Conrail H Unit Two for Tuesday

I don’t remember the last time I caught a Norfolk Southern train with a heritage unit leading. I do know it has been several months since that happened.

So I was pleased to learn on HeritageUnits.com that the Conrail heritage locomotive was leading Train 177, which runs from Chicago to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The 177 was the third train in an eastbound parade on the New Castle District on late Sunday morning. I had caught the parade leader, the 197, which originates in Fort Wayne and also runs to Chattanooga, at Cowan and then at Springport on the NS New Castle District in Indiana.

I also caught the middle train, the 189, which originates in Detroit and runs to Atlanta.

I heard the 177 calling signals on the radio and got into position. I would photograph it in New Castle, Indiana, where I also had bagged the 189 several minutes earlier.

The 177’s motive power consist was quite colorful. Aside from the Conrail H unit, it boasted a Union Pacific unit and a BNSF warbonnet.

Alas, things were not quite perfect when the 177 reached New Castle. The sky was clouds and sun meaning that catching anything between the clouds was a roll of the dice.

There was still direct sunlight on the nose of NS 8098 as it came toward my position, but then a cloud moved. You can see the result of that in the second image.

But I got the shot and that is what matters most. The image was made on Nov. 13.

Getting Double Lucky with the Conrail H Unit

I checked Heritage Units.com at 11:09 a.m. Saturday and a post from 11:08 a.m. showed No. 8098, the Conrail heritage locomotive of Norfolk Southern, leading on NS train 310.

Would I be lucky?  I grabbed my coat and camera and went to the spot on Madison Avenue. Soon I heard horns.

I expected it would be by right away but it showed up about 10 minutes later at a crawl as seen in the top and middle photographs.

Since it was so slow I figured I had another opportunity so I went to Davis Road east of Perry. I was told by a photographer there that intermodal train 206 was ahead of 310 with positive train control problems thus the reason for the slow speed.

However when 310 showed at Davis Road its speed had picked up as seen in the bottom image.

Article and Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

Dave No Doubt Approved

In my mind’s eye it was just a couple of years ago when I would drive to Berea on Saturday mornings and spot a man sitting in a folding chair beneath a tree watching for trains of Norfolk Southern or CSX.

That man was Dave McKay and when he wasn’t traveling to chase trains elsewhere you often could find him on weekends sitting in that chair in Berea.

Dave died in late December 2004. That’s 14 years ago so it only seems like it was just yesterday.

In 2005, Dave’s many friends in the Cleveland railfanning community arranged to create a memorial to Dave near the spot where he often set up his chair.

The Akron Railroad Club, which Dave served as president of for 12 years, started a tradition of railfanning in Berea on the first Saturday in April in memory of Dave.

Much has changed since Dave’s death, although the ownership of the tracks through Berea is not among those changes.

Dave didn’t live long enough to see the 2012 roll out by Norfolk Southern of its fleet of heritage locomotives but if he had I’m sure he would have made images of all of them rolling through Berea.

Knowing how much Dave used to travel in his younger years he probably photographed all or nearly all of the heritage liveries when they were used by the NS predecessor railroads that they commemorate.

I can’t even guess how many thousands of images that Dave made of Conrail trains at Berea and elsewhere.

On a nice early spring afternoon I ventured to Berea to photograph the NS Conrail heritage unit.

It was the sole motive power pulling train 14N, which was parked in the Berea siding awaiting a new crew.

It had arrived about 9:20 a.m. and didn’t move until 4 p.m. I wasn’t in Berea all that time, but I did spend three hours waiting.

By the time the 14N got moving the lighting conditions were adverse.

Would Dave have made the image anyway? Probably. And so did I.

I walked down to the McKay Memorial and incorporated it into the image that appears above.

The ARRC will conduct its annual Dave McKay Dave this year on May 4. The current leadership decided to move to event to May in hopes of having better weather.

I’ve attended all 14 McKay Days held thus far and I know how the weather can range from feeling like summer to feeling like mid January.

But traditions die hard and tomorrow I plan to be in Berea out of nostalgia. I should be at the “official” McKay Day next month, but going to Berea on the first Saturday of April has become a tradition I’d like to keep while I can.

Like Turning Back the Clock

It was a Wednesday. Akron Railroad Club member Peter Bowler noticed online that Norfolk Southern heritage unit 8098 was leading a westbound intermodal train.

He had enough lead time so he headed for Olmsted Falls to intercept the ES44AC paying tribute to Conrail as it led train 21Q.

According to HeritageUnits.com, the 21Q was reported through Olmsted Falls at 3:05 p.m.

