The Belles of New London

CSX train Q377 with four new Kansas City Southern locomotives in tow passes the reservoir west of New London on Saturday afternoon.

Word filtered out Saturday afternoon that CSX train Q377 had something special in its consist: four new Kansas City Southern locomotives wearing the striking Southern Belle livery.

I had been out with fellow Akron Railroad Club member Roger Durfee trying to get some “winter” photographs when we got word about the Q377. The clouds were starting to roll in from the southwest and Roger had considered packing it in and heading for home as it seemed to be getting darker by the second.

But there were still blue skies to the northeast and perhaps we could intercept the Q377 up by New London before the high pressure system moved out.

That turned out to be a good move because there were some breaks in the clouds and still nice sunshine in the New London area.

The Q377 was following traffic that included a tanker train (K011) and a stack train. The dispatcher informed the Q377 that it would cross over to Track No. 1 at CP 47 in New London and then would be waiting at CP 54 (Greenwich) for a train to come up the single track of the former Big Four and move east onto the New Castle Subdivision of the former Baltimore & Ohio.

The latter would give us the opportunity to get over to Greenwich in time for another photograph of the Belles.

After recording the Q377 in Greenwich, we headed back to Akron, our day’s work done.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

The low angle sunlight reflects off the lettering on the flank of No. 4813,

These Belles will probably be interchanged to their new owner in St. Louis.

After waiting for a while for opposing traffic to clear at Greenwich, the Belles were on their way again.

Tags: Kansas City Southern motive power on CSX, KCS locomotives on CSX, KCS motive power, KCS Southern Belle