The third time is supposed to be the charm or so the sayings goes. In the case of the above image it was the fourth time that proved to be charming.
Three times I sought to photograph a westbound CSX train passing the Union City, Ohio, water tower on the Indianapolis Line. Three times I got cloud skunked.
The resulting images were not terrible yet the lighting was subdued. My luck finally turned late last Saturday afternoon when sunny skies prevailed as CSX train Q631 rumbled into town.
The lighting was mostly right down the nose but slightly favored the north side of the tracks. That gravel path to the left is Railroad Street and it doesn’t see much traffic.
The Spirit of Our First Responders, CSX 911, an ES44AC-H, pulled a coal train through Northeast Ohio on Monday.
The train N758, a coal train that originated at the Bailey Mine in Graysville, Pennsylvania, and was bound for a Duke Energy steam plant in Terrell, North Carolina. Some online reports had the train symbol as N759.
The trailing unit of the train was ES44Cc-H No. 765. The train passed through Akron on the New Castle Subdivision around 11:30 a.m.
It diverged at Greenwich and traveled via Crestline, Galion and Edison to Columbus.
Todd Dillion caught the train at Kent while Robert Farkas got it at Clinton.
The first four images are from Todd while the bottom image is from Bob.
CSX AC4400CW No. 562 leads an eastbound through Clinton on June 14, 2021. If you look down the street, you can see the consist of the train. This can help you to visualize how sharp this curve is.
The CSX office car special passes through Akron Thursday morning.Rattling the diamonds at Center Street in YoungstownAt Station Square in Pittsburgh. The Capitol Limited of the Baltimore & Ohio used to stop here.I got cloud skunked just as the train passed the Pittsburgh skyline
Thursday morning CSX ran its ofice car special across northern Ohio and Pennsylvania.
With two F40PHs and 11 passenger cars all decked out in a Baltimore & Ohio inspired livery it looked like the Capitol Limited had returned once again.
I first caught the special at Akron. The weather was foggy and overcast but my photos turned out okay.
Next was Youngstown where the weather wasn’t any better but I was interviewed by a local TV station curious as to why all the railfans were waiting on the Center Street bridge.
Then it was on to Station Square in Pittsburgh. The weather was much improved but we unfortunately were cloud skunked when the train arrived.
In times past the Capitol would have made a stop here.
We’re stepping back a couple of decades to April 1996 to watch a westbound passing beneath the Ohio Route 21 bride in Clinton. The Baltimore & Ohio color position light signals are a dead giveaway that this is not a recent image.
Both images above were made in Akron the CSX New Castle Subdivision on the morning of June 16, 2021. The top image shows an eastbound while the bottom image has a westbound with Canadian National motive power.
The Akron Railroad Club will meet tonight at 8 p.m. in the fellowship hall of the New Horizons Christian Church.
It will be the club’s first in-person meeting in more than a year.
President Todd Dillon will present a digital program of images made during his travels in the past year between Ohio and Florida.
Here is a preview of Todd’s program. The top image shows Tampa streetcars at Ibor City, Florida, the middle image is a U.S. Sugar cane train at Clewiston, Florida, and the bottom image is CSX 1776 at Waycross, Georgia.
Pittsburgh-based Wabtec announced this week that CSX will use its Trip Optimizer Zero-to-Zero system.
In a news release, Wabtec said the system is designed to enhance fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
CSX will be the first railroad to use the system, which starts a train from zero mph and stops it automatically using various controls.
The announcement also said CSX plans to use Wabtec’s Tier 4 switcher modernization program, which the company said provides an additional 20 percent improvement in fuel efficiency and a 90 percent reduction in emissions.
This program upgrades 40-to-50-year-old locomotives and Tier 0 non-emission switcher locomotives to the latest Tier 4 platform., Wabtec said.
CSX also said it will modernize locomotives across its fleet with Wabtec’s FDL Advantage engine upgrade, which provides up to an additional 5 percent reduction in fuel consumption through a high-pressure common rail fuel system.
The brackets, which were introduced in 2012, had simulated the outline of a boxcar. The herald also had two sets of wheels. 
In a news release, Wabtec said the system is designed to enhance fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.