It may look like a Conrail unit, but No. SD40-2 No. 3404 is now working for Norfolk Southern. It is leading a westbound making the transition from the Fort Wayne Line to the Cleveland Line in Alliance on Nov. 12, 2010. The unit was built in November 1978
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Here are four photographs of trains that I saw in Northeast Ohio on Sept. 20, 2022.
The lot includes BNSF 7875 eastbound on the CSX New Castle Subdivision in Rittman, eastbound CSX 7238 east of Sterling, NS 5165 operating eastbound in Orrville, and NS 6314 on the west end of the eastbound NS local led by NS 5165.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Here are three images made in Barberton on a Sunday afternoon of May 29, 2020. In the top image, Akron Barberton Cluster GP40-3 No. 4005 sits by the engine house. In the middle BNSF 3268 is eastbound on the CSX New Castle Subdivision. The bottom image features another angle of the 3268.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
For many years railfans have no longer been permitted to photograph in the area between the CSX tracks/RJ Corman tracks and the front of Warwick Tower in Clinton.
This post is thus is dedicated to a once great location to photograph trains.
It is the afternoon of March 6, 2005. A CSX westbound train headed by BNSF 5838 is slowly coming around the curve waiting for the westbound signal seen in another image in the sequence.
Also seen are the train and the tower, a different view of the train and the tower, and a closer view of the train.
Finally, we have a roster shot of the BNSF locomotive at the signal and an image of the train leaving. Note that the CSX locomotive has “Rice Yard Hump Unit” lettering on it.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Here are three early digital images of BNSF SD70MAC No. 9505 in the “Grinstein green” livery leading a westbound train on CSX in Akron on June 20, 2004.
The top image was made north of East Thornton Street at MP 130.4. In the middle the train is approaching me before passing under the East Thornton Street bridge.
In the bottom image the train, having passed under the East Thornton Street bridge, is approaching Voris Street. The bridge in the background carries Interstates 76 and 77.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Everything was in place to get a killer photograph of an eastbound train on the New Castle District of Norfolk Southern in Seven Mile, a small town in Southwest Ohio north of Hamilton.
Train 25A was waiting on the main for a meet with westbound manifest freight 174, which would go into the siding.
We had set up along a rural road to get a view over a cornfield of the 25A passing a grain elevator on the south side of town. We had earlier gotten a side view of the 174 on the north edge of New Miami.
The rear of the 174 rumbled past and we waited in anticipation of seeing the ditch lights of the lead unit of the 25A come on to indicate it was on the move. A bonus was the three Union Pacific locomotives lashed together elephant style that were pulling the 25A.
This is an intermodal train that originates at Calumet Yard in Chicago and carries a block of containers that NS gets from the UP. It also carries blocks of manifest freight.
We waited, and waited and waited. It would be 45 minutes before the dispatcher directed the 25A to continue east. We don’t know why the train didn’t leave sooner.
But as we waited what had been a few decorative clouds grew into additional and larger clouds.
You’ve probably figured out where this story is headed. By the time the head end of the 25A reached the grain elevator the sun had ducked behind one of those clouds.
We got cloud skunked.
I made some photographs anyway, one of which is the top image above.
We chased the 25A to Hamilton and managed to get an image of it coming around a curve in good sunlight. It was nice but not the image we had wanted to get.
After getting lunch at Subway, we returned to our location along that rural road at Seven Mile and waited for another eastbound.
Nothing was moving so we headed north. Along the way we got wind that the 189, a Detroit (Oakwood Yard) to Atlanta (East Point) manifest freight was coming.
The 189 would go into the siding at Seven Mile to meet the westbound 282, a stack train running from Jacksonville, Florida, to Chicago (Landers Yard).
The 189 had a BNSF leader and a Ferromex unit as a rear DPU. The nose of the Ferromex locomotive was pointed outward.
By now we were into high sun and harsh light time but that wasn’t going to stop us from chasing and photographing the 189.
We got it on the north side of Collinsville, Ohio, and then got into place to do the grain elevator shot at Seven Mile.
It wouldn’t be the same composition as earlier with the 25A because the sun had shifted to favor the other side of the former Pennsylvania Railroad tracks.
The clouds had also thinned a bit and we got plenty of direct sunlight as the 189 came rolling past the elevator.
With that we headed north and managed to get the 282 at Eaton. I would catch one more train, the 142, at Conley Road northwest of Eaton before calling it a day and heading home.
It’s early June in Clinton. On this Sunday we catch BNSF 6630 and a couple of fellow stablemates pulling a westbound on the CSX New Castle Subdivision. In the bottom image, CSX 371 leads a westbound in the sunlight of summer.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Here are three photographs of an eastbound CSX grain train in Clinton on April 23 that featured an all-BNSF motive power consist.
In the top image BNSF 8287 leads the train past the westbound signal home signals located at the far east end of Warwick Yard.
In the middle image is the lead unit directly in front of me. In the bottom image we see BNSF 5143, which is the distributed power unit for the train.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Norfolk Southern took over from Conrail the Chicago Line between Cleveland and Chicago on June 1, 1999. Shown above are two views of NS trains made during the first year of NS operation of the Chicago Line.
As seen in the top image, Conrail locomotives were still quite common during that era. Former CR C36-7 No. 8485 leads a westbound with a lease unit helping out. The photo was made on Nov. 6, 1999.
A few months later another westbound passes the former BE Tower with a pair of NS units and a former Burlington Northern locomotive. The latter may be a lease unit as its BN markings appear to have been painted over. The photo was made on Feb. 26, 2000.
Photographs by Craig Sanders
It is the morning of March 17, 2012, in Wheeling & Lake Erie’s Brewster Yard. BNSF 9933 will be eastbound later in the day, but WE SD40-3 No. 3049 is switching the yard now.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
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