Sidetracked
While tending to some family business in the swamp lands of Toledo I decided to bring my camera along incase I had some extra time when I was finished, after all Toledo has been my main area of exploration in recent years due to its prevalence of new and interesting spots. Alas when I finished I found myself with a bit of extra time, not like I had anything important planned today anyways.
A few months back while scoping a factory on the Auditor's map I noticed that Transco's Toledo repair garage was in a bit of disarray so I marked it. Fast forward to today and I was checking my map for things close to the highway I could hit before heading back and this blue building was just calling my name, epically since it was right off the highway.
Transco Railway Products was founded in 1936 and specializes in the repair of repair of rolling stock, according to their own website; "Transco Railway Products, Inc. is a strategically positioned network of modern repair facilities offering railcar repair, railcar parts, and railcar maintenance services.".
Because the building did not have its own parcel and the Sanborn maps are useless for this area I could not find a specific date of construction. If I had to hazard a guess I would say it was built in the 70s. I couldn't find an exact date for its closure either but it looks to be sometime between late 2019 and early 2020.
I ended up having to park my car in the grass alongside the road as there was literally no parking anywhere for a mile in every direction. Luckily it seemed this road was scarcely traveled judging by the start and finish line spray painted onto the road for illegal races.
To access this site I had to sneak into the very much active Lang Rail Yard. Lang Yard used to be part of the Detroit & Toledo Shore Line until Canadian National (at the time Grand Trunk Railroad) purchased the line in the 1980s. For a while it was used to store coal trains servicing the ever hungering furnaces of Lake Erie power plants until those went out of style. Luckily Canadians are unaware of the invention of fences so it was pretty easy getting inside.
I believe this is a Hydraulic Shear.
As I was parking a CN work truck drove by and parked facing the building, I quickly ran inside to avoid being spotted by the parked vehicle. For being inside an active rail yard this place sure had a lot of graffiti. My guess is that people that come to the yard to tag the trains hangout/hide here at night.
I'm kind of surprised that CN doesn't use the building to store railcars or at least install cameras in it considering the door is just wide open. Throughout my explore the constant sound of locomotives rolling past and cars on the freeway made for a nice ambience as well as the sound of uhh Garbage Trucks! What I had failed to account for was the fact that I had just left my car sitting in front of the entrance to a land fill during Toledo's trash pickup day.
I finished taking my last few photos and ran back to my car to find it of course, surrounded by garbage trucks waiting to dispatch. I sheepishly climbed into my car and sped off before any of the garbage men could question why I had just run out of a rail yard with a camera and GoPro in hand.
While not the most interesting place I have ever explored it was pretty interesting seeing what a train workshop looked like, in fact I don't think I've ever actually explored one before. Young me would have been bouncing off the walls with excitement (I was obsessed with trains and abandoned places when I was younger). Anyways hope everyone is having a good week so far and as always;
Mutagen Out.
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