A Late-November Saturday of Railfanning at Marion Union Station in Marion, Ohio. 11/22/2025.

Hello everyone. Today's video is from my second day of railfanning here at Marion Union Station on the weekend prior to Thanksgiving. On this Saturday of railfanning, the action was a bit slower than the previous day but nonetheless I made the most of my time here in Marion. Similar to the previous Saturday I spent railfanning in Marion, the action was slower in terms of action. I am not sure if this is a new trend or it was just a slower than usual day, but hopefully the latter and not the former.

The day started off with a rather nice surprise on the first northbound manifest (manifest 18M to Bellevue) with a rare Norfolk Southern MP15AC switching locomotive switching second. These engines are rare in the modern railroad landscape, with many taken out of service prior to 2020. This particular MP15AC was already in LTEX markings and Larry's Truck and Electric was most likely its next destination. The next train following 18M was its counterpart, southbound manifest 19M to Roanoke running one engine in front and one engine as rear DPU. About an hour later we got our first and only train meet on the day with northbound intermodal 277 meeting a southbound coal train on the Sandusky District. The first CSX train did not roll through until around 11 a.m. with a northbound grain train on the Columbus Subdivision, which would turn out to be the lone train on that line. Southbound intermodal 28N, the most consistent train on the NS Sandusky District, would round out the morning action on this sunny yet chilly day.

As morning turned to afternoon, CSX finally sent the first two trains on the Indianapolis Line with westbound manifest M363 and eastbound intermodal I008. Today's M363 featured a pretty good variety of interesting rolling stock, most notably a super-flat car and a pair of Conrail boxcars. M363 is one of my favorite trains here in Marion for the very reason that you never know what fallen flag rolling stock you'd see and today was no different. I008 rolled through about 20 minutes after M363 with the typical consist. After NS southbound intermodal 276 came on through, CSX would send its two other daytime manifest trains with westbound M331 to Indianapolis and its eastbound counterpart M332 from Indianapolis to Maryland. Both trains had the standard consist, and M331 featured the usual pipe-filled gondolas. An interesting note; M331 these days has carried a number of gondolas loaded with pipes and has at least 15 or more of these cars per train.

The final three trains of the day were all Norfolk Southern northbound trains. The first train was a rather late intermodal 267 with a solo Union Pacific engine. Oddly enough, this was the same UP engine I saw the previous day leading intermodal 266 to Columbus. After 266, manifest trains 178 and 117, which both terminate in Bellevue, came by Marion Union Station. For reasons that I do not know, Norfolk Southern held back the action on the Sandusky District and did not start letting the action fully flow in the afternoon until the last hour of railfanning. Sadly, I could not stay after the three trains as I had to drive back home. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my time here in Marion and its always a great thing to have time to go and railfan here at Marion Union Station.

I hope you enjoyed this video compilation of Saturday action. As always, thanks for watching!

-N&W475.