Interesting Saturday on the Rails

This past Saturday brought a couple interesting trains. First the Norfolk Southern “Honoring Our Veterans” unit led 11K through northern Ohio.

I got it passing the soon to be replaced signals at Huron.

Next we went to Bellevue as there were storms approaching from the west but for a few hours we had sunny weather.

Another railfan said that a grain train was waiting south of town with a Florida East Coast engine leading.

This is one of four FEC engines currently on lease to Norfolk Southern. This train turned out to be 51Q bound for Dwight, Illinois.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon

Pair of Special NS Locomotives

Norfolk Southern train 34N on Wednesday didn’t have the ordinary motive power on the point. Pulling it was NS 6920, the veteran’s tribute unit, and the 9-1-1, the first responders tribute unit.

The train passed through Cleveland in late morning. The train is shown passing Battery Park on the near west side of Cleveland.

The two locomotives had worked together last weekend to pull a Santa Claus train on NS out of Decatur, Illinois.

Photograph by Roger Durfee

Veteran Tribute Locomotive in Vermilion

Norfolk Southern’s locomotive paying tribute to America’s veterans made a pass through Northeast Ohio on Saturday morning. It was on the lead of train 11V.

My friend Adam and I were headed for Vermilion to get some images of the bridge carrying the NS Chicago Line over the Vermilion River by the boat launch.

As we cruised westward on I-480, we saw NS 6920 on a train at CP Max.

The river was frozen enough to walk out on, but to photograph the 11V, we stood on one of the concrete piers at the boat launch.

Article and Photograph by Craig Sanders

The Sun and I Found the NS Veterans Unit

NS 6920 was sitting in the Avery siding when I first encountered it.

With a few sucker holes hypnotizing me I headed west last Friday in hopes that I might run into NS 6920, the Honoring Our Veterans unit.

I found it parked with no crew in the Avery siding. That’s very close to the Route 250-Ohio Turnpike interchange just north of Milan.

In short order a crew showed up to drag that empty grainer into Bellevue. I still had sun at Strecker Road but after that the clouds rolled in, so I did a few more photos around Bellevue then called it a day.

Photographs by Roger Durfee

Catching it again, this time at Strecker Road.

At the Route 99 crossing at the east end of Bellevue yard.

Pulling through the yard as seen from the Ohio Route 4 bridge.

Wide shot after it cut away with the old NKP roundhouse in the background.

The Vet Locomotive Makes a Surprise Move

Norfolk Southern locomotive No. 6920, the “Honoring our Veterans” unit, paid a surprise visit to the Cleveland area on Monday morning.

The last word was it was that it was the trailing unit on train 34N, but sometime Sunday night it was set out and added to a 64N crude train in Cleveland.

I was just heading out the door at the yard office in Motor Yard to go to the east end and assist this train in adding a rear buffer car when I saw this colorful consist pass by.

Between having to assist this particular train, the horrid weather and the early hour I was only able to grab a quick photo of it as it dropped the conductor off to help make the move.

Although it is not the best photo I’ve ever taken, it does show this neat unit at the east end of Motor Yard.

Article and Photograph by Roger Durfee

Shortest Day of the Year Outing — Part 1

A boy waves as an eastbound Norfolk Southern stack train passes the depot in Olmsted Falls, Ohio, on Dec. 23, 2012.

A long-standing tradition of the Akron Railroad Club is the longest day outing. On the fourth Sunday of June we spend the day at an Ohio hot spot, typically staying until about 8 p.m. Then we move on to the closest Bob Evans restaurant for dinner.

I’ve sometimes wondered why we couldn’t do a shortest day of the year outing in December. Of course I know why we don’t do that. It’s too cold. It’s too close to Christmas. Yada, yada, yada.

That didn’t stop me from having my own shortest day of the year outing this past December. I wanted to do it on the actual shortest day, but that was on a Friday (Dec. 21). Not only was the weather horrible that day, I also had work to do.

Instead, I made it Sunday, Dec. 23. A high pressure system had moved over Northeast Ohio, creating mostly sunny skies. There was enough snow on the ground to make things interesting.

Rather than drive to Fostoria, Deshler or Marion – the usual suspects for the ARRC longest day outing – I stayed closer to home. That meant Olmsted Falls and Berea. I chose the former because I’ve never photographed a train there when there was snow on the ground. I chose the latter because it’s the premier railfanning spot in Northeast Ohio.

I got a later start than I had expected. I thought a friend of mine would be going with me, but it took until midmorning to find out that he couldn’t make it due to family obligations. Besides, when I got up that morning it was 22 degrees. Burrrr.

So off to the Falls I went, arriving there about 11 a.m. The first train was an eastbound stacker about a half hour after I arrived. I worked into my first shot a small boy waving to the engineer and trying to get him to sound the horn. I don’t remember if he did or not.

Then came another container train and in its heels was the 14N, a manifest freight that I knew had as its fourth unit the Norfolk Southern veterans tribute locomotive.

Not long after that, I heard the new crew on the 15N get permission from the dispatcher to leave nearby Rockport yard and head west.

It was getting to be mid afternoon and time to relocate to Berea where I could also get some CSX trains. I had bagged six NS trains at Olmsted Falls and was out of photo ideas for the moment. It was time to move on.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

There was enough snow on the ground to make things interesting. It was my first snow shot at Olmsted Falls.

The 15N is fresh off a recrew and headed west through the Falls.

The NS veterans tribute locomotive was the fourth unit back in the motive power lashup of the 14N.

The Great Locomotive Chase

My first photo of the 21G was of it crossing our Bridge 1 in downtown Cleveland.

It seemed on Sunday like dozens of railfans were out following Norfolk Southern train 21G, which featured SD60E No. 6920 painted in a scheme to honor our veterans. My chase started at Bridge 1 in Cleveland and ended in Toledo. It was there that I found a surprise.

Photographs by Roger Durfee

The next spot would be at Coen Road near Vermilion. That’s CP 222 in the background.

At the Route 163 crossing outside of Sandusky.

A roster grab shot.

From the Miami Street bridge in Toledo.

A looking down roster view from the Miami Street bridge in Toledo.

Meeting train 861 at Toledo with the “original” Norfolk Southern painted heritage unit leading.

NS Veterans Locomotive Rolls Through NE Ohio

Norfolk Southern No. 6920 rolle through Northeast Ohio early Sunday afternoon at the head of the 21G, a container train. The SD60E wears a livery designed to honor the veterans of the United States armed forces.

The unit is a rebuilt SD60 with a comfort cab. It was released by the Altoona shops in early November and participated in a Veterans Day ceremony in Virginia before entering freight service.

An NS news release said the locomotive will ” . . . honor people who have served in the military and reserves, especially those employed by the railroad.”

NS said the red, white, and blue paint scheme, and yellow ribbon with the message “Honoring our Veterans,” was selected by a group of 18 NS employees representing all branches of the armed forces.

Railfan photographers lined the NS Cleveland Line and Chicago Line as the train made its way from Conway Yard near Pittsburgh to Toledo where it changed crews. It then continued westward toward Chicago.

The locomotive is shown in the two photographs above at Olmsted Falls at 12:23 p.m.

Photographs by Craig Sanders