2014 Outing to Alliance, Sebring

When there are no trains to see, railfanning is like fishing. You have a lot of time to kill sitting and waiting. Shown waiting for a train at Alliance are (from left) Paul Tait, Rick Houck, Paul Woodring and Dave Shepherd.

Cameras are out as a westbound passes through Alliance.

At the Sebring Model Railroad Club neither of the two Pauls, Tait and Woodring, appears thrilled at being photographed.

Dennis Sautters (right) talks about the Sebring Model Railroad Club layout with ARRC member Bob Redmond (center) and his son.

Marty Surdyk is a modeler himself and is always looking for ideas about how to improve his layout.

An eastbound Norfolk Southern train has everyone’s attention at the former Pennsylvania Railroad station in Sebring, the home of a model railroad club.

Eleven Akron Railroad Club members and guests turned out for the Alliance-Sebring outing on Sunday, Aug. 24. One club member, Steve McMullen stuck it out until the wee hours of Monday morning when the Central of Georgia heritage unit led the 14N into Alliance.

Steve and his partner Amanda also stayed to see Amtrak No. 29 makes its Alliance stop early Monday morning.

No club members, though, were on hand when the Virginian heritage unit led a westbound auto rack train through Alliance sometimes around 8:30 a.m. on Sunday.

ARRC President Craig Sanders saw this train at Twin Lakes while he was en route to Alliance, but he was driving at the time and was unable to get a photograph.

The day started rather slowly. Paul Tait and Rick Houck were the first to arrive around 9:30 a.m. and they endured a lull of more than an hour before the first train, an eastbound RoadRailer, made an appearance.

At the same time, a Herzog work train showed up and backed into the yard. It would be the most unusual sighting of the day.

After another lull of about a half-hour, traffic picked up in a big way. Starting at 11:23 a.m., traffic was steady with 13 trains passing through over the next two hours. By now, the group had been joined by Dave Shepherd and Paul Woodring.

Just after 1:30 p.m., some of the ARRC members drove the short distance east to Sebring to attend an open house of the Sebring Model Railroad Club.

The group’s president, Dennis Sautters, had presented a program to the ARRC at our August meeting the previous Friday and he was on hand along with several other club members to show us the layout, which is quite impressive.

Numerous trains were snaking their way through mountains, towns and forests to the delight of those watching.

ARRC members who came to open house included Denny Tharp, Bob Redmond and his son, and Bulletin Editor Marty Surdyk.

At last we saw three heritage units, albeit HO models of the Union Pacific’s Denver & Rio Grande Western, Western Pacific, and Chicago & North Western heritage locomotives.

There was a Conrail local working on the layout along with a Union Pacific steamer pulling a passenger train.

The Seneca & Lake Erie motive power had a striking resemblance to an Ohio regional railroad that also features the name of the state’s largest body of water that forms the northern border.

Someone in Sebring must like the UP because yet another train had two Missouri Kansas Texas locomotives with some UP units. This train featured a Katy Caboose.

The Baltimore & Ohio was also represented with a train as well.

NS cooperated by producing another lull as the ARRC members took in the model railroad layouts housed in the former Pennsylvania Railroad station in Sebring.

Later, Marty and Craig took off for the Bayard Line to photograph the 14N, although this was the Saturday version and not the one with the Central of Georgia heritage locomotive on the lead.

That 14N had left Elkhart, Ind., early Sunday morning and we had kept track of it throughout the day. But its progress was slow and slower. By the time it got out of Cleveland, it was dark and the ARRC’s Alliance outing was over.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

The following list of trains seen in or near Alliance was compiled by Craig Sanders and Steve McMullen. The list shows the direction of travel through Alliance with CLE denoting the Cleveland Line, FTW denoting the Fort Wayne Line and BAY denoting the Bayard Line. 

AT ALLIANCE

10:47 a.m. EB RoadRailer CLE to FTW (NS 9375

10:54 a.m. Herzog work train (HZGX 184)

11:23 a.m. EB crude oil tankers CLE to FTW (NS 1108, BNSF 4931, BSNF 4712)

11:34 a.m. WB stack train FTW to CLE (NS 1109, 1124)

11:41 a.m. EB stack train CLE to FTW (NS 9585)

11:50 a.m. WB manifest FTW to CLE (NS 9285, 9934)

12:12 p.m. EB stack train CLE to FTW (NS 9470)

12:27 p.m. EB intermodal CLE to FTW (NS 9546)

12:43 p.m. EB manifest FTW to FTW (NS 5630, 5608) (NS 5631, 5638 on rear)

1:04 p.m.   WB “bare tables” FTW to CLE (NS 1095, 1098)

1:11 p.m.   EB manifest [16N] CLE to BAY (NS 8342, 7632)

1:27 p.m.   EB manifest CLE to FTW (NS 7676, 1003, 8928)

1:30 p.m.   WB coke FTW to CLE (NS 2641)

1:38 p.m.   WB tankers FTW to CLE (6967, 9134)

1:42 p.m.   EB manifest CLE to FTW (NS 7549)

AT SEBRING

1:58 p.m.   WB stack train (NS 2515)

3:07 p.m.   EB auto racks (NS 9194, 6786)

3:19 p.m.   EB intermodal (NS 7646, UP 7830)

3:30 p.m.   WB manifest [11V] (NS 6773, 8911)

3:30 p.m.   EB intermodal [20R] (NS 9438, 9905)

3:40 p.m.   WB manifest [15N] (NS 8047, CSX 5482 658, 9020)

4:49 p.m.   WB manifest [25T] (NS 1123, 2609, 9641)

AT MOULTRIE

4:11 p.m.   EB manifest [14N] (NS 8406, UP 4776, UP 4264, NS 6806, 6566)

AT ALLIANCE

4:50 p.m.   EB [20Q] CLE to FTW( NS 6804, 8065)

6:05 p.m.   EB CLE  to FTW (NS 2641)

6:23 p.m.   WB FTW to CLE (NS 2759, 9610)

6:42 p.m.   EB RoadRailers [262] CLE to FTW ( NS 9287, BNSF 5100)

6:53 p.m.  WB [15K] FTW to CLE (NS 9382, 8948)

6:57 p.m. EB intermodal CLE to FTW (NS 2700, 9957)

7:02 p.m. WB FTW to FTW  (NS 5638, 5631) (NS 5608, 5630 on rear)

7:26 p.m. EB FTW to FTW (NS 7647, 9206, 6690, 7629, 3341)

8:17 p.m.   EB intermodal [24W] CLEàFTW  (NS 9323, 9069)

8:48 p.m. EB CLE to FTW (NS 9925, 8879)

9:03 p.m.   WB  FTW to CLE (NS 9826, BNSF 7672, UP n/a)

9:15 p.m.   WB FTW to CLE  (NS 9812, 9007, 9684, 6796)

9:25 p.m.   WB FTWàCLE  (NS 2662, 9236, 9506)

9:33 p.m.   WB Tankers [65E] FTW to CLE (NS 9276, 2566)

FOOD BREAK AT REY’S BAR & GRILLE ON ROUTE 62

1:05 a.m.   EB manifest [14N] CLE to BAY (NS 8101 (CofGa.), CP 9582, NS 8396)

2:02 a.m.   EB Amtrak 29 FTW to CLE (AMTK 204, 823)

ON THE WAY HOME

2:38 a.m.   EB at MP 70.4 Crossing (NS 9378, UP 5137, UP 5142)