HOTSPOTS DOWNRIVER:
         MONROE, MICHIGAN

MONROE, Mi, is located about half way through Monroe county, and has 3 railroads running through it: CSX, GTW, and NS (former CR) Frequencies of the area are as follows
CSX                         NS                                                   GTW
160.230   (road)     160.800 (NS Michigan Disp)              160.530  (TD-2 Troy)
160.635  (BX disp) 161.070 (NS Toledo Yard )(you will be able to hear Toledo! and     Northbounds coming up!)

Access to Monroe, is very easy (GET map at bottom of page) . On 1-75 or Telegraph Road (Telegraph road parallels the CSX toledo Terminal Sub for miles. You acn get a nice pan shot from your car on the road.  get off at Dixie Highway. This road will take you right to the center of the rail action:  After Turning east from Telegraph, you will cross the CSX Toledo Terminal subdivision  this is a very busy main track, and CSX has a detector near Monroe, at m.p 124.5. A good place to see CSX, is at the Raisin river bridge , where the double track line runs through a trestle. Parking here, is everywhere, and you are sure yo get some very nice pictures. Further East Warner Yard (NS) and GTW  "Warner"
GTW and NS parallel eachother here, and NS has a diamond and an industrial running to the Ford plant there (Ford Lead). The Detroit line main tracks are about 1/4 mile separated here (as they are from LaSalle, to Trenton)  Traffic is usually heavier on Saturdays, as compared to Sundays, with about 20 trains on the NS Detroit line, 15-20 trains on the Grand Trunk Shoreline sub, and about 40 trains on the CSX Toledo Terminal Sub. Another Good Monroe train watching spot, is off of  a side-street, which is South of The Raisin river bridge: Kentucky St. where the southbound Main track runs extremely close to housing . It is very cool to catch a train especially in the fall as depicted HERE, when the trees are changing color. Finally, there is another train Hotspot ni Monroe, off of LaPlaissance road. Here is a location known as CP-DUNBAR, on the NS and "Plum Creek" on the GTW. Here, coal trains for the Monroe Edison plant come out and enter. These trains are only as needed, but there are usually about 6 runs a week or more. GTW, Shoreline runs parallel to the NS, about 100' apart, so you won't miss a thing. south of Moroe about 5 miles, is the town of LaSalle, where NS has a double crossover: CP-LaSalle. The Coal trains going south use the crossover to go down the right main track to toledo (#1 track) Other times,  trains are reversed frmo LaSalle to CP-Mill, or CP-Mill to CP-Dunbar, or CP-ALEXIS to CP-LaSalle, or even CP-LaSalle to CP-Alexis depending on train direction, North or South. Monroe, is a decent community, but like most cities there are a few bad areas. But most of  it is rather pleasent. Visit Monroe, it is a "gold-mine" for railfans!!!

Monroe area pics HERE

Return to MAIN page

Just type in your home address to get maps to Monroe!

(c) 1999-2000 Joshua Osmialowski. Questions, comments, complaints, corrections, contibutions, write to:  [email protected]