RAILFAN GUIDES of the U.S.
Todd's Railfan Guide to
BELLEVUE OH
In General
Getting Here
Map
Sights
Signals
Floobydust
RAILFAN GUIDES HOME
RAILROAD SIGNALS HOME
Bellevue is home to a huge yard for Norfolk Southern, which was a former Nickel Plate yard.
The Nickel Plate, or NKP, was a short and nickname for the New York, Chicago, and St Louis RR. It operated primarily in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania. The NKP was absorbed by the Norfolk & Western Rwy in 1964, which then combined with the Southern Rwy in 1982 to become the Norfolk Southern.
For entertainment, Bellevue offers railfans the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum, which is a really nice museum if you have never had the chance to visit.
With the realignment of Southwest St, and the building of the huge overpass to get over the railroad tracks, many interesting photo ops have dissapeared.
Bellevue is about as much of the signals as it is trains, although sadly, the N&W CPL's are quickly disappearing :-( For signal fans, many of the old N&W CPL signals are already gone, and many more are in the process of being converted over (as of fall 2011), so go and get those CPL pictures while they are still around!!!
More info on the NKP can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York,_Chicago_and_St._Louis_Railroad
Bellevue is conveniently located off the Ohio Turnpike, I-80/I-90, at exit 110. Go south about 4 miles on OH4 to OH113, taking a right, and that will put you right into the heart of Bellevue.
If you are coming from Fostoria, head east on OH18, and it will bring you right into Bellevue, passing through Tiffin, another good railfan spot. BTW, almost anything along the CSX E-W line is a good spot.
The map below shows where these three towns are in relation to each other.
The top aerial below is from Google, and the bottom one is from Bing's Maps.
Pictures were "taken" using Techsmith's Snag-it
1 NS's Bellevue Yard
Given the trouble I had with the LEO's on my last visit to Bellevue, where I stopped along the shoulder on the approach to the overpass going over the Bellevue Yard, I passed on stopping there again. I had a bike with me, that I was going to pedal my way up to the bridge with, but as luck had it, it was raining. So these pix are all I took from my 2011 trip thru town.
2 Mad River RR Museum
Pictures from around the museum in no particular order, the museum was closed when I came thru in October.
If ya'll know my email address, you know this is my
favorite engine, the GP-30.
1
Searchlight signal at the Museum getting ready to be
replaced by a colorlight, October 2011
Looking past the Museum, at an approaching EB freight
A little east of the signal across from the museum is this
approach signal
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Looking to the west from Co Rd 328 we see the C&O signals getting ready to
be replaced.
Looking the other way, east, one can see the interlocking signals at the
junction of the wye
A sign in the middle of the junction says "New Haven Connection"
Track heaters adjacent to County Road 328
9
Before and after pictures with a passing freight changing the aspect. The left signal is a diverging approach, rule 286.... proceed thru turnouts at prescribed speed preparing to stop at the next signal at medium speed, if not going medium speed, you must slow down to that speed. The stop indication in the right photo is rule 292.
Downtown has a decidedly old town look to it. The church on the right was for sale when my wife and I came thru in 2008, would have been a nice place to railfan from! :-)
NEW 07/19/2009
Last Modified
10-Feb-2012