O) road crew (two trains passing doesn't seem at all rare)

Plus probably your dispatcher...

 

For the first two it would be a really interesting layout, for the road crews it wouldn't be much more interesting than any other "roundy" layout except that they would end up looking at red lights a bit more often!

 

Train leaves fiddle yard.

Train runs through pretty bit not much bigger than the train (in fact on our layout the scenic run is actually smaller than some trains!)

Train enters fiddle yard.

 

Somebody with the space to do it justice in the US would probably decide to model something like Willard to Defiance on the B&O line instead, with Fostoria and it's junctions and yards being one element of a larger whole, you can probably "employ" just as many folk and selectively compress to fit it into a similar space. Your CSX local crew has about the same job, you probably add a yard job or two at Willard, and all your road crews get to drive their train somewhere other than straight back into the fiddle yard again.

 

But the emphasis is on the folk doing the work not on the one busy location.

[Glorious NSE]

I checked on the town's facilities and couldn't find a hotel, not even a Motel6.

 

When we visited back in 2000 we stayed at Marion OH, about 40 miles South so less than an hour away - we did Fostoria as a stop for a couple of hours as we headed for Gary & Chicago.

 

Marion is another must-see location railfanning wise. It's on the same ex-C&O line as Fostoria plus another East-West aligned CSX route and a North-South NS route. The NS and ex C&O run either side of the preseved depot with the east-west aligned route on the third side of it, so two sets of double diamonds, and when an East-West train runs you get the diamond noise in stereo...awesome place. Marion linky: http://www.trainorderclassics.com/10-MarionStation.htm

 

And location:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=marion+OH&aq=&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=12.553203,28.168945&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Marion,+Ohio,+United+States&ll=40.588619,-83.140433&spn=0,0.021887&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=40.588622,-83.140549&panoid=863Mx4qne68bgeDz6MPImw&cbp=12,330.83,,0,-1.41

[trisonic]

Cool! Thanks, Martyn......

 

Cheers, Pete.

[298]

Looks like I have a simplistic view of operating a trainset then - it would do for me.

 

Me too, by comment was merely a reflection that the concept of building a large layout to watch trains go by would be lost on the average American. There have been a few featured in the press that we would call a "roundy roundy" including one of Cheyenne, but my comparison Bill Darnaby's Maumee Route features diamonds and ladder junctions where his layout crosses other routes, although it's fundamentally a narrow shelf layout and the other lines aren't operable apart from the odd car left on an interchange track.

[Michael Delamar]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark_vogel/2325577570/

[trisonic]

MOW team on NS track right now.

 

Best, Pete.

[martin_wynne]

MOW team on NS track right now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martin.

[dave1905]

MOW team on NS track right now.

First piece is a ballast regulator.

 

Second, I'm not sure, but could be either an adzer or something that cleans out the bed to place a tie.

 

Last one is a tie crane.

 

Looks like its gang to do out of face tie replacement (spot replacement of ties).

[pinzaboy]

Hi

For what its worth I went over Illinois, Indiana and Ohio last week to do a bit of 'spotting' and went to Fostoria to take a look. Stayed 2 nights at the Best Western Hotel about 2 miles from the location of the camera and it is a decent hotel. Fostoria itself is a small town but still has all the usual fast food outlets and shops so no need to go hungry. You can park in between the CSX and NS running lines in a small car park just out of shot of the railcam on the left. CSX park some of their MOW vehicles there but they seem to tolerate the railfans.

 

Although it is a good location for the camera, the best place is about half a mile to the east where you get the north-south traffic as well. Again, you park between the tracks and, like most of the USA, there are no fences. This spot has got a grant of about $800,000 to build a railfan park. At the moment there is a portaloo and a picnic table!

 

Trains every 10-15 mins and a good variety of traction too - best spot was a CSX train which included 6 brand new units for the BNSF, presumably from the factory at Erie.

 

No-one bothered me and the local railfans were very friendly. However, I'm not sure I would stay at either location after dark.

 

Regards

 

Tim

[Jon Gwinnett]

...Although it is a good location for the camera, the best place is about half a mile to the east where you get the north-south traffic as well. Again, you park between the tracks and, like most of the USA, there are no fences. This spot has got a grant of about $800,000 to build a railfan park. At the moment there is a portaloo and a picnic table!

 

 

Think the next camera will cover the north south axis