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.