A Fantastic and Fun Filled Day of Railfanning in Marion, Ohio, at the Marion Conrail Days!

Hello everyone, and welcome to today's video! On this day of railfanning (July 20th, 2019), Cincy Railfan Productions and I traveled up to Marion, Ohio, to attend and railfan at the Marion Conrail Days Festival at Marion Union Station. The Marion Conrail Days is an annual event hosted by the good people of Marion Union Station and by the good people of Marion, and Cincy Railfan Productions and I were keen on coming to Marion for yet another great day of railfanning. Sure enough, between the trains passing by and activities of the station, today did not disappoint.
Before I continue, I'd like to give a big shoutout to some of the railfans I met on this day of railfanning. My first shoutout goes to Michael Scott (not the Office Character lol), a great railfan from Columbus and all-around good guy. Michael produces great videos of railfanning action around the Columbus area and in Central Ohio, and I highly recommend that you all check out his channel. My second shoutout goes to another KZbinr, Railfan Brett Railfanning Productions, who also produces some pretty good videos. Feel free to check out his channel as well. My third and most important shoutout goes to all the other Marion-area railfans, especially those who are members of the Marion Union Station associations. I'd like to give a big shoutout to Gary, Jake, and Jeremy, three great guys and great railfans from the Columbus area who help to do their part in keeping Marion Union Station a great place to visit and railfan. Without them, Conrail Days wouldn't be a reality. Their dedication to keep Marion a great place to railfan is always noteworthy and appreciated, and I hope this festival can continue for many years to come.
Now, onto the action. Today was a most interesting day of railfanning, one filled with some rather unusual sights. To start off the action, the first train we catch is NS 178 on its way to Bellevue with one of the more rare sights in all of railroading: a double-DPU. As we all know, DPU's aren't anything unusual on Norfolk Southern or CSX, but this was rather noteworthy as it had two SD70ACes as DPU power instead of just one. After that catch, we caught an influx of CSX power, brought about thanks to one of the funniest incidents I have seen in my railfanning career. CSX Q363, the daily westbound manifest from Selkirk, NY, to Avon, IN, stopped dead on the diamond due to having a shortage of power! You can say all you want about CSX being inefficient and having difficulties running trains, but this incident takes the cake. In all my years, I have never seen a train halt on the middle of the diamond in a flat area like Marion due to a power shortage. This caused traffic to stop for about 45 minutes, but as soon as it moved, things got back to normal. Soon after the mess with Q363 was cleaned up, Q364 came through with its own DPU (without stopping, fortunately), and soon after a CSX coal train and the local H702 to Willard came through as well.
The action from today wasn't all too surprising, and to be honest mainly featured the normal trains one would expect on the typical railfanning day in Marion. Still, it was great to see Marion as busy as ever with all three lines meeting their traffic quotas. Aside from the two DPU manifests on the Indianapolis Line Subdivision, we also saw the regular autorack trains, the daily intermodal train (Q008) to New York, and Q366, the daily manifest/mixed train from Avon, IN, to Collinwood, OH. Q366 is rather unique as it features both intermodal and manifest on the same train, one of few trains like that.
A few hours later, on the NS Sandusky District, we caught our big catch of the day. Eager to see a special unit on this day of railfanning, Norfolk Southern did not disappoint as NS SD70ACC 1801 (one of the first SD70 Rebuilds for NS) came through trailing on intermodal train 234 on its way to Virginia. A great sight, unfortunately the video quality is only decent thanks to the little railfans in the back screaming and overreacting while the camera is rolling. You hate to see it, but when can ya do? The only downside of this day was some younger railfans acting a bit irresponsible and borderline irritating at times thanks to their antics and talking when other people are filming, but it happens and boys will be boys I suppose. Fortunately the railfanning was good enough to outweigh the negatives, so that's always a good thing.
Overall, today was the best days of railfanning I've had so far this year and one of my best railfanning trips in a long time. I hope that Marion Conrail Days can continue for many years to come and I hope to attend it next year. I highly encourage you all to attend this festival as it has great railfanning, great activities, and all around is highly fun to attend and participate in. So mark your calendars for next year!
That about wraps it up for today's video. As always, thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoy today's video!
-N&W475

[@AustinWesternRailfan]

AWESOME VIDEO that first train was a monster so long

[@NW475]

Thanks, that first train was over 200 cars at least.

[@schnuurtchke]

They added two Railstream cams for people like me and you to watch at home when it’s inclement weather at the railfan park!

[@NW475]

I noticed that camera the last time I was up there, it's attached to AC Tower.

[@natgass8102]

nice camera work, very sharp picture

[@NW475]

Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed the video.

[@zdthelehighlinerailfan5362]

Was it NS 3332 When it Trailed Behind SD40 - 2 3241 on NS A84 When it Hit a Tractor Trailer Back in September of 2017 in Calera Alabama

[@ElliottWolcott]

Nice catches of the trains I was there.

[@RailfanBrettRailfanning]

Nice I was there

[@ElliottWolcott]

I know because I saw you.

[@csxwrldgalvin8883]

2 norfolk southern dpu

[@the.porter.productions]

18:45 my favorite part! You don’t see any of those no more :(

[@RailfanBrettRailfanning]

Can we maybe meet up in Marion tomorrow

[@elilovestrainsplanesmore1101]

What do you enjoy most about trains, I once met a guy in Marion that was there because of the graffiti on the trains, most railfans don't care for the graffiti do they?

[@NW475]

I like graffiti if it's more art-like or artwork graffiti. The issue with graffiti is many railfans don't like vulgar language or gang-related graffiti.