Glendale, Ohio

CSX participates in a directional running agreement with NS, whereby northbound traffic uses the Cincinnati Terminal Sub through Glendale and southbound traffic uses a nearby NS route made up of its New Castle and Dayton districts. Directional running is in effect between Butler Street in Hamilton and Winton Place in Cincinnati. (You can see southbound traffic on NS’s New Castle District, located about a mile and a half east of CSX on East Sharon Road, just east of Interstate 75.)

There are exceptions to the directional running rules. CSX’s Indianapolis Subdivision, a former B&O route to its namesake city, joins the Cincinnati Terminal Sub in Hamilton at the city’s former B&O station. The junction is south of Butler Street, thus requiring eastbound trains off the Indianapolis Sub — including daily road train Q360, extra grain trains, and Amtrak’s Cardinal — to operate south against the directional running at Glendale. A number of locals also serve the line, which must run south against the directional running to return to their originating yards. Dispatchers will also occasionally route other southbound traffic through Glendale as needed.

Look out for the hot K587, a daily steel slab train operating for AK Steel between its Ashland, Ky., and Middletown, Ohio, facilities. The train carries hot steel slabs that seem to glow at night! Also of interest is Y119, a turn that brings Tropicana orange juice reefers north from Cincinnati to a distribution facility in Springdale, a few miles north of Glendale. The cars operate between Florida and Cincinnati on regular intermodal trains Q041 and Q042. The triweekly Amtrak Cardinal currently passes Glendale westbound on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday and eastbound on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. Norfolk Southern also keeps the line interesting by running a northbound Triple Crown RoadRailer train, No. 264, through town. NS trains operating through town carry a CSX train symbol with a Z prefix, which do not correspond to their regular NS symbol.