Getting Lucky En Route to an ARRC Meeting

What a treat. The New York Central heritage locomotive of Norfolk Southern on former Pennsylvania Railroad rails in Bedford.

Last Friday afternoon I checked the Heritage Units.com site more out of curiosity than anything else.

The New York Central heritage unit was shown as having been spotted at Leetonia, Ohio, at 3:25 p.m. leading westbound Norfolk Southern train 15K.

Hmmmm, I thought. We might be able to catch it on our way to the Akron Railroad Club meeting.

The plan was for Ed Ribinskas and Jeff Troutman to arrive at my house between 4:30 and 5 p.m. Depending on how the train was doing we might be able to get it.

At 4:28 p.m. the 1066 was reported by Alliance. Figuring that it would take an hour to get to Bedford and a half-hour to get there from my house if we left by 5 p.m. there was still a chance.

Ed and Jeff arrived shortly before 5 and we got underway immediately. Jeff checked HU which reported that the NYC H unit was by Earlville at 5:03 p.m. That is west of Brady Lake, if I remembered correctly. It was going to be tight.

It might take only a half-hour in most circumstances to reach Bedford from my house but Friday afternoon at 5 p.m. is not most circumstances. Traffic was heavy and we kept getting dinged by stop lights and traffic back-ups.

We finally made it to Rockside Road only to find out the 15K has been seen at Macedonia at 5:18 p.m. My heart sank. That was nearly 15 minutes ago. We’re not going to make it.

I reached the intersection of Rockside and Broadway where a short distance to the west Rockside goes over the NS Cleveland Line. Could the 15K be passing beneath Rockside at that moment?

Jeff suggested that maybe a circuit would be down and the 15k would be delayed. He was grasping at straws.

As we turned onto West Glendale Street, I asked Ed and Jeff to look for the signal indication just west of there.

Jeff said he saw the top head of the signal for Track No. 2 go from amber to green. That was potentially good news because it meant a westbound was lined up.

It might also mean the westbound was running closely behind the 15K, which had just cleared the block ahead.

I pulled into the tot lot parking lot, got out, opened my trunk and picked my camera out of the bag. I also fumbled to get my scanner set up.

I feared hearing the 15K call a signal at CP 114 or some other spot west of our location at milepost 110.

Jeff reminded us that trains are going upgrade coming from Macdonia and they might have to slow while passing Motor Yard.

I wasn’t hearing anything calling signals west of us. Then the gates for West Grace Street went down. Maybe this was it. But as soon as the gate came down they went back up. False alarm.

There was a faint transmission that Jeff said sounded like the 15K talking. But where was it? East of us? West of us?

We didn’t have long to find out. The gates for Grace Street went down again. Seconds later we heard the rumbling of diesels and Jeff, who was the closest to the tracks  said, “that’s it.”

Indeed it was. That NYC mighty oval never looked so good.

We got our photographs, congratulated each other on our good fortune and left for Akron.

The 15K was a long train and was not moving very fast when it arrived in Bedford. It had taken it 24 minutes to go from Macedonia to Bedford.

Had we been able to stick around another hour, we could have seen the Pennsylvania Railroad heritage locomotive pass by on its namesake rails. But it was trailing and we had places to go.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

I thought we had missed it, but luck was with us in landing the NYC heritage unit.

The going away view shows a better view of the lightning stripes on the body of No. 1066.

Mighty Oval on the Mighty Keystone

Some railroad photographers relish making images of Norfolk Southern heritage locomotives on the former home rails of the company that the engine commemorates.

For example, I recently saw online a photo of the Erie heritage unit on a former Erie Railroad route going over a concrete bridge that still bears the “Erie” name.

I’ve had had few opportunities to get NS heritage locomotives on their home roads and it has only occurred three times. In all of those instances the situation involved a Conrail family member, e.g., Conrail on ex-CR, Penn Central on ex-PC.

Last Saturday I was in Pittsburgh when we got word that NS 1066 was leading a 65R across Pennsylvania and would arrive in the steel city in late afternoon.

No. 1066 wears New York Central markings and the 65R was traversing former Pennsylvania Railroad tracks.

I wanted to get it amid a scene that said PRR and what better way to do that than with PRR-style position light signals.

We waited in Leetsdale for the 65R to come trundling down the Fort Wayne Line.

We later had another opportunity to photograph NS 1066 waiting at another generation of signals, this time the Safetran signals installed by NS just east of the entrance to Conway Yard.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

 

Double Capture of the NYC H Unit on ex-NKP

Last Monday (Memorial Day) evening, I saw on HeritageUnits.com that Norfolk Southern 1066 – the New York Central heritage locomotive – was heading west on the former Nickel Plate Road line to Cleveland. It left Conneaut just after 10 p.m.

The 1066 had led a train eastward over the ex-NKP early Saturday morning.

Since many times H units make just one round trip on the ex-NKP, I figured I’d better try to get it. I was working on Saturday when it went east.

I got it at about 10:40 p.m. in Painesville.

On Tuesday night, there was speculation on Trainordrs.com that the NYC H unit would be leading NS train 206 on Wednesday 206.

Here are the results at the Painesville trestle over the Grand River where Ursula, myself and five other railfans were waiting at just before noon Wednesday when the 206 came by.

