Lighting Can Strike Twice When Railfan Good Fortune Finally Comes Your Way

For eight years the Reading Lines heritage locomotive of Norfolk Southern eluded the efforts of Ed Ribinskas to photograph it leading a train.

Then last Saturday his fortunes turned when NS No. 1067 led a westbound stack train through Cleveland.

Ed drove to Bedford to catch the SD70ACe under cloudy skies. But the weather didn’t bother him. He now had all 20 NS heritage locomotives leading a train.

Forty-eight hours later the 1067 was back in Northeast Ohio, this time leading the 22K eastward on the NS Lake Erie District just minutes from Ed’s home.

And this time the weather was good. The train is shown above crossing the bridge over the Grand River in Painesville. There is even a touch of fall foliage to book.

Photograph by Edward Ribinskas

No. 20 is Now in the Camera

“Done,” as they said at Promontory.

That is what I proclaimed at 1:05 p.m. on Saturday in Bedford. Once I saw that Norfolk Southern No. 1067, the Reading heritage locomotive, was leading stack train 21Q I promised myself that the 8 1/2 year-quest would be completed.

It started way back on April 9, 2012, when I photographed Nickel Plate heritage unit 8100 at Ashtabula Harbor.

Even though the lighting on Saturday wasn’t perfect, I did not care. Looks good enough to me. I can proudly say I have all 20 NS heritage units leading a train.

Article and Photograph by Edward Ribinskas

The Wait of 8 Years, 3 Months is Over

Apparently, Norfolk Southern trains 316 (Bellevue-Buffalo) and 149 (Buffalo-Bellevue) have been replaced by trains 178 (Irondale, Alabama-Buffalo) and 179 (Buffalo-Irondale, Alabama).

Over the weekend I saw that 178 was coming up with Lehigh Valley heritage locomotive No. 8104 leading and Reading heritage unit No. 1067 trailing in the motive power consist.

My focus would be the 1067 because it is the only NS heritage unit I’m missing.

At Bellevue the 8104 was taken off but the 1067 remained third in the consist facing west.

My first photo opportunity (top image) of the 1067 occurred on Monday at 8:10 p.m. in Painesville and turned out blurry because there was hardly any light remaining.

I got another chance on Wednesday at 6:50 p.m. with better light even if the 1067 was still trailing. Alas, the photo, also made in Painesville, has a slight blur (middle and bottom images).

I would say my collection is 19 and a quarter out of 20 complete since I need No. 1067 leading from the engineer side and in sharp focus.

Article and Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

 

Sneaking Through Northeast Ohio

Early Sunday morning Todd Dillon sent me a text that no Norfolk Southern heritage units were on the horizon in Northeast Ohio.

That was too bad because it was a nice sunny day although a bit cool.

Later I got a text from Todd saying that the Reading H unit had snuck through Cleveland on the lead of train 421.

Todd caught it at Leetonia on the Fort Wayne line at about 9:45 a.m. as seen above. He said it caught him by surprise.

The previous sighting of NS 1067 posted on Heritage units.com had placed it in Michigan on Saturday morning.

It just goes to show that some days it is better to be lucky than good.

Photographs by Todd Dillon

Recent Norfolk Southern H Unit Sightings

Of late, it has been a good time to see Norfolk Southern heritage units in Northeast Ohio. Here are a few miscellaneous heritage unit grabs from the past couple of weeks. Nos. 1071 and 1067 haul North Carolina-bound coal past the former Amtrak station in Canton. The train is the NS 746. Although this motive power consist was still together this week, it did not return via Ohio. The 8114 is shown leading the 20R by Motor Yard in Macedonia. It ia slso shown meeting the 15K.

Photographs by Roger Durfee

H Units, Locomotives of Interest in NE Ohio

A short one-hour stay in Berea on Saturday morning netted the Norfolk Southern GoRail engine and a pair of new GE Tier 4 demonstrators on a CSX train.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Central of New Jersey and Reading heritage units combined on a 746 coal train for a run across Northern Ohio.  I went to Massillon for the curved bridge shot and was rewarded with a nice sunlight view.

