Napoleon, Defiance and Western: The Definitive Thread

[Notch 8]

The only thing the ND&W has going for it is Traffic, The physical Plant is wornout ! and the ROW sits on a Swamp ! other than that everything is Fine... there is a stack of 80# rail sitting 30 miles from the ND&W and I think all they were interested in was plates and bars... they need 115# at a minimum. On the bright side derailments have slowed....

[railroadchoad]

Actually, Mr 8, I have heard that thry have bought several truckloads of the rail I think you are referring to.

[MagnumForce]

Wonder what happened to the rail off the Erie. it was stacked 30 feet high in Ohio City, razor blades I bet.

[DT&Ifan]

Are there any companies in Liberty Center that ND&W could get interested in doing business with them?

[bluestreak81]

I've asked a similar question before about Liberty Center. It seems like that portion of the line is the only "dead" portion not receiving any attention. Hopefully this will help with your answer about potential customers on that end:

Y@ wrote:

railohio wrote:

swc wrote:Are they doing any track work to Liberty Center?


I don't believe there's much potential for traffic there now. Elevator trucks everything to Hamler for loading on CSX and recently upgraded facilities there to handle longer unit trains. JoJames would know better.

Grain at LC isn't coming back, but there have been talks of a new customer building along a county road that connects with US 24 between LC and Napoleon. Time will tell.


No grain at Liberty Center unless the same freight rate could be received there as what is payed at Hamler. Also Liberty Center elevator would need some improvements in loading facilities.

[alittlevanwerty]

PREX 1606 headed west, 2 miles east of Antwerp.

[MSchwiebert]

Doesn't say if it was sold for scrap or re-use, but the ORDC did get money from the Van Wert Port Authority for the abandonment of their portion of the former EL.

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Ra ... 202013.pdf

Wonder what happened to the rail off the Erie. it was stacked 30 feet high in Ohio City, razor blades I bet.

[Notch 8]

That track was pulled for re-lay as it was still in very good condition, Sad that the Erie is no more !

[DT&Ifan]

Is there any substantial part of the track where they can go 10 mph without risking derailment? How are the repairs going, is it still a day in and day out effort or did they slow down once the very worst of the track was fixed?

[CG Tower]

Supposedly the former Erie track will be used to lay a spur to the new Van Wert "mega site" which will be north east of Van Wert proper...Van Wert has the idea to create a large mega park for either one very large or several large industries...however, thus far, not much has happened with this project and I do not believe any dirt has been moved or even any large scale interest per se has come from it. Here is the link:

http://www.whyvanwert.org/mega-site/

Personally, the move to remove the former Erie was somewhat short sighted...but that's another story.

CG Tower

That track was pulled for re-lay as it was still in very good condition, Sad that the Erie is no more !

[NoviRailfan]

Took US-24 west to Indy this weekend and a rail line ran adjacent to the freeway west of Defiance. Am I correct in assuming this is the ND&W? The line looked horribly maintained so by past descriptions, it's a match! Somewhere along that stretch there was an old switcher and caboose tied down on the line.

[Y@]

Took US-24 west to Indy this weekend and a rail line ran adjacent to the freeway west of Defiance. Am I correct in assuming this is the ND&W? The line looked horribly maintained so by past descriptions, it's a match! Somewhere along that stretch there was an old switcher and caboose tied down on the line.

Yes, that was the ND&W.

[wildcatsa1fan]

Caboose?? Where was this at??

[NoviRailfan]

Somewhere west of Defiance.

[StupidFlee​t]

Somewhere along that stretch there was an old switcher and caboose tied down on the line.

That's the Toledo, Lake Erie & Western just outside Waterville. That's former NKP track, the NDW is former Wabash track.

[MagnumForce]

You are probably confusing the line to the East of Defiance with the line to the west. There are no cabooses on the ND&W. Between Grand Rapids and Waterville is the Toodles errrr rr Toledo, Lake Erie and Western and they have a caboose.

[Y@]

Yeah, I didn't even notice he said caboose. I just block out half of what pretty much anyone asks anymore since it's always the same questions over and over.

[jrgerber]

How's my favorite Ohio railroad doing these days? Are they still working on the track? Did they complete the work they got grant money for?

[wildcatsa1fan]

No new work on west end since initial tie and brush work!! Train running once a week! Usually on thursday or friday!!!

[MagnumForce]

Nothing to report, no trackwork going on. Weeds everywhere. Looks like the MAW with different locomotives.