A pair of Norfolk & Western locomotives are shown working at the coal loading facility in Huron. Notice the hopper pushers to the left of N&W 2961. The top image shows the full scene while the bottom image is a closer crop.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Sometimes you can wait for hours and never get the train you want to make for the photograph that you have in mind.
Back in August Marty Surdyk, Todd Vander Sluis and myself waited for more than hour with hopes of getting a westbound Norfolk Southern train passing beneath the new and old signal bridges in Huron, Ohio at CP 232.
It was apparent that the NS signal department planned to cut in the new signals any day now and take down the old signals, which were among the few still in operation on the NS Chicago Line with Type G signal heads.
We didn’t have the luxury of coming back on another day if we didn’t get the image we wanted on this day.
It was frustrating to hear the Toledo East dispatcher talking to trains to the west and east of Huron.
Finally, we got a train, but it was an eastbound. I made the image that appears in the bottom of the sequence above.
Not longer after that train passed our opportunity to get a westbound came.
So did a bank of clouds. I got the image I wanted, but not in the brilliant later afternoon sunshine that had been present for much of our wait.
It would be the only westbound that passed through Huron before we had to leave. At least I came away with something.
Over the past few years Norfolk Southern and CSX have been replacing block signals that have stood for several decades with modern signals that all look alike.
Many of these older signals featured designs that associated them with a previous owner/operator of the rail line in question.
For example, the Pennsylvania Railroad and Baltimore & Ohio each had distinctive position light signals that immediately said “Pennsy” or “B&O” on their respective territories.
The Type G signal head was not necessarily unique to the New York Central, but it was commonly used by the Central in the Midwest on numerous routes.
NS has replaced most of the Type G signal heads on its Chicago Line so I was a little surprised to recently find a set of them still in use.
Shown is CP 232 in Huron, where the new signals are poised to be placed in service.
I made this image on the Akron Railroad Club’s Vermilion outing on Aug. 25 and the news signals may be in service by now and the old signals have fallen.
There were a number of NS vehicles at the scene, which suggested the cutover was imminent.
On my way west to catch the Nickel Plate Road 765 again I saw this Norfolk Southern ECO engine switching in Huron. That was quite a find.
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