October 2023 Railfanning in Fostoria, Ohio; Autumn Railfanning at the Fostoria Iron Triangle.

Hello everyone, and welcome to today's video! On Monday, October 9th, 2023, I headed on up to the famous Fostoria Iron Triangle in what would be my busiest day of railfanning at the Iron Triangle in almost two years. In a span of about nine hours, I caught over thirty trains, a light engine move, and even a Loram rail grinder. This was certainly one of the best days of railfanning this year and definitely the busiest as the 30 trains in one day is my record for 2023.
This day started out with a plethora of morning action between the two railroads. Norfolk Southern has recently modified its operating schedule through Fostoria as a good portion of the trains on the Fostoria District now run through in the early morning. The early morning NS action included an eastbound grain train, manifest train M302 to Bellevue, and intermodal train 28N to Charlotte, North Carolina. CSX also had a pretty good morning, starting off with two westbound intermodals, an eastbound tanker train, autorack M212 from Detroit, and M200 manifest/autorack to Walbridge yard. Even better, the early morning featured the catch of the day with Dash 8-40CW 7816 leading a light engine move. CSX would continue the morning rush of action with another Dash 8 leader on intermodal I150 to Detroit, marking this day the first time since January that I've seen multiple Dash 8's in action.
Perhaps the most surprising yet pleasant part of the day came with the onslaught of westbound traffic on the Fostoria District, especially with the manifest traffic. Following the daily steel local to Leipsic, Norfolk Southern sent manifest trains 199, 13Q, 15Q, and even a westbound grain train all out of Bellevue. Today was the first time I can recall seeing all three manifest trains in over a year; the last time I saw multiple westbound manifests here at the Iron Triangle was back in March 2022. In between the NS action, CSX sent a surprisngly high number of trains in the late morning and early afternoon with the likes of the daily intermodal I010, westbound autorack M215 to Detroit, manifest M567 to Walbridge, and a typical westbound intermodal. These four trains are the usual ones for this time of day, and CSX added onto the action on the Willard Subdivision with an additional intermodal as M215 came through, long-distance manifest M370 to Selkirk, manifest M558 to Collingwood Yard in Cleveland, and two more westbound intermodal trains.
Following the return of the Leipsic steel train and intermodal I151 with a pair of Union Pacific engines, the traffic died down a bit with the only action in the form of the Loram rail grinder. CSX crews were performing maintenance along the Willard Subdivision on this fine afternoon and I got some good action of the Loram at work. About 30 minutes after the rail grinder finished its work, CSX started the action back up again with the daily coke express to Gary, Indiana. The coke express was the first train in a parade of CSX action, including a pair of coal trains on the Columbus Subdivision. The final three trains on the Willard Subdivision were eastbound manfiest M368 to Cumberland, Maryland, manifest M367 to Chicago, and a rather short westbound intermodal train. M368 featured an awesome pair of Chiago and NorthWestern rolling stock; a boxcar and a covered hopper still in pristine condition.
Overall, this day of railfanning was quite successful. In terms of foreign power, there were a total of three Union Pacific engines (including the lead engine on NS manifest 302) and a BNSF rear-DPU engine on 15Q. Norfolk Southern even featured a pair of uncommon engines with an SD40E on the steel train and an SD70M-2 on 15Q. 15Q even featured a trio of 86-foot auto boxcars, a sight that is sadly not as common these days outside of the Norfolk Southern "autorack corridor" between Detroit and Kansas City. The best part was no doubt the two Dash 8-40CWs, and I hope to see more of them in the near future.
Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoy the video!
-N&W475.

[@Nick19962010]

You and your CSX Dash 8s are banished to the shadow realm for being a bunch of dorks! XD

[@NW475]

Lol you can take M364 with you!

[@Nick19962010]

@@NW475 Nah you take can your E-700 down Saluda Grade as top speed alongside the vomitbonnet!