Marion Ohio

[Ed Fury]

My first trip to Marion Ohio was totally unplanned and unexpected. My Aunt had come to Louisville for Christmas and decided to take me back with her to Columbus Ohio for a while. She agreed to take me to Marion to see some trains for "a little bit".

When we first arrived there was a Southbound NS train with 6 or 7 engines coming by before we could even park the car and get out. CSX had a southbound lined on their tracks but it was held for an eastbound huge freight. We watched the eastbound then the southbound and headed for the restaurant called The Shovel right on the Marion Depot property. Being hungry and needing a bathroom break this place was convenient to say the least. They serve Walleye all you can eat and I hear it is pretty good. I got a BLT for $4.99 pretty much one of the cheapest things on the menu. It came with fries and coleslaw. There must have been 3 or 4 whole potatoes chopped up and cooked for my french fries. The BLT was pretty good and the french fries were WAY toooooooooo many to eat. They probably tossed about 3 potatoes worth away.

While we were eating two more NS southbounds came through on our side of the restaurant you can hear and feel them and I think maybe 3 CSX trains came through on the other side... If you go in the summer sit on the outside patio area so you don't miss any trains. So basically in about 1 hours time there had been at least 10 trains. Give or take.

I knew this was too good to be true and sure enough after lunch 1pm ish or so the train traffic died. Luckily there was a Marion Depot volunteer who was there on a Friday railfanning. He opened the Museum/Depot and took us on a tour and showed us around. Then we went up in the tower and got to see everything from up there.

I had wanted to shoot a southbound NS train from the tower before I left so I would have a good lighted shot of the NS in Marion to share and as luck would have it there were no Southbound NS trains. A few more CSX trains came through Northbound and I managed to get some shots of two Northbound Norfolk Southern trains back light and all.

I have already made plans to return this summer when it is warmer and there is more daylight.

Photo #1 - NS 116
Photo #2 - unknown coal train I thought I heard 68 or something on the scanner in the tower

[Matt L]

The Erie/EL mainline used to pass through Marion. Did you catch any action at the old Erie/EL yard there? 

[Ed Fury]

The volunteer at the depot said if I am not mistaken that the erie track was ripped up in the 70s.

CSX had a small yard west of the depot and I think the NS had something just out of sight to the North. But we did not do any exploring. I was only there about 3 hours total at the depot watching trains, walking through the displays, and eating lunch for about an hour included in that.

I think I did take some photos of erie related stuff like the erie display caboose and probably some news articles and stuff from the walls. If you have never been to Marion and are interested in the erie stuff I can look through my pics and see what I have.

[Matt L]

Yeah, I'd love to see what you have on the Erie. 

As I understand the nature of the beast (aka Conrail), alot of the Erie main was torn up west of Akron during the late '70s and early '80s.  However, part of the Erie yard in Marion was supposedly saved, although I'm not sure who owns it now. I'll do some digging on that one and get back to you.   

[TrainNut85]

CSX owns the yard now after obtaining it in the Conrail split, they usually run a local out of there that heads east to service Central Soya and a few other places. The NYC trackage is all that remains, the Erie tracks were indeed pulled up in the early Conrail days. I think the only things left of the Erie are AC tower(which was ran by the Erie), part of the yard, and the yard shops which is now owned by Union Tank Car Corp.

[Ed Fury]

I was going to zip up some pics from Marion and upload them to megaupload but since the government seized that domain for piracy.. I will have to find another file locker site.

Give me another day or two.

[Matt L]

No problem, Ed. I appreciate what you're doing.