Article and Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

Late Amtrak, NYC H unit Make Appearances

I woke up on Saturday and checked the status of the area’s Amtrak trains. All had cleared the Cleveland metro area except for one. Amtrak 48, the eastbound Lake Shore Limited, was still west of Toledo.

I figured if I hurried I might beat it to Vermilion.  I need not have worried. After arriving just before 9 a.m., I would have another two hours to wait before Amtrak showed up.

After getting the shot, I headed to Battery Park in Cleveland in hopes of catching it again as well as capturing the New York Central heritage unit that was leading the 552, a westbound coal train.

An eastbound stack train came just as I arrived when I got a text saying the NYC unit was already past the drawbridge.  Sure enough the rumble of an approaching train could be heard and I only saw the NYC unit peeking between the containers.

This coal train had a set of helpers and these met the Lake Shore Limited as it came through.

Next I headed to CP Max at the west end of Rockport yard and did get the NYC unit as it pulled up to the signal. It would get a new crew, the helpers would be removed and then the train sat for the next three hours.

Finally, just before 3 p.m., it got clearance to proceed west. I caught it at the signal bridge off Eastland Road.  It was not quite what I had envisioned as the sun was high overhead by now, only lighting the engine’s nose. It was further delayed near Elyria but I had places to be so this was it for me.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon

 

The Central Was Back on Track No. 1 in Toledo

I attended the National Train Day event in Toledo last Saturday as well as the prior evening’s reception upstairs in the terminal as a representative for the Conrail Historical Society (we had tables there).

After the reception it was downstairs to track level to photograph the display equipment. Due to circumstances beyond the control of Norfolk Southern, its New York Central heritage unit was a tad late to the party.

But thanks to NS (and a BIG thank you to Steve) the star of the show made it in time for the night session. I’ve always liked these late era stations built on the hopes and dreams of continued passenger operations by the major carriers and Toledo is a real gem.

Although many of the tracks are now gone, this station still retains that 1950s feel to it. It was a treat to once again see the NYC name on a locomotive sitting on track No. 1.

The evening started off with a twilight photo of the GLC unit with the station looming above. I then got a standard roster shot later. I elected to turn a few of my images into grayscale because that just seemed to lend itself to the night mood.

Other equipment on display included a Wheeling & Lake Erie SD40-2, a Great Lakes Central GP38-2 and Amtrak P32 No. 517 with a display train.

I want to give a BIG thank you to David Patch and all involved in setting up the night photo shoot the evening before NTD in Toledo.

Article and Photographs by Roger Durfee

Just Sitting There for the (Picture) Taking

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve managed to catch a small selection of NS heritage units. The Reading unit spent a good bit of time sitting in a siding just east of Bucyrus with a damaged traction motor.

This “sitting duck” allowed me to check out a few different angles along with the standard roster view.

Another sitting duck was the Interstate unit on Easter Sunday at Freshly Road a little west of Alliance on the Fort Wayne Line. Someone, a “PC” fan from the looks of it, put the PC logo in the nose dirt.

The New York Central unit led an empty oiler west past work last week.

While not NS, this Illinois Central unit can sure qualify as “heritage” in my book. It was the middle unit on the circus train power in Youngstown last week.

Article and Photographs by Roger Durfee

NYC Heritage Unit Rolls Westward at Motor Yard

Norfolk Southern No. 1066, the New York Central Heritage unit, led train 65R of empty oil cans past work earlier this week. The top photo shows the Macedonia Shop in the background and some of the project cars. The other photo is a little closer view of the train.

Photographs by Roger Durfee

NS Parties Like its 1969

Norfolk Southern train Z5R, an empty oil train, came through Tuesday night. Leading was the Penn Central heritage unit (No. 1073) and bringing up the rear as a DPU was the New York Central heritage unit (No. 1066). I went to Rootstown to catch it and also got another freight with PREX switcher No. 107.

Photographs by Todd Dillon

Sunlight Would Have Been Nice

I waited for a good while in an effort to get the Central of New Jersey heritage unit. I got that “railroad feeling” that that particular train was going to be delayed big time with all the other traffic out there and the single tracking at DB and west of Berea.

It was, overall, a frustrating H day. The New York Central unit that leading stopped at Motor Yard to add a buffer early that same morning.

I was “cloud screwed” and that was too bad since the train would have been sitting in perfect low morning sun. Oh well, I did what I could.

There was no chance of the sun coming out at all, so I thanked the crew and off they went.

Article and Photographs by Roger Durfee

NS Heritage Units Pose in North Carolina

A Cessna eye view of all 20 NS heritage locomotives lines up for display at the roundhouse of the North Carolina Transportation Museum.

Here is a sample of what I shot in Spencer. N.C., over this past week. The “on high” photos were taken as I flew over in a Cessna. It was way cool. Amtrak sent its 40^th anniversary heritage locomotive No. 156, which wears the Phase I livery,  and some passenger cars to the event, a nice extra bonus for sure. The full moon shining over the roundhouse was a nice touch in the night photos. Note the 1982 and 2012 number boards on the No. 1030 in the one night photo.

Photographs by Roger Durfee