A Southern Kind of Saturday Morning

I had seen a few days earlier on Heritage Units.com that Southern Railway heritage unit No. 8099 was trailing on Norfolk Southern train 206.

Then on the night of Aug 9 I saw on HU that No. 8099 as reported leading NS train 205 at 7:55 p.m.

The next morning when I woke up I checked if anything was reported on the 8099. I was assuming it had already passed through Northeast Ohio. But nothing had been posted.

At 8:24 a.m. I checked again and saw a post of a sighting at 8:22 a.m. at Kingsville, Ohio.

I opted to photograph it at Riverside Drive in Painesville, using as a photo prop the huge steel deck pieces for the new Vrooman Road high-level bridge being constructed a few miles to the east.

This bridge is being constructed by the same builders who had constructed the NS bridge over the Grand River behind me.

Let the record show that Southern 8099 showed up at 9:05 a.m. on the morning of Aug. 10.

Article and Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

Tags: heritage units, Norfolk Southern heritage locomotives, NS 8099, NS Heritage locomotives, NS Southern heritage unit, Painesville Ohio