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The Cooke Road Train Crew was formed in 2003 by a few local rail-fans and friends
that thought a great idea would be to create a rail-fan and model railroading web site to
share our photos and thoughts with other railfans and modelers around the world.
Enabling us to talk about what railroads we like to model and what kind of freight action can be
seen right here in Columbus Ohio. We also host photos and videos of
railroad activity some of us have captured in other areas of the country
during our many rail-fan trips.
The name "Cooke Road Train Crew" was derived from the name of a street (Cooke
Road) that dead ends right into 3 Railroad lines in Central Columbus. The
first line is a single track CSX line. Formally the New York Centrals,
latter Conrail's Columbus line. This line runs from Cleveland to Cincinnati
via a connection with the Big 4 line at Galion, Ohio. Traffic on this line
through Columbus has been choked in recent years since the split of Conrail.
CSX considers this a secondary line and will run trains as needed . Now this
line sees an average of a few loaded and empty coal trains per week. A few
Grain Trains per week and a short daily local that services the Budweiser
Plant in Northern Columbus.
The Second and third lines are Ex Pennsylvania Railroad - Norfolk & Western
and now Norfolk Southern's Sandusky District. The Pennsylvania Railroad sold
this line from Columbus to Sandusky to the N&W in 1964 to complete a
connection with the Original N&W line into Columbus from the Port of Norfolk
and Roanoke Virginia. On peak days this double track main line sees as many
as 35 freight trains in a 24 hour period. Trains run geographically
North/South or railroad West/East respectively. Trains To and from Chicago,
Port of Norfolk, Cincinnati, Portsmouth, OH and Pittsburgh, PA can be seen
running on this main line via connections with other routes. The Sandusky
District also connects 2 of Norfolk Southern's larger classification yards.
Belleview Yard in Belleview, Ohio and Buckeye yard in west Columbus. During
good weather and summer nights you can find a flurry of activity up at Cooke
Road. It's a nice location to sit up there and relax, take photographs, talk
with other rail-fans and catch a freight train or 5.
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