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MP173: The Southern Line is now of course Norfolk Southern. I thought that we had only 15-20 trains a day through here, however, another railfan said that he stayed up all night one time and counted about 27-28 trains in 24 hours. The IC line at Bluford is now CN. There is a small yard there with about 4 of 5 other tracks besides the main. Most trains through there go slow, and I don't see a lot of trains on it all the time. They do use it quite a bit however, just not a whole lot. Yes, you are correct, we were talking earlier about the B&O line to St. Louis. Below, I am going to copy and paste my previous response from that topic: On July 15, 2005: MP173: The Norfolk Southern Line through Fairfield carries about 15-20 trains a day. There is no CTC signals. Track warrants are issued by radio and signals are in place that automatically change when a train is on the tracks. The main through here is probably the only main line in Southern Illinois not using CTC. Sometimes it is hard to catch a train going through here, because you never know when one will come. Sometimes, 5 will come all at the same time and it will be another 5 hours before anything else shows up. Most trains through here simply take their time and are not in a rush, however, we do have some high priority Intermodal trains that come through at fast speed. The tracks here are very similar to the way they were back when it was still Southern, NS has simply maintained them good over the years, installed new grade crossing lights, and extended one of the secondary sidings through here. The turnouts here are manual. This slows everything down, because a worker has to get out and switch it and lock it in place to get on a siding. Like I mentioned before, we don't have a lot of fast, priority trains through here, but this line does carry quite a bit of traffic. At Princeton Indiana there is a Toyota plant that this line serves. Long auto rack trains are loaded full and come through Fairfield on their way to St. Louis. At least once or twice a week, a coal train will come through on it's way from Mount Carmel. There is a big power plant over there that NS serves. Overall, these tracks are medium used, which is kind of good in the fact that you can be by the tracks and not have to worry all the time about if a train is sneaking up on you very fast. Earlier this year, NS cut down several trees along the tracks which makes it easier to see the trains. Earlier this year, we had 2 accidents at Grade Crossings. At Sims, a mail track was hit, and mail went flying all over a corn field. In Wayne City, a woman in a car was crossing the tracks and was hit by the local. Both accidents occurred at Crossings with lights. After those accidents, they installed 2 more sets of lights and gates at 2 other crossings. Anyway, a good place to watch trains that come through here is at Princeton Indiana. There's a little depot over there that has the Gibson County Tourist offices in it. It sits right beside the NS main and beside the CSX main that goes from Evansville to Chicago. You can see about 60 trains a day at Princeton. You can also go inside the depot where it's nice and air conditioned and look at all the pictures and things while you wait for a train to come by. At Bluford, the same NS main crosses over the CN Main line. I think the CN is called the Bluford District. There is not a diamond, the NS crosses over the CN on a bridge. I like Bluford, but there is no really good spot to sit for a long time to watch trains. The 3 spots that I watch trains around here, is south of my Grandma's house on an old farm road, at Princeton IN, and at Evansville's CSX Howell Yard. Effingham Illinois is also a fairly good place to watch trains. At Effingham, the CSX (Former Conrail) main crosses the CN. I think about 50 trains go through there a day.
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