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Is Fostoria busy 24x7, or slower on weekends, busier during the week, etc. What do wise heads report?

It's a very busy location. I call bull to the people saying it sees over 120+ daily. Not as of 2016/2017 that is. Considering all the different trains that use transfer tracks, combined with the fact that non high priority trains can always have some degree of irregularity to their schedule, you can't go wrong at any particular period - meaning most lulls are by chance and not factually because "it's always slow after so and so passes by".

Others can attest to the traffic differences through the week, but Friday's have always been very good for me in the past.

If you go to the "Trip Reports" section and type in Fostoria, many train logs can be found.

Thanks to Tier4GEVO...

<soap box>

At a site where the train count is around 100, does it really matter if one day is slightly better or worse than the other?

100 a day is four average an hour. Freight railroads have their lulls but you can't move 100 trains a day and be dead for long.

IMHO these train count posts are getting a little out of hand. I know all of you want to maximize your train count (who doesn't?), but if you're doing Fostoria or the Chicago Line you really don't have room for improvement based on time of day or day of the week in the long run.

If you're railfanning a branch line, then you might wanna know when the train is coming. But at 100? Come on.

</off soap box>

Considering that Fostoria is one of the busiest railfanning hotspots in the nation with at least 100 daily movements, the best advice I can give you is to go see for yourself.

Fostoria is a great spot to simply hang out. So it might be dead at a given time; roll with it. Fostoria is one of those true 'Destination' locations. Eight months a year, it's a rare day when you don't see a license plate from a state which does not border Ohio. Find out what you can from them, and tell them what you know. Whistle Stop Deli and Dell's are just a couple of the good food options nearby.

One thing to consider when talking about how busy a line is, is to consider the line itself. The CSX Mountain sub through Grafton, WV sees 10 to 15 a day. When I go there and see 15, I'm pretty darn excited. If I go to Fostoria and see 15, I'm disappointed. You have to figure out what kind of busy you want to see, and go from that. Do some research on bing, google, etc. You'll find pretty quickly how busy/not busy a place.

I been going there since 2010 and the only thing that decreased is the NS traffic on the Fostoria District. But I heard people say that alot of their traffic go by there at night. But CSX is still very strong through there. I go there every so often and its very busy I'd say at least 100 a day. But dont forget some of the traffic goes through there at night. Like any other place go see it for yourself. Im sure you will be amazed.

CSXBOY wrote:I been going there since 2010 and the only thing that decreased is the NS traffic on the Fostoria District. But I heard people say that alot of their traffic go by there at night. But CSX is still very strong through there. I go there every so often and its very busy I'd say at least 100 a day. But dont forget some of the traffic goes through there at night. Like any other place go see it for yourself. Im sure you will be amazed.

Catch the NS Fostoria District on any given day and you'll be surprised. I railfanned Bellevue for 8-10 hours on sunday and an amazing array of trains came and went off the Fostoria side as I was witness to at least 10-11 trains that went in all different directions besides the yard. Besides the district being a heavy corridor for grain/agri traffic up and down the line, the many locals and rack shuttles to and from Fostoria can give this section an impression of heavy online traffic base but being a through corridor as well for other types of trains. Sunday I was witness to two ethanol trains that came off the Fostoria side and used the Columbus line to Sandusky to avoid the yard. A wb coke train, and an empty hopper train lead by a single CN used the sw connection of New Haven Connection as they traversed their respective routings. Also seen were 146, 307, 14E, 145, an unknown eb freight and a grain train.