It would continue to Chicago where it apparently flipped and came back east the next day when was reported to be leading the 20Q.

The 8098 spent a few days out east before coming back through Northeast Ohio and then making another return trip shortly thereafter.

It can be interesting to track the travels of a heritage unit. In the case of the 8098, since Peter photographed it the unit has been in 10 states, assuming that all of those reports on HU are accurate.

During much of its travels in the past month the Conrail H unit has burnished former Conrail  routes — such as the one shown here — and had its photograph taken who knows how many times.

The fascination with NS heritage units is still going strong more than four years after No. 8098 because the first of those locomotives to be released from the shop for duty.

Photograph by Peter Bowler

Conrail H Unit Passes through N.E. Ohio

The past several weeks the Conrail heritage unit of Norfolk Southern has been leading trains through Northeast Ohio.

Two weeks ago I caught it going by Berea tower (top photograph). This is a significant location both locally but also for the Conrail system.

Conrail’s route structure was basically an X with the lines crossing at Cleveland and, specifically, at Berea tower.

On Saturday, I caught the Conrail H unit leading again, this time at East Conway (middle and bottom photographs). Conway Yard was an important point on the former Pennsylvania Railroad ever since it opened in 1957. This continued through Penn Central and Conrail and remains so with Norfolk Southern.

Many photos have been taken throughout the years at this iconic spot and I thought this would be a worthy inclusion with those.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon

Some Conrail Heritage and Some Spring

The Conrail heritage locomotive of Norfolk Southern leads an eastbound intermodal train through Bedford, Ohio, on April 27, 2015.

It has become something of a tradition. On the afternoon of the April meeting of the Akron Railroad Club I swing by the Bedford Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks to catch some Norfolk Southern action on the Cleveland Line as well as make some photographs that show trains and spring.

Last Friday, I spent just over an hour there. Rail traffic was good and the trees were starting to bud. However, they were not in full bloom as has been the case in the past. Chalk it up to a late spring triggered by the long and tough winter that we had.

Two days later reports made their way into the railfan cyberspace world that the NS Conrail heritage locomotive was leading a 20E intermodal train across Ohio.

It would reach Cleveland in late afternoon so I headed again for Bedford where I knew I would be able to catch the NS 8098 in good side lighting. As had been the case on Friday, the weather was sunny and nice.

I heard the 20E calling a signal shortly after I arrived. It would be held briefly at CP 114 for a westbound crude oil tanker train that was crossing over from Track 1 to Track 2.

The Cleveland Line dispatcher informed two trains holding near Motor Yard in Macedonia that they would be following the 20E because of single tracking on the Cleveland Line heading out of Cleveland.

I sought to duplicate with the NS 8098 a similar photo setup that I had made with the Penn Central heritage locomotive. I had photographed it during spring in Bedford on the lead of an eastbound train.

In both instances, I photographed the lead locomotive as it traveled over the plate girder bridge carrying the trains over the access road into the Bedford Reservation.

The results with the NS 8098 can be seen above. It could easily be a scene from the 1990s when this was still Conrail territory.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

The 20E approaches on the high line passing through Bedford. It is at least the fourth NS heritage unit that I’ve photographed here.

The trees are budding and blooming at last in Northeast Ohio.

The lead unit of an eastbound crude oil train.

An eastbound intermodal train meets a westbound RoadRailer in Bedford on Friday, April 24.

 

After the Conrail-Penn Central ‘Breakup’

A zoom in shot showing 8098 and the 195 signal bridge.

Due to work obligations I wasn’t able to get the Conrail/Penn Central heritage duo together when they returned to Cleveland on Wednesday, but I did manage to catch them both after they were separated.

First it was the 27N with the Conrail H unit now doing its solo gig at Lewis Road in Olmsted Falls passing under the 195 signal bridge.

Then it was back over to Rockport Yard in Cleveland to photograph the sitting duck PC unit. Prior to the 27N showing up, the 15N headed west with three BNSF units.

Article and Photographs by Roger Durfee

Closer view of Big Blue.

Roster view of the 1073.

PC unit with 14N and the Rockport yard office in the background. Note CR coil car behind the 1073 that is still in a patched PC green.

It is one busy railroad at Lewis Road.

The 15N with the three BNSF units heads west.

 

 

Conrail, PC H Units Split up in Cleveland

The pairing of the Conrail and Penn Central heritage locomotives of Norfolk Southern came to an unceremonious end on Wednesday afternoon in Rockport Yard in Cleveland.

