Progress Photos on Fostoria's $1.1 Million Railfan Park

[deneban]

Fostoria's Railfan Park Structures taking Shape

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Structures for the Fostoria Railfan Park are being fabricated offsite, as seen above, to minimize the impact on the continuous railroading operations at the Iron Triangle. The contractor was awarded $1.1 million dollars to build the five acre site within the rail triangle formed by the B&O Williard division, the C&O's Hocking Valley route, and the Nickel Plate Road's Fostoria Division (now CSX and Norfolk Southern). A conceptual plan of the park was drawn up six years ago and features photo-shooting platforms along the periphery of the mainlines, a drive-in entrance from Columbus Ave, and a few commemorative and custom built structures.

2007 Conceptual Map of Fostoria's Railfan Park

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One of the most ambitious aspects of the park is to move the abandoned New York Central depot into the triangle, as shown above, as well as the very famous abandoned NYC tower (the first CTC tower in the US). In the early 1900's, the NYC approached the triangle from the southeast, to parallel the C&O, and did so into the PennCentral days. When Conrail took over this trackage, it decided not to continue using this line, and the NYC trackage, originally layed by the Toledo & Ohio, and it was ripped up about 20 years ago.

An initial $300,000 federal grant was used by Fostoria to remove and claim ownership of the abandoned pork stock car and slaughterhouse facility located in the triangle. The balance of the funding comes from the state of Ohio.

Here is a very current cam view of the new park's site from the southwest:

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We can see the pavement for the photo platforms and some lampposts in place. CSX vehicles drive past the construction to access the "F Tower" facility from S. Poplar street. The B&O mainline is prominent in this photo, while the C&O runs across the background. The cutoff track shown in the right side of the photo is called the "northwest transfer" and allows trains from Chicago to turn towards Toledo, and vice versa. Railfans are currently prohibited from this area.

As construction has started and stopped several times over the past 5 years, no one has named a firm completion date for the park. In terms of commerce, Fostoria hopes to revitalize the losses in railroad commerce with the new found tourist income. The latest loss is Amtrak, which no longer stops at the B&O terminal in Fostoria. Although it is the case there are less railroad companies here, one can still see four of the five largest Class I North American railroads passing through Fostoria: CSX, Norfolk Southern, BNSF, Union Pacific, and Canadian Pacific!

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