Fostoria Ohio has been described as the busiest US rail town east of the Mississippi. Watching the live cams furnished by railstream.org, there is about 100 trains per day crossing "The Iron Triangle," a track arrangement formed the crossing of three double mainlines within hundreds feet of each other.
A fourth mainline was removed from Fostoria, but the three remaining mainlines belong to Norfolk Southern (constructed by the Nickel Plat Road), an east-west CSX line (constructed by the B&O), and a north-south CSX line (constructed by the C&O). Here is the triangle from google maps:
The cams at railstream.org give subscribers a perfect real time video of the south leg of the triangle. The left image below looks at the Nickel Plate/B&O diamond (now NS / CSX), and the telephoto lens used goes about one mile westward (wow) on the B&O line:
The right image looks east at the B&O / C&O diamond, now all CSX. At the right extreme lit up you can see the CSX "F" Tower. It is famous for the four "wye" tracks that allow any train approaching the diamond to leave it on any one of the three outlet destinations. CSX enjoys yards east and south of this diamond, while Norfolk Southern's Blair yard resides to the northeast of the "Iron Triangle."
The subject Trainz route will be based on:
A fourth mainline was removed from Fostoria, but the three remaining mainlines belong to Norfolk Southern (constructed by the Nickel Plat Road), an east-west CSX line (constructed by the B&O), and a north-south CSX line (constructed by the C&O). Here is the triangle from google maps:
The cams at railstream.org give subscribers a perfect real time video of the south leg of the triangle. The left image below looks at the Nickel Plate/B&O diamond (now NS / CSX), and the telephoto lens used goes about one mile westward (wow) on the B&O line:
The right image looks east at the B&O / C&O diamond, now all CSX. At the right extreme lit up you can see the CSX "F" Tower. It is famous for the four "wye" tracks that allow any train approaching the diamond to leave it on any one of the three outlet destinations. CSX enjoys yards east and south of this diamond, while Norfolk Southern's Blair yard resides to the northeast of the "Iron Triangle."
The subject Trainz route will be based on:
- Google Maps of Fostoria
- Observations of consist content and traffic frequency from the above cams
- Monitoring of the CSX "F" Tower radio communications
- Geometric data from Fish Lips "terrain only" route <kuid2:59012:102980:1>
- Realistic portal to portal operations, based on cam and radio observations, using portals by Maggs
- Diamond collisions will be averted by using the ASB Control System by boat
- Fostorians are plagued with extensive grade crossing traffic, both in quantity and duration. Boat's ATLS Control System will be up for the task.
