Train Action Plentiful at ARRC McKay Day Outing

Akron Railroad Club members gathered in mid afternoon for the traditional group photo during the seventh Dave McKay day outing at Berea, which was held on April 2, 2011. Shown by the McKay memorial are (left to right) Richard Thompson, Marty Surdyk, William Surdyk, Craig Sanders, Cody Zamostny (and his nephew), Drew Deneher, John Puda, Tom Kendra, Alex Bruchac, Bill Kubis and Dennis Taksar.

It was close, but not quite at the Akron Railroad Club’s seventh annual Dave McKay Day outing at Berea on Saturday (April 2) at Berea. Club members recorded 71 train movements during the 15 hours that one or more club members were present. That fell just short of the record 74 movements recorded in 2008. Still, it was the second highest total in the seven years the club has held the event to honor its longest serving president, who died in December 2004.

Dennis Taksar arrived  just before 6 a.m. and recorded the first train of the day, a coal train on CSX with Union Pacific power in the lead. The longevity award went to John Puda who arrived at 7:05 a.m. and remained on site for the remainder of the day.

Although club members were treated to a steady flow of traffic, none of the trains that rolled by featured anything special in the way of motive power of freight cars. Foreign power was relatively scarce and primarily limited to BNSF units.

ARRC member Dave Mangold rolled through just after 7 a.m. behind the throttle of Norfolk Southern train 20V, but didn’t notice any club members present in the darkness. However, former club member Tony Dannemiller was the conductor on CSX intermodal train Q148 and he did make his presence known as his stack train came by just before 4:30 p.m. He leaned out the engineer’s side window and waved.

During the noon hour, CSX had both main tracks out of service for maintenance and NS had one of its mains out of service for the same reason. That limited traffic for awhile, but club members did not have to endure any interminably long lulls.  

Nearly 20 club members and guests turned out for the event during the day, which was quite cool but mostly sunny throughout. The weather began cloudy and ended that way, but in between the forecast snow showers and rain failed to materialize. The temperatures began in the mid 30s and improved only into the mid 40s.

Table of Trains Recorded at Berea (April 2, 2011)

NR          NR          UP (NR)                5:52 a.m. (on CSX)

Q149      WB         CSXT 7600           6:35 a.m.

X096      EB          NR                         6:59 a.m. (on CSX)

Q114      EB          CSXT 5428           7:06 a.m.

20Q        EB          NS 9805                7:08 a.m.d

Q263      WB         CSXT 308             7:16 a.m.

21T         WB         NS 7508                7:20 a.m.

20V        EB          NS 7542                7:21 a.m.

Q366      EB          CSXT 4745           7:30 a.m.

24Z         EB          NS 8450                7:55 a.m.

S393       WB         CSXT 5484           8:06 a.m.

L163       WB         CSXT 7584           8:54 a.m.

11J          WB         NS 2615                9:12 a.m.

K689      WB         CSXT 936             9:28 a.m.

Q385      WB         CSXT 4722           9:35 a.m.

205         WB         NS 8898                10:05 a.m.

20R         EB          NS 6765                10:10 a.m.

Q164      EB          CSXT 5300           10:28 a.m.

242         EB          NS 9703                10:29 a.m.

Q160      EB          CSXT 7375           10:30 a.m.

D752      EB          CSXT 6119           10:51 a.m.

N859      EB          BSNF 9940           11:03 a.m. (on CSX)

34N        EB          NS 9425                11:09 a.m.

22K        EB          NS 9679                11:53 a.m.

21Z         WB         NS 9633                12:06 p.m.

145         WB         NS 8726                NR

Q122      EB          CSXT 4749           NR

Q377      WB         CSXT 3443           NR

V818      EB          CSXT 4759           NR

206         EB          NS 9550                1:59 p.m.

Q351      WB         CSXT 7633           2:07 p.m.

261         WB         NS 2635                2:13 p.m.

D752      WB         CSXT 8305           2:19 p.m.

24M        EB          NS 9265                2:23 p.m.

Q378      EB          CSXT 4797           2:41 p.m.

20E         EB          NS 7556                2:57 p.m.

14K        EB          NS 9860                3:15 p.m.

Q108      EB          CSXT 7363           3:15 p.m.

18N        EB          NS 9687                3:23 p.m.

Q386      EB          CSXT 5312           3:42 p.m.

Q393      WB         CSXT 4785           3:42 p.m.

316         EB          NS 9761                3:51 p.m.

21G        WB         NS 8348                3:54 p.m.

Q110      EB          CSXT 778             3:58 p.m.

Q123      WB         CSXT 5382           3:58 p.m.

M1V       WB         NS 6773                4:17 p.m.

Q148      EB          CSXT 7332           4:24 p.m.

Q157      WB         CSXT 7827           4:30 p.m.

15N        WB         NS 8315                4:45 p.m.

Q364      EB          CSXT 7683           4:47 p.m.

21Q        WB         NS 9803                4:58 p.m.

262         EB          NS 9716                5:07 p.m.

NR          WB         NS (NR)                5:10 p.m.

11G        WB         NS 9751                5:30 p.m.

K695      WB         CSXT 5473           5:45 p.m.

19A        WB         NS 9351                6 p.m.

Q109      WB         CSXT 5267           6:09 p.m.

573         EB          NS 7687                 6:10 p.m.

N859      EB          BNSF 9928           6:43 p.m. (on CSX)

K925      EB          CSXT 7731           6:51 p.m.

Q290      EB          CSXT 314             7:03 p.m.

L115       WB         CSXT 5303           7:03 p.m.

25Z         WB         NS 9893               7:09 p.m.

11V        WB         NS 9791               7:21 p.m.

14N        EB          NS 9762               7:25 p.m.

K683      WB         CSXT 5350           7:59 p.m.

23K        WB         NS 7671                 8:13 p.m.

Q117      WB         CSXT 5247           8:15 p.m.

Q380      EB          CSXT 5472           8:20 p.m.

15K        WB         NS (NR)                8:31 p.m.

Q381      WB         BNSF 7622           8:40 p.m. (on CSX)

Tags: Akron Railroad Club, ARRC Dave McKay Day, Berea Ohio, railfanning at Berea Ohio