The duo came into town around 1 p.m. leading the 27N, an auto rack train bound for Fairlane Yard near Amherst.

At Rockport, the NS 1073 (Penn Central) and NS 1011 were removed and the 27N left town behind only the NS 8098 (Conrail).

Online reports indicate that a small number of fans were gathered in Berea to witness the second coming of the Conrail/Penn Central duo but had to settle for just Conrail.

The Conrail and PC pair had emerged last Sunday from Chicago leading the 24M, an intermodal train bound for Baltimore.

After arriving there on Monday, the pair along with NS 1011 were cut off and subsequently assigned to the 33A, which operated to Enola Yard near Harrisburg, Pa.

That brought them to their last assignment together, the 27N.

Black and Blue at Brady Lake 36 Years Apart

 

Once I got word that the Conrail/Penn Central heritage duo would be through my area in daylight (thanks to all for updates), the choice of location was a no brainer for me.

I have been photographing from this location since the 1970s, all through Conrail’s existence.

It’s been said “you can’t go home again,” but the Norfolk Southern heritage program provides a close stand-in for how the past might look like today.

The top photo is, of course, the 24M from Sunday and the second photo is from January 1979 of a Conrail eastbound with an earlier blue/black duo. Who’d a thunk it?

Overgrowth has hidden the former Lake Erie & Pittsburgh (New York Central) northern flyover track and the trough truss bridge came out in the clearance project of the mid 1990s.

The south connection is still in as the Hugo lead for about two miles but is currently out of service.

Also included in the sequence are two more earlier Conrail photos from Brady Lake that were created in February 1979.

Article and Photographs by Roger Durfee

Double Bonus Sunday on NS Chicago Line; Conrail and Penn Central H Units Plus Something New

It was a family portrait at Olmsted Falls on Sunday with a Pennsy cabin car, New York Central station, the Penn Central heritage locomotive and the successor of all of them, the H unit honoring Conrail.

Early Sunday morning I got an email giving me a heads up that an unusual pairing of Norfolk Southern heritage locomotives had left Chicago in the predawn hours heading east.

The 24M had on the point the NS 8098 (Conrail) and NS 1073 (Penn Central) with the NS 1011 as the third unit. All three units were facing east.

The 24M is an afternoon train in Cleveland and I kept checking online sources to follow its progress. I really didn’t want to miss this train.

First, the Conrail H unit is the only one NS heritage locomotive that I’ve never seen and, second, because of the unique pairing of successor and predecessor.

I left home at about 12:15 p.m. and headed for Olmsted Falls. The 24M had been reported past Millbury 30 minutes earlier.

This is a hot train and it was making good time on a dreary day. The railfan cyberspace world was buzzing.

As I drove west on Interstate 480, I spotted the eastbound Canadian Pacific intermodal train that uses CSX rails between Chicago and Buffalo, N.Y. I took that to be a good sign.

Shortly after I arrived in Olmsted Falls I got another unexpected treat. The M8A called a signal on Track No. 2 at CP 197.

I got into position couldn’t believe my eyes. On the lead was the CREX 1324. It was the first time I’ve been in a position to photograph one of these Citirail ES44AC units leading a train.

Now I knew that it was going to be a special day.

About a half hour later I heard the 24M key up the Toledo East dispatcher to discuss a less than clear signal indication. She told the crew to keep coming, that the signal would come in shortly.

The headlight came into view and there it was. One of two NS heritage locomotives that I have yet to photograph was in my viewfinder.

I wasn’t necessarily thinking of it at the time, but one of my images was an “all in the family” portrait with a Pennsylvania Railroad cabin car (a.k.a. a caboose), a former New York Central station, the Penn Central heritage locomotive and the Conrail heritage locomotive.

Indeed a guy on an email list to which I belong said that all three railroads that he had worked for were represented in that image.

There was talk on Trainorders.com that this motive power consist was a setup. The units were clean and NS company photographer Casey Thomason was out photographing it.

Intentional of not, the pairing these two heritage locomotives together was a stroke of good fortune for those lucky enough to see it.

I had work to do at home so I left shortly after the 24M passed. I had seen two trains in less than two hours and each had something I had never photographed before. I’d call that a quite successful day.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

The 24M is motoring through Olmsted Falls just west of the depot.

A throwback to the early Conrail era. But I’ll bet the PC units were not as clean back then as the NS 1073 was on Sunday.

Before the main event, the warm up act was pretty special for me. The CREX 1324 leads the M8A. This train received an NS leader at CP Max.

The M8A had a BNSF unit trailing.