Fort Wayne, IN (Runnion, NE, Junction) - June 1993

Years before the Conrail split, Fort Wayne was quite literally a major turning point for NS traffic. In the early 1990s, traffic started to pick up on the Nickel Plate & Wabash lines and several intermodals were added throughout the decade. This footage starts out at Runnion, then moves the next day to NE, and then jumps back between Junction and Runnion. When I heard the Conrail YDFW talking on 160.800MHz, I quickly put the tripod away and scrambled over to Junction, just barely catching him. You can skip to different sections using the links below. VHS original.
Thanks for watching!
~ Zeke
June 12, 1993
Runnion was a significant pivot point for NS in connecting its Southern Region with Chicago. The NS New Castle District junction with the Chicago District was just a few hundred yards to the east of Runnion Ave. Also at this time, Conrail operated the Grand Rapids & Indiana (GR&I, ex-PRR) branch, which crossed here on diamonds and extended about 4 miles to the north. I returned here the next day to film the Conrail local that operated on it. You can see the diamond here has been “pumping mud” recently. The wye on the northeast side of the diamond was how Conrail accessed the NYC (FW&J) line to OmniSource. Everything in this area changed after NS acquired the GR&I and the Fort Wayne Secondary in 1994. Today NS operates the GR&I north of Runnion. The GR&I diamonds and the track south to Junction is long gone today. Just a few short remnants remain of the New Castle District and the NYC here.
00:31 - NS 411 westbound (NS 1648/NS 7123). Pretty cool-sounding P5 horn.
02:03 - NS 143 eastbound (NS 3241/NS 6148/NS 3545/NS 1643) slows up and turns south for Cincinnati onto the New Castle District. The speed limit for the New Castle turnout was 20 mph. You can see the cottonwood trees are starting their annual fluff-shedding. As the last few cars turn south, an ice cream truck drives by in the background.
04:20 - NS 205 westbound (NS 8750 - just a few months old - great K5LA). 205/206 were fairly new trains on the line, operating between Bison Yard and Landers. Occasionally, 205 would get routed through town via Mike-Junction-Park-Runnion to avoid snags around East Wayne.
06:09 - NS 306 eastbound (NS 5234/NS 7000 [GP40X]/NS 7036). Extra toots. 4 green camo Humvees in tow.
08:09 - Eastbound local. My notes say L42, but I think this is L41. (NS 5074/NS 5037).
June 13, 1993
09:39 - Some brief shots at East Wayne Yard (NS 8665, NS 2811)
NE is where the Chicago/Fostoria District and the Huntington District (NKP/WAB) cross and is at the east end of East Wayne Yard.
09:54 - Light power returns back to East Wayne. (NS 2869/NS 5011). Could be L70 or L91.
11:03 - Westbound NS 8725 intermodal. Looks like 273.
11:57 - Westbound NS 183 (NS 6099/NS 2858/NS 2844) transitions from the NKP to the Wabash, I just love this P5 horn. Notice the US Post Office Grumman LLVs. They were manufactured in Montgomery, PA until 1994. Most are still in service today.
14:40 - Westbound NS 3242/NS 5119. A classic Southern P5 horn.
16:43 - Eastbound NS 306 (NS 7123/NS 7132).
18:27 - Eastbound NS 3524/NS 3941, K5H horn, looks like train 412, the U23B chugs away.
20:22 - NS 5119/NS 3242 (same power seen earlier) comes across NE and backs up.
21:45 - At Junction, Conrail YDFW (CR 3260/CR 3359) comes off of the ex-PRR and heads up the GR&I, crossing West Jefferson Blvd. This track is gone today.
22:28 - Conrail YDFW returns south at Runnion. The conductor is in 3359 calling the signals to the engineer over the radio as he can’t see them from his side of 3260. I believe it was an automatic interlocking. The track you see off to the right is the wye they used to access the NYC (FW&J). Today this is how NS accesses the GR&I from the Chicago District. After crossing the diamonds, the light power heads towards Park and Junction to return to Piqua Yard.
24:53 - Back at Junction. NS M43 makes the circuitous journey from Runnion and comes through led by NS 6162/NS 3328/NS 1589. You can actually see both the front and rear of the train for a second. Train has both a flag and an EOT. The 6162 was donated last year to a museum in Kentucky. In 1999, the New Castle District was rerouted at Junction to its current configuration, using using a balloon-type track. The New Castle District was removed north of Junction shortly thereafter.

[@bluebooya]

These are some magnificent catches! Really nice job!

[@wmuzeke]

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@kkuehne45]

Really neat video of the operations in this area!

[@wmuzeke]

Thanks. Much appreciated!

[@nicholasmedovich8691]

@@wmuzeke love all the air horns. The high hooded sd40-2s sounded gnarly but unique

[@joshuagarber9963]

Interesting footage and good information in the descriptions as usual. I dig the couple of chirps from the NS EOTs too.

[@wmuzeke]

Thanks - I miss those old VHF EOTs.

[@ScottTaipaleRail]

I spent 10 years filming the Ft Wayne area so this was pretty fun to watch. Wish I had gotten to film the old alignment down the GR&I.

[@wmuzeke]

Glad you enjoyed it. That's about the same amount of time I was there, too.

[@HOTRAILProductions]

Superb!

[@ChadQuick270W]

Superb as always! Man, that GR&I track looked like a derailment waiting to happen. Amazing that back then you could just sit at NE all day and tape trains and nobody cared. I miss those days.

[@wmuzeke]

Thanks! Yeah, that GR&I around Runnion was pretty sketchy. Conrail was just about ready to sell it to NS. Pretty much everything in that going away shot of YDFW at Runnion is gone today. NS used the GR&I between Park and Junction right up until 1999 for the Chicago RoadRailers until they built the Hadley Connector.

[@nicholasmedovich8691]

0:32 2:22 4:24 6:27 8:15 10:24 11:03 11:59 14:40 16:43 18:26 20:36 22:02 25:22 amazing air horns from NS units

[@nicholasmedovich8691]

Rare catching a b32-8 w a high hood u23b