It’s getting to be mid aft\ernoon on a Saturday in mid November. I’m chasing a light power move of former Santa Fe geeps that are bound for LTEX at McDonald, Ohio.
Already I’ve photographed the locomotives near Attica Junction, west of Willard, leaving Willard and just west of Boughtonville. Now the locomotives are stopped just before the grade crossing of Greenwich Milan Town Road on the west edge of Greenwich.
The radio transmissions indicate that the dispatcher has westbound trains to run, three of them to be exact before the light power move will get a signal to proceed.
The first westbound is a a manifest freight. Then comes the middle train, a stacker off the former Big Four line from Cleveland. The stack train has made the right turn onto the former Baltimore & Ohio Chicago-Pittsburgh line.
Also is the mix is the Q137, an intermodal train that uses the New Castle Subdivision through Akron.
The stack train rumbles past and in the distance I can make out the headlight of the Q137. These are the moments that you live for when out railfanning. As soon as one train clears another will be coming.
Sometimes the wait between trains can be hours. Or so it seems. But not right now.
The stack train clears the switch, the dispatcher aligns it for the next train and soon the Q137 is calling the signal and moving ahead.
I’ve picked out my next photo location. Another image will soon be made.
Article and Photograph by Craig Sanders
Tags: CSX, CSX intermodal trains, CSX New Castle Subdivision, CSX Willard Subdivision, Stack trains
akronrrclub.wordpress.com 
Leave a Reply