A Southern Kind of Saturday Morning

I had seen a few days earlier on Heritage Units.com that Southern Railway heritage unit No. 8099 was trailing on Norfolk Southern train 206.

Then on the night of Aug 9 I saw on HU that No. 8099 as reported leading NS train 205 at 7:55 p.m.

The next morning when I woke up I checked if anything was reported on the 8099. I was assuming it had already passed through Northeast Ohio. But nothing had been posted.

At 8:24 a.m. I checked again and saw a post of a sighting at 8:22 a.m. at Kingsville, Ohio.

I opted to photograph it at Riverside Drive in Painesville, using as a photo prop the huge steel deck pieces for the new Vrooman Road high-level bridge being constructed a few miles to the east.

This bridge is being constructed by the same builders who had constructed the NS bridge over the Grand River behind me.

Let the record show that Southern 8099 showed up at 9:05 a.m. on the morning of Aug. 10.

Article and Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

Labor Day Wanderings: Part 1

Most of my railfanning moves on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend were done in pursuit of NS 80xx, the Southern heritage locomotive, which I’ve seen just once before.

Many guys take advantage of the Labor Day weekend to make an out of town railfanning trip. I got out of town during the holiday weekend, but not for an overnight adventure. I spent two days railfanning in my “backyard.”

The plan for Saturday was to pick up my friend Adam and head to Alliance. He needed to be back by 3 p.m. to take care of child care duties and after than I would head down to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad for the final day of operation of the Saturday-only bike train.

Adam and I had talked on Friday about going over to southwest Pennsylvania to find DC to AC conversion unit No. 4000, which on Friday morning had been reported on HeritageUnits.com as being in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.

But by early Saturday there had been no updates on the 4000 and traveling to Pennsylvania seemed risky because the 4000 might have moved on in the middle of the night and no one had seen it.

There was a report on HU about the Southern heritage locomotive of Norfolk Southern heading west on the point of train 740. Another report said the Erie H unit was in the motive power consist of an eastbound 64T going through Lima.

They would both pass through Alliance so that was the place to be. We were going around Ravenna on Ohio Route 14 when Adam’s phone dinged with an update from HU reporting that the Southern H unit had just passed through Alliance. Now what?

I’ve seen NS 8099 just once and Adam thinks it is one of the more attractive NS heritage units. It had been out of service for several weeks due to mechanical issues.

I turned south on Ohio Route 44 and headed for Interstate 76. The new plan was go to Massillon to catch the 740 and the 34T and 740 at Mace from Cherry Road NW bridge.

I had shot the Pennsylvania Railroad heritage unit from this bridge on the day of the Akron Railroad Club picnic this past July.

We made good time cruising westward and managed to avoid delays in the construction zones in Akron.

Adam had just gotten his phone during the past week and no sooner had that happened, but the manufacturer issued a recall because of the danger of the phone catching fire.

That led to a lot of joking about how Adam’s phone would blow up in his hand, the flash of light would momentarily blind me and I’d crash into something. And we would miss the heritage units.

Few of that model phone have actually caught fire and those that did did so while the owner was recharging the battery. So long as Adam didn’t try to charge the battery we were safe.

An online report indicated that the 64T was following NS train 170, which had gone into emergency west of Orrville.

The Fort Wayne Line is single track between Mace and Orrville and we played guessing games as to whether the 740 would meet the 170 at Orrville or at Mace.

We also learned that the NS 4000 was in Conway and planned to lead a coal train west on the Fort Wayne line. That looked to be an afternoon move. The New York Central heritage unit was leading a train eastward on the Sandusky District. So, the day was filled with colorful possibilities.

The 170 was going through Mace when we arrived and all I could manage was an image of the rear of the train passing the PRR position light signals.

Railfan Matt Arnold arrived not long after we did. I’d never met Matt before Saturday, but had long admired his photographic work of the Wheeling & Lake Erie. He is a talented young photographer who often railfans with his Dad.

Matt said the 740 was moving slowly, which suggested the 64T would go through Mace first.

That plan was confirmed when an R.J. Corman northbound unexpectedly showed up and keyed up the Pittsburgh West dispatcher.

To our surprise, the dispatcher said the Corman train would go through Mace south to north immediately after the 64T passed through.

The Erie H unit was second of two units, trailing a Union Pacific locomotive. The R.J. Corman train had two units.

I’ve photographed Ohio Central trains a number of times on the former Baltimore & Ohio line in Massillon at Mace, but gotten the Corman there just once while chasing an OC train during the ARRC picnic at Warwick Park.

After the Corman train cleared Mace, the westbound signal for Track 2 went to clear, which is only the second time I’ve seen that indication at that signal.

