11 hour railfanning day in Romulus

[David Collins]

https://youtu.be/uLpzHWp7wR8

While my parents were out of town for the weekend getting our pickup truck and camper, which we had to leave behind during the Pennsylvania trip due to a blown turbo. I decided to take advantage of a full tank of gas that I filled a few days prior.


I’m trying something new here with this trip report, I’ll be posting time stamps above each train and the backstory.

I did not post the full trains as well…I know it’s kind of a turn-off but the problem is that the video would be close to 50 minutes long.

I was out of the house at 3:20 in the morning, went to Plymouth where I missed CSX M510 by a matter of about 45 seconds. I was thinking about giving chase to it when I remembered that the roadrailer (which I never saw) was running that day (this was during all the hype that they would be wrapping up service soon).


(0:00)

While Romulus isn’t necessarily the safest city at 4 in the morning, I first set up in the parking lot next to the Wayne County Road Commisions building off of the I-94 service drive/Goddard road, next to Metro Airport. They had a staffed guardhouse and security cameras around it. So I had some level of feeling comfortable around there.

Before I knew it, there was an approach signal for a westbound, which then jumped to a clear. I was thinking this was the westbound roadrailer, NS 255, but it wasn’t, it was CPKC 137 with a HUGE solid autorack train in tow. A CP AC44CWM rebuild and a standard AC4400CW for power on that approximately two mile long monster.

(1:31)

I then moved to downtown Romulus around 4:45 AM and setup for something switching over from track 2 to 1 on the Saginaw Subdivision. Given the time of the morning, it had to be CSX M215, and it was. Daily autorack empties for Wayne. Two GEVO’s (ES44AH and ET44AH) for power on this one.

(2:42)

The sun had come up and a clear signal appeared on track 1 on the CSX, I had no idea what this train was, and it only became clear as to what it was until I saw the second engine. CSX L313, this is the short-haul manifest (I guess you could call it that) that runs between Toledo and Saginaw, which is handed off to the LSRC in Wixom/Plymouth.

This was a cool lashup with a SD70MAC rebuild leader and one of LSRC’s semi-new SD70M’s in tow. An all EMD show, the way I like it!

(4:03)

Normally for an NS train, I would setup at the diamond. However with the diamond being off limits now, I had to make do with what I had, because I had NS 188 (Eastpointe, GA-Oakwood Yard Detroit) bearing down from the west. 188 was interesting as it had an end DPU, mainly NS has been doing mid-dpu’s as of late. We’d see that on a later train too. Power for 181 was an NS AC44C6M, a thoroughbred livery dash 9, and an SD70ACe.

(4:45)

After getting a Mickey D’s breakfast, I caught NS 181 heading west through Romulus. This consist is why I was confused about the 188 we saw previously. NS has been running trains either 1x1 (with an engine up front and one on the middle or rear). 188 from earlier was running 2x1 (two engines up front, one on the rear). 181 was running the normal 1x1. I don’t know, it was an interesting observation, I’ll say that. One AC44C6M up front and one on the rear for today’s 181.

(5:40)

One of the guaranteed trains you’ll see in Romulus in the morning is CSX M511, the daily manifest from Rougemere yard to Cincinnati. One thing of note on this consist was the third unit, an EMD GP38-3 rebuild. However it appears to have maybe been sideswiped? There was duct tape on the handrails with signs saying do not board, and upon closer examination when I look back at the video, some of the steps appear to be bent/broken off completely. A few parts of the handrails appeared to be missing too.

M511 that day was powered by a CM44AH rebuild (with a first generation K5LLA of all horns), a CSX AC44CW and that GP38-3 I was talking about.

(6:20)

The Wabash line comes back to life as CPKC 230 rolls east, with an early build CP ES44AC on point, with a CP AC44CWM rebuild as DPU.

(7:14)

Next across the diamond (taking me and the two other railfans with me by complete surprise) was CSX I151, daily stacks out of CSAO Livernois for North Baltimore, Ohio.

A very faded YN2 painted AC44CW with a god tier K5LA horn and a less faded YN3 AC44 for power on this one.

(7:59)

Literally on I151’s markers (the rear of it had not even cleared the Goddard Road crossing when the headlight popped over the hill at Wick Road) was light power, two GEVO’s, I didn’t get a symbol but these were the 2 units leading M215 from earlier in the morning. I didn’t have the scanner on me so I didn’t get any confirmation on what the ID was.

That’s all for this trip report, more to come soon!

[AARR]

Thank you for your video and report! I am one of the minority that like to watch the whole train.