The remnants of the high pressure system that brought sunshine to Northeastern Ohio over the weekend following Saturday’s snowstorms lingered over the region on Monday morning before giving way to cloudy skies and warmer temperatures. With Monday being Martin Luther King Jr. day and a holiday where I work, it was an ideal time to catch some snow action.
Fellow Akron Railroad Club member Ed Ribinskas and I headed for Perry where we managed to find a parking spot next to the CSX tracks. Lake County was particularly hard hit by the Saturday storm, with some areas getting up to 2 feet of snow. Perry was one of those places with deep snow.
To be sure, the snow had packed down by Monday morning, but there was still plenty enough of the white stuff around to make for some interesting photography. We had scarcely parked when we heard horns to the west, which signaled what turned out to be the first of three eastbound intermodal trains running in rapid sucession.
We had heard the dispatcher on the radio tell a K symbol train at Collinwood yard that he would be following a couple of eastbound van trains.
Soon enough the K train showed up and added some ICE to the scene. OK, so technically these are Canadian Pacific locomotives and not Iowa, Chicago & Eastern units because the former has controlled the latter since 2008.
Still, it looked like an ICE train pulling ethanol tank cars. Leading the way was SD40-2 No. 6367, the City of New Ulm, wearing Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern markings. Trailing was No. 6445, also an SD40-2, the City of Bettendorf, in a traditional ICE livery.
The train lumbered through Perry, leaving a swirling mist of snow in its wake. Yes, the ICE had been nice, real nice.
Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders
Tags: CSX, Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad, Ethanol trains, Iowa Chicago & Eastern Railroad, Railfanning at Perry Ohio
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