
A sight that no one wants to see at Berea. A CSX stack train is coming ahead of an NS train that has a heritage unit in the consist.
Shortly after the Berea train show opened on Saturday, Todd Dillon took out his smartphone to check if any Norfolk Southern heritage units might be coming our way today.
The most promising prospect was No. 1069, the Virginian heritage locomotive, which was trailing on an eastbound train that had passed Wauseon, Ohio, west of Toledo at 8:47 a.m., according to Heritageunits.com.
Depending on a number of factors, Todd reckoned No. 1069 would reach Berea by late afternoon.
“Good,” I thought. I could work at the show until afternoon and then go bag another heritage unit. I had seen and photographed the Virginian H unit before.
But that had been a terrible photo that I got of it sitting in the engine service facility at Conway Yard near Pittsburgh this past June.
I wanted to do better than that. Not that I’d get a great shot of it passing through Berea on a crummy day, but it would be better than what I had.
I went about the business of watching the ARRC table at the train show and chatting with whoever came past.
It was nearly noon when Todd checked the status of No. 1069 and said it had been reported past Sandusky a half-hour ago. He suggested that if I wanted to get it in Berea I’d better go over there now.
I wanted to go to Olmsted Falls, but settled for Berea because I didn’t know how close the train was, didn’t even know its symbol and didn’t want to miss it.
Perhaps there would be railfans at Berea who would know the status of No. 1069. There were railfans all right, but none of them knew anymore about the 1069 then I did.
A Wheeling & Lake Erie train was taking the connection from CSX to NS as I arrived.
After a few minutes, light rain began falling. I sat in my car for a while and then stood under a tree next to the parking lot where a couple other guys were, including a fellow from DeKalb, Ill., a college town located along the Union Pacific’s transcontinental line.
I made cell phone contact with Roger Durfee and all he knew was what was posted on HU.com, which was that the Virginian had been spotted at Amherst about 20 minutes earlier. No one seemed to know the train symbol.
I heard a faint radio transmission on my scanner on the frequency used west of Berea. Perhaps that was it.
A few minutes later I saw a headlight through the trees going in the curve on CSX. I just knew what was going to happen next.
A double-stack container train rounded the curve on CSX and then a train popped out from around the curve on NS.
The guy from Illinois said he saw a glimpse of yellow in the motive power lashup of the NS train.
Maybe the NS train would get to our position just slightly ahead of the CSX train. Fat chance of that.
In fact, it wasn’t even a contest. Although the CSX train was flying and it was too long to be past before the NS train reached BE tower.
I spotted a string of empty well cars and I thought that I might be able to get a shot over it. It almost worked. Those bare tables are taller than you might think and the 1069 was a little too far east.
As Oil Can Harry used to say in the Mighty Mouse cartoons, “Curses! Foiled again!”
Except that I used stronger language than that.
I was not going to be defeated. I got in my car and headed for Bedford. The NS train, manifest freight 34N, would have to go downtown and come back. I could cut straight across town on I-480.
It was raining steadily as I barreled along toward Bedford. Should I try for the tot lot or go to the Bedford Reservation Metropark?
I elected to go to the Metropark, figuring I would have it to myself. Wrong!
Bedford was having a pumpkin festival and there was a stream of pedestrians walking along the road into the park, many of whom thought there was on a hiking trail not a public street.
There were a few empty spaces in the lot and I found one. The scanner was strangely quiet.
Where is that train? Could it have gotten past me? No, that was unlikely.
After what seemed much longer than the 20 plus minutes that I waited, I heard the 34N call a clear signal on Track No. 1 at CP 110.
There was no danger of getting blocked a second time by a passing train.
It took a couple minutes for the 34N to show up. I finally had an unobstructed close up view of NS No. 1069.
The resulting photos are roster shot material. They are OK, but not great. But I wasn’t expecting greatness given the conditions.
I didn’t feel the same sense of accomplishment I had felt earlier in the week when I caught the Reading heritage locomotive at Olmsted Falls on an eastbound oil tanker train in the DPU position facing west in nice late day lighting.
Still, I got my locomotive and had “won” the battle, if that is the right word to use.
I get few opportunities to photograph NS heritage units and I was going to let this one pass by.
Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

The best I could do trying to shoot over an empty well car.

At last an unobstructed view of my target.

Not too bad, I suppose, for a roster shot of a heritage unit in the trailing position.