unforum

[James M]

[ANALYSIS]Where is the railway?

[vapor]

I've been doing a lot of research on Ohio railways and valuation maps. I have found several maps and you can see mileposts on some of them.

http://www.lakegis.org/taxmap/scannedsurveys/Railroad%20Valuation%20Maps/Railroad%20Valuation%20Maps.pdf

The problem I guess is that we don't have too many clues as to which railway it was traveling on at the time of the wreck. The only clues we have to a possible location is the truck's license plate, which gives us either Summit or Portage counties.

Some people think it was outside of Dayton when it derailed but I think that's just a shot in the dark. Therefore, I think our only way to figure this out is to find valuation maps of Summit and Portage counties and look for a 21 + 70.64 milepost on the map. That should give us a best guess as to the site of the incident.

[James M]

Hmm, also, the train was coming from Bonham (or going to Bonham), and in Bonham there is currently an airfield called Jones Field. Check it out on Google Earth if you want, it could have been an AF Field back in 1979/80.

[ketos234]

Long time lurker: If this is old or irrelevant, then ignore it.

Looking at Google Earth to try to find plausible train routes. If we assume that the train is heading from somewhere close to Area 51 to Wright Patterson, and that it mostly stays on the track of Class 1 railroads (weight, security, etc.), then:

The only track you can plausibly start on is Union Pacific. There are 3 major east-west tracks, two to the north and one a quite a way south.

Bonham, UT, is on the junction between the north south track out of Area 51 and the northernmost of the east west tracks.

At the other end, the layout of junctions near WP AFB forces you south to Cincinnati or east to Columbus. You can't get from Oxford, OH to WP because of the restricted junction at Hamilton, OH.

Cincinnati works with the middle of the three east west tracks (Through Denver, Kansas City, St Louis, Cincinnati, swapping from Union Pacific to Norfolk Southern at Kansas City)

The northern route also works, and is *far* less inhabited:
Go East from Bonham. Pass 15 miles north of Omaha, 30 North of Des Moines, and swap to Norfolk Southern track at Chicago. The junctions north of Columbus force you to go east till Huron County before turning south (at Willard) , which is only 50 miles from Summit County.

Alternately taking a longer loop of track at the end takes you *through* Summit county (at the south western tip), turning south there and turning West at Coshocton, then continuing through Columbus to WP AFB.

[yellowdart1]

[vapor]

[rempas]

All of a sudden the google search. "train derailment Ohio 1979"
turned up this website
http://www.alliancememory.org/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/places&CISOSORT=title%7Cr&CISOSTART=1,81

trainderailment on September 12, 1979 in Ohio

[ketos234]

[rempas]

[vapor]

Ok so it looks like CSX uses milepost prefixes before the the mile number. The prefixes indicate the previous owner of the track before it was absorbed into the CSX line. It appears that CSX is the only railroad that uses milepost prefixes.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSX_milepost_prefixes

It's a bit hard to make out in the screen capture exactly what the prefix might be. It looks like a bolded lower case "i", but upon closer inspection it could be an "A" or a "B" or maybe "I" with some other letter above it. Here is a list of CSX milepost dispatcher codes and also milepost prefixes.

http://www.botecomm.com/bote/rail/csx_dispatchers.html#IB

If I had to take a wild stab at it, I think it could be "QI" which would put it in the Mount Victory subdivision of the CSX line which runs from Martel, OH to Bellefontaine, OH in rural central Ohio. Someone with better eyes may want to look at the screencap and confirm. http://super8.wikibruce.com/images/5/56/Teaserframe-1384.jpg

[UnendingMadness]

It's definitely just an "i".

[vapor]

I don't know. It certainly looks like it could be a "B:. Especially after a bit of sharpening. Maybe I'm just obsessed with this puzzle to the point of seeing things out of the sheer desired to SEE something, though.

[UnendingMadness]

I dunno, maybe it's just me but I see a straight line with a dot above it quite clearly. Even in your sharpened image it just looks like an i.

[Tenshi Akui]

I keep seeing i21‡70.54. But it seems the 5 could be a 6.

[ComptonAssJohn]

I definitely don't see a "B"

Maybe an "i" and then 2147664...