I chased this duo to Mansfield where the crew tied down the train but unfortunately the sun did not hold up very far west.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon

 

It’s Been a Good Week for Heritage Units

It has been a good week for Norfolk Southern heritage units with several in and around the Cleveland area.

I elected to skip the Nickel Plate Road unit on a stone train last Sunday due to the fact that the Wheeling & Lake Erie depot in Kent was being moved that same morning. That trumped an H unit in my book.

There were back-to-back trains with H unit power early in the week. These included the Southern unit leading an oil can train followed by a double H set on empty hoppers, both seen at Hudson.

On Wednesday the Penn Central heritage locomotive led an oil train that is seen here at Atwater. The GoRail also paid a visit and the original NS unit was due through on Thursday night.

Although not an NS heritage unit, this ex-Pennsylvania Railroad E8A could be called heritage. It’s nothing special as far as photos go, but I just wanted something on a piece of track that doesn’t see much action. That’s the Interstate 480 Valley View bridge in the background.

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

Reading Reflections

 

 

With the weather dreary as the Reading heritage unit made its way west out of Conway last week pulling a coal train, I debated about even going out.

The draw of catching one of my favorite heritage unit won out, so off I went. As I made my way to the Alliance area, I started thinking of places to catch it.

I elected to try the Smith Goshen crossing that’s located in the middle of the Garfield Sag near Beloit.

There is a pond there that could add some interest in the form of a reflection on that otherwise cloudy afternoon.

On all but the very longest days of summer the sun angles don’t favor the north side at this location, so I figured I’d put the overcast to good use to even out the light.

A 15K was running around the coal drag at CP Murph while the helpers cut away. The coal train would be on Track 1 so I hoped the freighter would clear in time.

As you see, it did. I tried a couple different angles on the two trains. As luck would have it, some filtered sunlight occurred at the right moment.

Article and Photographs by Roger Durfee

Take a Drive to See the Reading

I saw a report online Tuesday afternoon that the Reading Lines heritage unit was the DPU on Norfolk Southern train Z4R.

I drove out to Olmsted Falls to intercept it. It had been reported out of the Toledo area at 2 p.m. and I figured it might reach the Falls by sometime in the 4 p.m. hour.

Shortly after I arrived, the 11V went past and promptly stopped at CP 197 a short distance west of the depot. I would soon hear the Cleveland Terminal dispatcher tell a following train that the Toledo East dispatcher was single tracking and there was no railroad for westbounds out of Cleveland.

I could only pick up bits and pieces from hearing the Toledo East dispatcher, but I was able to discern that the 14N was having some type of trouble and that trains were not getting the signal at CP 207.

For the next nearly two hours nothing moved on NS past my location. Westbound trains were stacking up in Cleveland and eastbounds were backing up west of Elyria.

I called Roger Durfee to see what he knew, which was that the Z4R was by Amherst at 4:30 p.m. Roger was at Rootstown, hoping to catch the Reading unit there, but it didn’t look promising.

The NS Cleveland Line dispatcher was single tracking between Alliance and Ravenna.

Finally, an eastbound intermodal train came by and about 20 minutes or so later came the Z4R. By now the clouds had moved out and nice late day sunlight was bathing the tracks.

I had predicted the Z4R would get to my location at 6:10, but it actually was 6:05.

Why that time? The last NS heritage unit I photographed at Olmsted Falls, was the Norfolk & Western unit, which I saw at 5:10 p.m.

Shown below are a selection of westbound trains that I also captured once the logjam had broken.

I would learn after getting home that the Penn Central heritage unit passed through not long after I left. But it was trailing on the 64R and the light would not have been good for an eastbound train.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

After waiting at Lewis Road, the 21G is finally on the move westward with its load of containers.

There is a hint of fall color toward the top of the tree at far left. Fall foliage scenes are coming.

Trains meet in the fading light at Olmstead Falls.