Although I’ve been to Mace several times over the years, I’ve rarely seen an NS train there. I was never there during the Conrail era.

The Pittsburgh West dispatcher called the 740 crew and said he was ready for them at Mace.

It took awhile but the 740 came into view with NS 8099 on the lead. The lighting was not favorable for a westbound coming into Mace, but I did what I could with what I had to work with.

After getting the train coming image, I dashed across the road and got a side shot and a couple of going away views.

We still had some time before I had to take Adam home. It was at this point that things started falling apart.

Matt had received a phone call from a contact saying the Corman train was going to drop its cars and go to Wooster.

But I neglected to ask him where the cars were going to be dropped. I presumed it would be in Massillon, but it might have been Warwick.

I decided to chase the 740 to Orrville and figured the Corman train would be behind it.

The route to Orrville was slow going and the 740 easily got ahead of us. I ducked down a country road to a grade crossing but nothing was in sight.

I heard the 740 call a clear signal in Orrville and realized we were too late.

We waited in Orrville for about an hour but the Corman train never showed up. Either the information about going to Wooster was incorrect and/or they had gone to Warwick first.

We also learned that the NS 4000 was bad ordered in Conway with flat spots. Either those got worked out right away or the report was in error.

As it turned out, the NS 4000 became the trailing unit on the 64T, the UP unit was removed in Conway and the Erie H unit became the leader.

I felt rather dejected as I took Adam home. Had I gone to Warwick we might have caught the Corman train leaving there. It has been a good five years since I’ve photographed the Corman.

I had better luck on the CVSR later in the afternoon. Aside from photographing the last run of the Saturday bike train, I was curious as to what motive power was running on the CVSR these days.

It turned out that the Scenic train had Horizon Rail 8420 on the north end and the Baltimore & Ohio 800 on the south end.

The bike train had the newly repainted 6771 on the north end and the 1822 on the south end. I was glad to see the 6771 because I like the spiffy new livery adorning it.

I got both trains at Indigo Lake and caught a break when the Scenic had a longer than usual dwell time in Peninsula.

The conductor had told the engineer of the 8420 that there might be several people in wheelchairs in Peninsula and if so the train would need to follow a special operating plan.

As I drove north with the intention of getting the bike train at Jaite, I saw the Scenic sitting at Boston Mills station.

I would get both of them at Jaite. With that objective accomplished I headed for home and made plans for another day of holiday railfanning on Sunday.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

The last cars on train 170 were tank cars. The train is moving onto track No. 1.

The R,J. Corman train approaches the Cherry Street NW bridge. It had a red board at Mace.

Here comes the 34T with a UP in the lead splitting the PRR position signals at Mace.

A closeup of the Erie heritage locomotive. Yeah, it’s trailing, but I don’t get to see it often.

I’ve always like the sight of uniform looking unit trains, particularly when they are snaking through switches and curves.

The two units of the R.J. Corman train are on the move.

The Corman train has the signal at Mace. I’ve never seen an indication like this. One light is green and other either amber or lunar.

The Corman train is about to briefly the NS Fort Wayne Line and move through a pair of switches.

Going south to north at Mace.

At last the 740 made its way through Mace. Seeing four trains here in just over an hour was unusual.

Horizon Rail GP10 No. 8420 is back in service and the blue loaner unit has apparently returned for assignment elsewhere. It was nice to see while it lasted.

Reflections of a CVSR coach in the waters of Indigo Lake.

CVSR 800 at Indigo Lake station.

The 1822 was the south unit on the bike train on its last day of operation.

Boarding the bike train at Indigo Lake.

As much as anything, I made this image to get the old truck waiting at the grade crossing for the northbound Scenic.

A B&O “heritage unit” passes the former B&O train order office in Jaite.

Another photo op with the new look CVSR locomotive livery, this time at Jaite.

The last scheduled bike train of the season is on the last leg of its last trip to Brecksville.

 

NS Southern H Unit to Accompany N&W 611

The Southern Railway heritage locomotive of Norfolk Southern will accompany Norfolk & Western J-Class No. 611 on its excursions this month.

NS 8099 arrived this week at the North Carolina Transportation Museum and will supplement the 4-8-4 on trips on April 9 and 10.

Those trips will depart from Spencer, North Carolina, and travel to Asheville, North Carolina, and Lynchburg, Virginia.

A museum spokesperson told Trains magazine that one of the museum’s diesels may also accompany the 611 on its travels. Both trips out of Spencer will be traverse original Southern rails.

The museum has not said which of its locomotives might be on the excursion train, but one of the diesels in the museum’s collection is former Southern FP7 No. 6133, which is painted in the Southern green and aluminum passenger livery.

