The Lackawanna and Central of New Jersey heritage locomotives teamed up to lead an eastbound crude oil train beneath the iconic Pennsylvania Railroad signal bridge at Leetsdale, Pa.
Last Saturday was almost one of those days that railroad photographers dream about.
Every so often you’ll see a posting on a railfan chat list in which the poster brags about having bagged multiple Norfolk Southern heritage locomotives in a single outing.
There’s an element of luck involved in doing that. You have to be in the right place at the right times on the right day.
I nearly had one of those days last Saturday. The day dawned with four heritage locomotives sitting in Conway Yard near Pittsburgh.
This included the Central of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna and Central of New Jersey heritage units.
By mid morning the Monongahela H unit had joined them after coming in on the lead of a manifest freight that had traveled the Fort Wayne Line to Alliance and then the Cleveland Line to Rochester, Pa.
East of Pittsburgh, the Illinois Terminal unit was the second locomotive in the power consist of a westbound tanker train. If you’re not counting that is six heritage locomotives and I saw all of them.
A friend and I were railfanning the Fort Wayne Line at Highland Cut where I was looking to make some winter photographs of the snow and ice on the sides of the cut as trains maneuver through an S curve.
There was a report that the Lackawanna and Central of New Jersey H units had teamed up and were backing onto a train at Conway. But the report was confusing as to whether the train would be doing east or west.
We decided to head for Conway to check it out. It turned out that the train was the eastbound 66Z.
It was just starting to move as we arrived. In the meantime, we spotted the Central of Georgia H unit sitting at the engine service facility.
This is the only NS heritage locomotive that I had not photographed. I still don’t have a photo of it.
Sitting near the fuel rack was the Pennsy H unit. It was coupled to a pair of Canadian Pacific locomotives.
Rather than loop back so I could get a drive-by photo of the Central of Georgia unit, we continued to Leetsdale because the 66Z was on the move.
After checking out the photo angles from the bridge to the industrial park, we elected to shoot at ground level just east of the westbound signals at CP Leets.
That proved to be a good decision. The 66Z came by us shortly after we got situated.
The engineer of the NS 1074 (Lackawanna H unit) reported to the Conway Terminal Dispatcher that the locomotive had stopped loading and he reset everything.
It then began slowly loading again. The dispatcher advised the crew to keep him informed if there was any change.
After photographing the 66Z in Leetsdale, we took off to see if we could catch the train a second time.
It was moving along at a good clip and we got off to a late start. We also didn’t know if it would go via the Mon Line or through West Park near downtown Pittsburgh.
We had to travel the congested and traffic light plagued Ohio River Boulevard. Our chances didn’t look too good, but we tried anyway.
As luck would have it we caught the 66Z and didn’t see it on the Ohio River Connecting Bridge that is part of the Mon Line.
Then Adam missed the turn to get off the freeway. The GPA on his smartphone recalculated and we got off at another exit north of where we wanted to be.
We had to navigate a maze of city streets. In our favor, though, was a report from the dispatcher to the 66Z to take it easy to Milvale because there was a train ahead stopped to get a new crew.
That meant that the 66Z was moving at a near crawl. I spotted the ditch lights as we rolled up to the Ridge Avenue bridge over the trench in West Park.
We probably parked illegally, jumped out and ran to the bridge. At the same time, a cluster of railfans were also converging on the bridge from two directions with cameras in hand.
A couple who were cross country skiing in West Park asked us to step out of the way so they could cross the bridge on the snow on the sidewalk.
We obliged and wondered what they must have been thinking at seeing a bunch of guys with cameras come running up.
I got the photo and we headed back to Leetsdale, checking out the locomotive situation in Conway.
The Central of Georgia and Pennsylvania heritage locomotives were covered up so there was no chance of getting a clear drive-by shot of them.
We saw the Monongahela H unit in a motive power consist at the west end of Conway that appeared to be attaching to a train. But a passing coal train and the guard rail prevented me from getting a clear shot. It was trailing anyway.
With the Illinois Terminal unit on a 65R that was in the Pittsburgh area, we hung out at Leetsdale to photograph that train.
Of the six heritage units I had seen, I was able to photograph three of them. Sure, I’d would have liked to have gotten all six, but I was pleased with what I was able to see and photograph. It had been an amazing day.
Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders
A wide angle view of NS 1074 and NS 1071 at Leetsdale. To the right is a stopped westbound tanker train waiting for a signal.
Despite traffic signals turning red, heavy traffic and making a wrong turn, we got to West Park just in time to capture the 66Z going through the trench.
The photographers huddled together on the Ridge Avenue bridge cast a shadow on the snow and soon the NS 1074 in Pittsburgh’s West Park.
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