Cincinnati Eastern Railroad

Passing through Macon, Ohio.
This is the same US Hwy 62 at-grade crossing of Cincinnati Eastern Railroad, except now we are Westbound and coming at it from the opposite direction.

Right/West to Mariemont is 41.5-miles.

Left/East to Plum Run is 28.0-miles.

We are between the RxR crossing and the US Hwy 62 intersection with OH Hwy 32.

38° 57' 55.64" North Latitude
83° 43' 40.84" West Longitude
Elevation: 1,077'
Sunday_19-December-2021

Suburban Propane is at left and the Macon water tower is at right.



That bright red circle at right/center, just to the right of the house, is a Switch Target.

www.sperlingrailway.com/RailwayProducts.php?Switch-Targets-32

pacrailsolutions.com/solutions/indicators/



In the next two photos, we are looking West toward Cincinnati.

The 1,190' rail spur to right accesses Builders First Source and what appears to be some sort of scrap metal facility.

From this angle, we can see both sides/colors of the switch target, red and white.



In this photo, we see the switch target as the locomotive engineer would see it = White, meaning the switch is aligned for the Main; both the engineer and the conductor would also be straining their eyes to see how the switch points were aligned, as someone could have tampered with the switch and target.



It does not require the Herculean effort one would think to throw the switch from one direction to another; the operating handle is three feet at most and even the wormiest railroader can position the switch.

When you position a switch, you are actually bending the rails.

Once the handle reaches a certain point, it sort of cams over much like a log boomer, sort of self-locking itself in place; it is harder to override this cam than it is to actually move the rails.

On both sides/directions, there is a mechanical latch with a huge padlock affixed to a chain.

I still have the key issued to me back in 1998.

If this were a remotely controlled switch, there would be a large Propane tank nearby with burners at all contact points to prevent the switch from freezing.

For a manual switch like this, either the crew or a track maintenance worker would carry a portable propane tank and burner like those sold for burning weeds from the cracks in driveways and parking lots.

In the lower-left of the photo is a huge concrete pedestal; probably left over from the Norfolk & Western days; maybe it held a signal tower.

Thanks for looking; I hope you find it interesting.