Vermilion (Victory Park Viewing Platform)

The Victory Park platform is a purpose-built railfan deck: a small roofed structure with benches, a railfan information station and a radio, standing on the north edge of Victory Park between Main Street (State Route 60) and the old depot. Park on the lots next to the park or on the street, walk a few metres to the deck, and the Chicago Line double track is directly in front of you.

The gated Main Street grade crossing (FRA crossing 524040W) is about 30 m (100 ft) west, so the bells and gates announce most trains before they arrive. The information display, installed when the platform was built, carries maps of Vermilion and the township, historical photographs and railroad safety information. A scanner is worth bringing: railfan sources list Norfolk Southern road channels 160.800 (AAR 46) and 161.070 (AAR 64) for this area.

Downtown shops and restaurants along Liberty Avenue and Main Street are within a two-minute walk, which makes this an easy stop for a family or a mixed group: one person watches trains while the others browse. Expect a relaxed, public-park atmosphere rather than a lineside vigil.

Victory Park is Vermilion's 1.38-acre (0.56 ha) "town square", with a gazebo, picnic tables, a playground and rose gardens, set in the historic "Harbour Town" district a few blocks south of the Lake Erie shore. The railway runs along the park's northern boundary at street level, so trains pass at close range in a small-town setting of brick storefronts, church spires (Saint Mary Roman Catholic Church stands just east of the park) and the historic depot next door.

The Vermilion River, whose mouth forms the town harbour, is about 500 m (0.3 mi) east; the Chicago Line crosses it on a multi-track bridge (FRA bridge "Vermilion River", milepost 221). The atmosphere is that of a tourist town on the lake: busy on summer weekends and festival days, calm on winter weekdays.

Trains have run through Vermilion since 1853, according to the City of Vermilion. The line in front of the platform is the former Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, later part of the New York Central's "Water Level Route" between New York and Chicago; it passed to Conrail and, after Conrail's 1997 break-up between Norfolk Southern and CSX, to Norfolk Southern as its Chicago Line. The city credits that split, and a 2003 agreement that rerouted 97 trains a day through the centre of Vermilion, with a large increase in local freight traffic.

The platform itself is a community project. Main Street Vermilion reports that construction began in 2010, that the design was drawn by committee chairman Bob Reese, that William Reese crafted roof arches "to match the details on the 1853 depot", that the committee worked with Norfolk Southern on local safety requirements, and that the structure cost $5,800. It was dedicated on May 14, 2011. The depot beside it survives; Main Street Vermilion describes it as "still in use by the owner, St. Mary Catholic Church".

A roofed viewing deck with benches, a railfan information station and a radio (Vermilion Chamber of Commerce), built by a local committee in 2010-2011 and listed by the City of Vermilion itself among its official train-viewing areas. It stands in a public park in the middle of a walkable downtown, with free parking next to the main line according to the Chamber, and the gated Main Street crossing about 30 m (100 ft) away. The same Chicago Line is watched by Virtual Railfan's Amherst camera about 12 km (7.5 mi) east, at the Nordson Depot.