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In June 2003, I visited Deshler, Ohio where two
CSX Railroad mainlines come together at a "diamond crossing",
although in actuality, it's much closer to a true cross-shaped
intersection.
The north-south line is called the Toledo Subdivision
which runs from Toledo to Cincinnati. The east-west line
consists of two divisions which meet at Deshler, the Garrett
Subdivision which runs towards Chicago from East Deshler to Garrett,
Indiana, and the Willard Subdivision running from East Deshler to
Willard, Ohio. (Special thanks to the folks
over at http://www.geocities.com/csxt_gp38/DESHLERINFO.html for the geographical info!)
Deshler gets a fair amount of train
traffic in all directions which is readily visible from Crossroads Park which is located directly south of
the east-west line and west of the north-south line. When I
was there, several trains passed by including a BNSF set of
locomotives heading east, pulling a solid train of auto
racks.
Those had to be the newest and
cleanest auto rack cars I've ever seen--no graffiti, no rust, no
mismatched decals, just looking new!
If you look directly across the tracks
from Crossroads Park, you can't help but notice the damage remaining
from the 2002 derailment at Deshler--one of the cars slammed through
the station building walls!
Keep that picture in mind the next
time you see some "genius" racing a train across a grade
crossing--not much wins in a match with a train at
speed! 
If you were
standing next to me in the late afternoon while I was taking
pictures, this is what you would have seen--looking to the south,
then to the east, then to the west and then to the east again--a CSX
train parade!
(I'm going to try something
different for a change--post an animated train
picture!)
One northbound train, coming out of
Cincinnati with a mixed load of tank cars, hoppers and box cars,
went through the north-to-east turnout to move onto one of the
eastbound lines. The previously northbound train was
about one-third of the way onto the eastbound when from the west
came another eastbound train of double-stack container
intermodal cars on the next track over from it.
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