Photo day—Snowy day at Air Line

January of 1982 was a good time for me. I had recently received my first driving license, and for Christmas in 1981 I received my first Pentax SLR camera. I was 17 and ready for some real railfanning!

The problem was that I did not have my own car. If was fortunate that my parents liked to go shopping. Almost every weekend they drove to Toledo to make the rounds of the stores. I would tag along, and we eventually came to an agreement that I could take the car to do some quick railfanning while they were in a store or at a mall.

I quickly learned where to see trains close to the stores my parents frequented. If they went to Northtowne Square mall, I could drive over to Alexis Tower or check out the Detroit & Toledo Shore Line yard, and—time permitting—even down to Vickers Crossing. From the Southwyck Mall, the N&W operations around Maumee were nearby. And from the Westgate Shopping Center or nearby Value City Department Store, the Conrail main line was nearby at the Westwood Ave. crossing (which my uncle referred to as the “14 tracks”).

Westwood Ave. was a great spot to park and photograph trains, located at the west end of Air Line Yard. All trains entering or leaving the Chicago Line passed here, crossing the Toledo Terminal Railroad diamond at Nasby Tower. There was also a yard full of stored equipment to check out (see “Conrail camp car finale”).

So with my new camera in hand, and the January sales bringing my parents to Toledo, I ended up at Westwood Ave. on a snowy day that month and was able to photograph these two trains on black-and-white film, which I was experimenting with at the time. Black ex-Penn Central locomotives were still commonplace, and Conrail was moving the freight. All was well.

 

Tags: Conrail, NYC, Ohio, Penn Central, Toledo