Berea is one of the “big three” Northern Ohio railfanning locations. CSX and Norfolk Southern have busy double-track lines that run right alongside each other, following the coastline of Lake Erie. Here at Berea, the lines come directly alongside of each other.
Norfolk Southern eastbound container train. From our vantage point, NS eastbound trains were on the far track. Directly in front of us are the CSX tracks and an interchange track.This was something that I had not seen before – a flatbed load in a stack train.CSX eastbound grain train on the closest track as a Norfolk Southern container train heads west in the background.
With two major railroads running double track, there was plenty of action for the time that we were in Berea. I think I read somewhere that there were 50 trains a day that roll through here, and that seems about right from what we observed. There was one point where there were three trains moving past us at the same time! The longest that we had to wait between trains was about 15 minutes, but that gave us time to put our lunch together.
Canadian National made an appearance in one of the CSX trains.A shiny Norfolk Southern locomotive, either new or just out of the paint shop!Norfolk Southern eastbound mixed freightMixed freights will always be the most interesting to watch. Here’s a string of John Deere tractors headed east on Norfolk Southern.A train full of smiles! This was the first time we’ve seen Amazon on a train, I’m sure it won’t be the last.When you watch closely enough, you can find interesting things even on intermodal trains… there were several piggyback flatcars on this container train that held stacked trailer chassis.This location has no fence or barricade between us and the trains flying by. If you bring younger kids with you, make sure they are good at listening and staying back (the light pole was our set boundary).
To give you an idea of just how close and how fast the trains are at this location, here’s a link to an approximately 30 second phone video we took when we were in Berea.A westbound CSX train loaded with railCSX eastbound auto train approaches right after a westbound unit tank train has passed us.We saw all kinds of loads today that we’ve never seen before. These “Epic” containers on articulated railcars look like roll-off dumpsters. This was on a westbound NS mixed freight.This seemed like an unusual sight that would not have been so unusual when I watched trains as a child, for two reasons. First, C&NW was still a railroad at that time; and second, despite this car’s vintage, it has escaped the clutches of graffiti vandals.Another guest appearance on CSX rails. This eastbound tank train is being led by a BNSF locomotive.
