Bellevue Railfanning

[AmtrakCSXRailfan]

Well I'm going to Bellevue tomorrow for the first time and was wondering where the best place to rail fan is? I am also going to the museum as well!

[TrainWatcher]

Should go back to the museum Mid-August

[Bellevue_Guy]

This might be a bit late, but the best place as far a traffic volume goes would the Monroe St crossings by Bellevue Tower. There's a gravel lot east of the NKP that railfans frequently use and there's a also a newly opened railfan platform with benches across the street and tracks from there.

[AmtrakCSXRailfan]

This might be a bit late, but the best place as far a traffic volume goes would the Monroe St crossings by Bellevue Tower. There's a gravel lot east of the NKP that railfans frequently use and there's a also a newly opened railfan platform with benches across the street and tracks from there.

Thank you! And that's where I ended up staying!! lots of traffic! Check out my post in the Trip Reports section!

[redside20]

The city requested that only two crossings be closed and the railyard be annexed.

[Bellevue_Guy]

That would be a pretty sweet deal for Bellevue, since it's just Center St (which has already been partially closed for almost a year anyway) and East St (which would only affect 1-2 houses)

I wonder what the response from NS will be. Not sure which they value more, closing crossings or not getting annexed.

[redside20]

Are they going to close the Wheeling crossing too on Center Street? I know there is still three residents who live on South Buckeye Street and hopefully they have access to Monroe Street.

[Bellevue_Guy]

It's never been made 100% clear by the Gazette articles. The fact that there are really 2 crossings at Center St never seems to be addressed, and it's hard to tell for sure if they include that Brewster connection crossing as part of the main crossing or not.

Though I would lean towards them considering it all one crossing and it being closed. If I remember right, one of the first articles about the original 5 crossing plan mentioned that several houses on S. Buckeye and East would be cut off and some sort of access road would have to be made to connect to the proposed extension of McKim to Dewey.

[Bellevue_Guy]

3 weeks went by without NS responding to the annexation proposal, so in late July Bellevue sent them a notice saying that it's time to end negotiations and reopen Center St. (there was an agreement that Center St would be reopened within a reasonable time if NS and the city failed to agree to a deal)

Today's Gazette says that Bellevue has received confirmation that NS has received the notice. So apparently Center St will be reopened. The safety service director said that the city feels a reasonable time would be within 60-90 days from when the notice was sent, and also commented that he "would expect within the next 30 days they will start work"

It was also mentioned that the railroad's original offer was still available to the city.

[Robertrains]

I will be in Bellevue August 18th and 19th! Besides the "Night Photo Shoot" I'll be doing, I'm wondering about the WLE trains! Would anyone know the schedules and/or frequency in Bellevue! I definitely want to shoot these trains—it's been a while! What would be the best time of day on Saturday and Sunday? I hope someone can help!

[Bellevue_Guy]

I'm wondering about the WLE trains! Would anyone know the schedules

...there's usually a handful of WLE movements per day, but in my experience trying to predict when one will happen is rather difficult. My advice would be to stick around the Bellevue tower area and enjoy the NS show and eventually you'll see the WLE do something, or sitting nearby waiting to so something.

[Robertrains]

I'm wondering about the WLE trains! Would anyone know the schedules?

...there's usually a handful of WLE movements per day, but in my experience trying to predict when one will happen is rather difficult. My advice would be to stick around the Bellevue tower area and enjoy the NS show and eventually you'll see the WLE do something, or sitting nearby waiting to so something.

I'll stay in the area! That's good that WLE seems to be doing good business! I hope to catch some Rio Grande locos, thanx to Larry Parsons!!!!

[Bellevue_Guy]

Center Street is now open again

[Bellevue_Guy]

Apparently some train has a stuck horn, I've been hearing it for the past 5 minutes and it's still going now