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| Mark Hinsdale posted
"Snatchin' Em..."
A crew member on the rear end of a northbound coal train grabs orders/messages at "XN" Tower in Leipsic OH. B&O's north-south Cincinnati to Toledo main line crosses Norfolk and Western's
ex Nickel Plate Road Bellevue OH-Fort Wayne-Chicago route here. November, 1978 photo by Mark Hinsdale |
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| Road Map |
Having all three routes still operational makes it a lot easier to identify the location of a tower.
(Update: After studying Guy Span's photo below, I think Mark has the routes correct (B&O vs. NKP) but the junction name is wrong. This is a photo of Leipsic Junction instead of "XN" Tower.)
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| Mark Hinsdale posted "Expanding Horizons" In June 1973, I had hardly learned yet how to take a decent train photograph, and was quite reluctant to step out of my "comfort zone" of what I thought one should look like. Perhaps many would legitimately opine that I still haven't. Most of the railroad pictures I grew up admiring were from books that followed the Lucius Beebe/Charles Clegg school of three quarter "wedge" photography, which mimicked the scene I generally saw whenever I stood trackside and watched trains. In due course, however, using my late father's old Argus 35mm camera with its faster shutter speeds, I started to gingerly try a few different things, including some broadside angles that I'd been reluctant to attempt before, Somehow, this view of a southbound Detroit, Toledo & Ironton merchandise train banging across the ex Nickel Plate Road, Norfolk & Western main line at Leipsic, Ohio, remains one of my favorites to this day. The crossing still exists, but "KN" Tower is long gone, and the players today are Norfolk Southern and Indiana & Ohio. June, 1973 photo by Mark Hinsdale David L White: When you took that picture, I had about one year of brakeman's seniority on the N&W Fostoria District, the crossline road here. The main was in bad shape, especially west of Arcadia, a lot of slow orders but looking at this picture really brought it back for me, the main you're standing on, the only remaining track there today, looks like it has pumped out a lot of mud. Track going to the left led to another track called the High and the Low tracks and the track on the right was the Leipsic Pass. East of the B&O diamond at Leipsic Junction, it became the Yellow Creek Running Track. Great picture. Mark Hinsdale: David L White, yes, you are absolutely right. Even in the "bad ol' 70's," this looks to be uncharacteristically poor track for the N&W. C&O's railroad, especially in my native Michigan, was in horrendous shape, ballasted with limestone, pumping mud everywhere because of poor drainage (as evident here), and freight speeds on the Detroit to Grand Rapids and Grand Rapids to Chicago routes were lowered to 40 mph. Not as bad as what Penn Central contended with, but nothing whatsoever to brag about. Grand Trunk Western had about the best track structure of anyone around the Midwest, and took soon to pointing it out in the "Good Track Road" slogan. Mark Hinsdale shared |
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| Guy Span posted Thanks to C. G. Tower, we now know this is the B&O crossing the Mainline of the Chicago - Buffalo Nickel Plate. I was at work and grabbed this view as the cat came through Leipsic Jct. My younger self did not note it and I was only there a few times so it was not familiar. It also explains the huge load of extra wires... Just another cold winter day. Scanned from a 35mm Kodachrome processed in Feb. 1988. Mark Egebrecht: Tower was decommissioned in 1984 and razed in 2018. Tod Riebow shared |
When I looked at a satellite image, it appeared the tower was still standing! I could not find a good image with street view, but I did find one that is good enough to confirm the tower is still standing. But then I read Mark's comment about it being torn down in 2018. So I then checked the street view date and it is July 2009. And it makes sense that the satellite image is over two years old.
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| Street View |
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| Jonathan Konopka posted 1988 - CSXT 8907 is southbound at Leipsic, OH. Photograph by John F. Bjorklund, collection of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art. Richard Maguire: Love those Color Position Light signals. |
Darren Reynolds posted four photos with the comment: "B&O/N&W 'XN' tower..Leipsic, Ohio"
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| 1 "XN" tower was not an all B&O tower N&W Shared expenses and ran the tower. I think B&O had one shift.. Photo by: Terry Miliczky September 1979 |
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| 2 Interlocking machine and model board "XN" tower Photo by: Wally Matters (No date) |
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| 3 Not too much longer and the CPLs will come down... "XN" tower 2016 Photo by: Eric Davis |
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| 4 Looking down the B&Os main line at "XN" tower you can see the CPLs... Photo by: C.H.Geletzke Jr. November 1, 1978 |
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