Northern Ohio Railfan

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Welcome to page four. The NS line from Vermillion to Bellevue. I have chosen to start at Coen road just west of Vermillion. There are a few crossings between here and the East 55th street yard in Cleveland: West 110th Street in Cleveland, Linda street in Rocky River and Miller road in Avon. Out here you are between both NS lines, and can get a lot more action.
Coen Road
Coen road is where the new connection comes in from the ex-CR Chicago line. The best time is AM for EB's, and late summer PM for WB's. The red cross designates the Coen Road crossing. The two black arrows indicate the connection between ex-Conrail and NS. Next stop is Poorman Road.
Poorman
As always, the Delorme Ohio Gazetteer is handy to have. Go north on Coen Road to Rte 6, turn left and go west to Poorman Road (which is Twp Hwy 141). Go south on Poorman Road  to Jeffries (which is Twp Hwy 74) and turn left. The MP 225.1 signal, which is good for westbounds, is here. Go back to Poorman and turn left and go under the railroad bridge. On the other side you can get a picture of EB's crossing the Chappel Creek bridge marked by the red cross. There is a detector 4 miles west at MP 229 just west of Rte 61.   
Shinrock
From Poorman Road go west to Joppa, turn left, then go south to Darrow Road. Turn right, go west crossing Rte 61 to Barrows Road, turn left and follow this across Berlin Road and 1/4 mile west is Shinrock siding. A lot of trains meet here. This is where the Huron branch connects. W&LE train 341 goes up the branch to Huron to load ore.

 
East Avery
Leaving Shinrock go west on Mason Road and across Rte 13. Turn left on Hooven Road to the tracks.  This is the east end of Avery siding.  The arrow indicates the east end of Avery siding. When you're done here, go back to Mason Road and go west to Rte 250. Turn south and go to Strecker Road just beyond the Turnpike overpass.  Turn right and go west on Strecker to Rte 4. Turn left on Rte 4 and go south 1 mile to the Rte 4 overpass. The engine facility is just west of the bridge, some nice morning shots can be taken here, but be careful because the traffic drives past at 55 to 60 miles per hour. From here, go south on Rte 4 to Rte 113 and go west 2 miles to Rte 20 which takes you right into Bellevue. 

 
Bellevue
McKim street is the light just before the underpass. Turn left there and then right on Center Street to the tracks.  I suggest that you drive around and become familiar with the different crossings. There are about 7 or 8 crossings in the immediate area.  No one bothers you as long as you stay off the tracks.  You can spend the whole day here.  A scanner is very helpful because trains come from 5 different directions: east from Chicago, north from Columbus, southeast from Toledo, south out of the yard and the W&LE comes west from Brewster.  It's not uncommon to have 5 or 6 trains waiting to make their move.  I like the crossing at center street which is marked by the blue arrow.  I also like the New Haven connection which is marked by the red arrow.  The picture of MRL 256 was taken there. Lots of foreign power and the W&LE which runs 3 or 4 trains a day makes for an interesting day.  Traffic is usually busiest in the morning.

From here you can follow NS south to Attica Jct. where CSX crosses, or follow NS west to Fostoria.