ND&W: Maumee & Western and Napoleon, Defiance & Western

Since my home town was Fort Wayne, IN, this video caught my attention. It has a nice write up that explains the fate of the Wabash mainline east of Fort Wayne. The segment east of Liberty Center, OH, and Toledo became a rail-trail. The 51-mile segment between Woodburn, IN, and Liberty Center, OH, was obtained from Norfolk Southern in 1990 by Indiana Hi-Rail Company to form the Maumee & Western Railroad Company (MAW). When Hi-Rail liquidated in 1997, MAW purchased the line. In December, 2012, Pioneer Rail Corp acquired the trackage and formed the subsidiary Napoleon, Defiance & Western Railroad Company to not only operate it, but to maintain it. When the track has not been maintained for 50 years, it becomes news when there is maintenance activity. The Crescent-News in Defiance, OH, took a video of a MoW mowing operation. The mower not only removed brush, it cut trees. Note timestamp 0:51. Note that the equipment design assumes it is the sides of the track that need to be trimmed, not the track bed itself. The track had not been properly maintained since 1964 when the Norfolk and Western, Nickel Plate, Wabash and other railroads merged. This line became redundant with the Nickel Plate line between Fort Wayne, IN, and Toledo, OH.

Jason Hall -> Off The Beaten Track Branchline Railroading

Jason's comments:

A Napoleon, Defiance, Western GP-16 heads south out of Cecil, Ohio on a section of the former Cincinnati Northern to pick up cars at LaFarge in Paulding.

Donald Burford Didn't even realize that they serviced them anymore

Jason Hall Yeah at least twice a week i believe.

Scott Taipale They went from receiving waste oil to shipping cement after Pioneer got the line. 

Matthew Ditton -> Off The Beaten Track Branchline Railroading

Matthew's comment:

Signal on the ND&W east of Defiance Ohio. This portion is mainly used for car storage although there are now rumors of trains possibly running to Liberty Center again. This was, I assume, the one time approach signal for the now I&O Railroad.

Hopefully, you can access to comments from the "->" link in the caption because there was a lot of useful info including the predecessor corporations: "Wabash 5th District from Toledo to Fort Wayne , NW, Indiana Hi Rail, Maumee and Western."

Update:

Matthew Ditton ->  Off The Beaten Track Branchline Railroading
Napoleon Defiance and Western at Okolona Ohio
headed toward Napoleon Ohio.

Jim Etchie posted 12 pictures including the bridge, and B&O diamond, and the depot that is now the office.

Matt Ditton's 2015 photo of an engine coming down a track east of Cecil, OH, shows that ND&W still has a lot of track work to do.

Michael Schwiebert shared

Work progressing on the transload facility along the Napoleon, Defiance & Western RR. This enabled the railroad to take the line east of the Napoleon industrial park out of service.

https://www.facebook.com/HenryCountyCIC/posts/1580652405347081
[They got monetary assistance to build this transload facility in exchange for abandoning the segment to Liberty Corner including (especially) the 4-lane crossing of US-6.]

Michael Schwiebert posted two photos with the comment:

Had the opportunity to take a picture or two of the new ND&W transload facility in Napoleon Ohio earlier today. Note that there are two tracks on the site. My guess is that the second one will provide a secure facility for keeping their locomotive(s) in town when necessary. The second photo was from a post a few weeks ago. Looking at the aerial photo the facility is in the portion of the rectangle that is to left (west) of the street that dead ends at route 424. Also noticed that at least some of the rail is 115 lb, so it's obviously not re-lay rail from elsewhere on the line.

1

2, Satellite

A YouTube video of a Tomato Paste Express