Listening to the railroads on the scanner you will hear so many different landmarks some are common places while others are a bit of a mystery. Since I’m still relatively new to Ohio I haven’t visited all the cities and towns around Cincinnati so many of them are still foreign to me.
I often hear the scanner crackle a bit and the dispatcher telling a train to hold up at McGonigle. After doing some research for the Cincinnati Ultimate Trackside guide I’m working on, I discovered where McGonigle is. Just a stone’s throw from Miami University’s Oxford campus, this unincorporated community is on CSX Indianapolis Subdivision a single-track mainline running northwest between Hamilton, Ohio to Julietta, IN. McGonigle is one of the few locations on the line where there is a siding track. Often the dispatcher will route a train to a siding so another train can pass this train on the main line. The siding at McGonigle is over a mile long at 7,250 feet.
I few Sundays ago I was able to chase a train northwest down the CSX Indianapolis Sub to where this train had to wait at McGonigle for an eastbound to pass. I was able to capture these photos on Hussey Rd in McGonigle.
