A Decent Day of Railfanning at the Marion Union Station in Marion, Ohio. 3/22/2024.

Hello everyone. On Friday, March 22nd, I ventured on up to Marion Union Station in Marion, Ohio, with my friend and fellow CZcamsr Cincy Railfan Productions for what would be, as the title suggests, a decent day of railfanning. This day of railfanning was not exactly the best day of railfanning in Marion but was far from a bad day of railfanning. In the span of about nine hours, we caught a total of nineteen trains, which is just around the average amount of trains one can expect to see in Marion.
This day of railfanning was ultimately characterized with a series of ebbs and flows in terms of train traffic. Train traffic was either hot or not all day for the two railroads as some trains came back-to-back in one hour and then not show up the next hour. We started off with a pair of intermodal trains for NS, southbound manifest train 118, and two unusual daytime trains for CSX; empty coal train E700 and southbound manifest M635. This is just my third time seeing M635 here in Marion as it usually is a night-train on the CSX Columbus Subdivision but today was instead passing in the morning.
Following the initial rush, we had a slowdown in traffic on both lines (especially CSX) and Norfolk Southern action was the only traffic for a few hours. The local train set to work and we saw a rather long 11E autorack train with a mid-DPU. 11E is the daily autorack train that heads up to Fort Wayne, Indiana, up from Virginia. After 11E we saw the first notable catch of the day with a UP SD70M on manifest 19M to Bellevue. For those who have not heard, Union Pacific is beginning to retire the veteran SD70Ms this year and next year, so get these iconic locomotives while they are still in service. After 19M we saw another noteworthy catch on the next train, intermodal 28N with an "orange-bird." The "orange-bird" is the ex-BNSF/KCS Dash-9 units that Norfolk Southern acquired from KCS after BNSF sold them to Kansas City Southern. These units are unique for their BNSF paint schemes though they no longer display any railroad logos on them. This was my first time catching one of these units since my trip to Kenova when I caught my first ex-BNSF Dash-9 as the DPU on a manifest train.
We finally saw our first CSX train in nearly three hours in the early afternoon with daily eastbound intermodal I008 to New York. For some unknown reason, CSX was rather slow in the morning although CSX has certainly had its slow days here at Marion Union Station. That said, CSX did pick up the action in the afternoon and was the dominant railroad for the next couple of hours, as the only NS action was southbound manifest 18M and the local train working around Marion. The CSX action started off with CSX 5500, the Spirit of Cincinnati, leading autorack M205 to Louisville. Unfortunately for me, I could not get a good shot of the emblem on the noses' engine due to the cloudiness of the day. Fortunately, I would get a great catch with the next two CSX trains with a rare occurance here in Marion; CSX manifest trains M363 and M364 coming together for a perfect meet. M363 and M364 are each other's counterparts and these two trains run between Avon Yard in Indianapolis up to Selkirk Yard in New York. Needless to say, they are two of the most important trains on the CSX system, and each typically feature fallen flag rolling stock. Both trains did indeed, as M364 featured a Chessie System 86-foot boxcar and M363 featured two Conrail 86-foot boxcars. This is the first and only time I have caught these two trains coming together for a perfect meet on the CSX Indianapolis Line.
The rest of the day of railfanning was pretty much a good mixture of action from both railroads as we saw five more trains to close out the day. CSX featured an X364 (manifest 364 extra) and a rather long local train. Norfolk Southern featured manifest trains 170 to Conway, 18W to North Carolina, and intermodal train 277 to Chicago. 277 featured the final notable catch of the afternoon with a "blue-bird" engine running as a DPU, Dash 9 3981. This was my first time seeing on the Norfolk Southern bluebirds in service as these engines have evaded me one way or another, and now I can saw I have caught my first.
Overall, this trip to Marion Union Station was a worthwhile one. I hope to return to Marion later on this year, most likely when summertime comes around. Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoy the video!
-N&W475.