Also in the collection is former Southern E8A No. 6900, which also still wears its Southern passenger livery.

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

Triple Heritage Tuesday in Northeast Ohio

First came the Southern heritage locomotive . . .

. . . followed by the combination of the Reading and Central of New Jersey units.

Where there are heritage units there will be photographers. Shown are (from left) Ben Pozmann, Brenda Long and Roger Durfee.

No, the environmental compliance sticker on this locomotive was not a mistake.

Tuesday proved to be a good day for catching Norfolk Southern heritage power. Two NS freights with a total of three heritage paints came through Northeast Ohio within minutes of each other.

One was a 64V oil train for the East Coast, which had the Southern heritage unit leading.

Following right behind was Q47 an extra 747 empty coal train for the mines south of Pittsburgh.  This had the Reading and Central of New Jersey units for power.

As if those weren’t interesting enough, I caught a recently painted SD40-2 on another train. This engine, oddly, had a General Electric emissions sticker that is normally seen on Gevos and Dash 9s.

Well, this was not a shop person’s error but a legitimate paint scheme. GE makes parts for the EMD 645 motor and if the engine was overhauled with these parts, it receives the GE compliance sticker.

Further research showed that this engine, No. 3584, was purchased secondhand by NS. It was originally BN No. 7281 built in 1980.  Railfanning never gets old. I learn something new every day.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon

Productive Train Chase on Saturday

I ended up chasing the 25V with the Southern and Wabash heritage units on Saturday.

But first I went to Kent where I caught an Iowa, Chicago & Eastern engine, the City of Lansing, leading a CSX train.

I’ve been told that all of the IC&E SD40-2s will have been sold to Genesee & Wyoming by the end of this month so that is now a rare catch.

Then it was off to Brady Lake where I caught the 25V.  My next stop was Berea where I got other trains before the 25V showed up.  One of those trains had a Union Pacific/Chicago & North Western patch job in the consist.

After getting the 25V again I had a decision to make. My plan was to wait for the Z4R oil train with the Penn Central heritage unit leading.

However, that train had been sitting in Toledo all afternoon – it was now 4 p.m. – and it didn’t look like it would get moving anytime soon.

I was told the 25V would change crews at Bellevue so that would be a good opportunity to catch it a few more times. So, off to Bellevue I went.

After arriving at Kimball, I discovered that I had missed the Penn Central unit by 15 minutes, such are the breaks.

Well, I waited and waited, and waited some more.  Finally, an ethanol train came after an hour later but no 25V.  I decided to head into Bellevue and at least see some moving trains.

I went back to the Route 4 overpass for some more activity and finally the 25V arrived.

I managed to get it by the old Pennsylvania Railroad tower and again at Route 18 west of town with the sun finally making an appearance.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon

 

 

Double Shot of H Units at the Dog Pound

After watching this pair make a couple of trips past me while working last week, I was finally able to snag a photo on Saturday. As has been the case in Northeast Ohio  lately, the sun was pretty much non existent. I wanted a different spot other than the usual East 26th Street or Berea areas, so I entered a parking lot off East Third Street in downtown. It was also a location that was easily recognizable with the Browns stadium in the background. The location also allowed a broadside of the two.

Article and Photographs by Roger Durfee

There Was Lots of Green to See in Toledo

 

While some of us were photographing the positioning of equipment for National Train Day at Toledo on the Friday before the event, word filtered in that Norfolk Southern No. 8099 was close by and leading an eastbound intermodal.

I set up on one of the old platforms at Central Union Terminal and photographed it passing where some station tracks use to be.

With the train making a stop for a crew change just ahead, I able to get over to the Miami Street bridge to catch it coming out of the Maumee River bridge.

The bright green containers and the new green on the background trees added to this “green scene.”

Article and Photographs by Roger Durfee

Chasing a bit of the Green on Norfolk Southern

Last Saturday saw me heading to Berea to catch the Southern heritage unit that was leading Norfolk Southern train 22K.

But A CSX train decided to park and block the view so we relocated to the signal bridge at milepost 192 near Eastland Road.

The Southern unit showed up just after we pulled in.  It would stop to refuel at Rockport, so we headed for the prime shot.

I had always intended for Berea to be a tripwire not the main photo location, which turned out to be near Rockefeller Road in downtown Cleveland.

What is normally a quiet spot had some 20 to 30 railfans waiting for the Southern unit.

We had some time to kill and NS ran the 206 around the 22K and then a 145 went west before the main event.

After more than an hour’s wait the 22K showed up. All of these trains had GE power. Hmmm. I detect a pattern here.

My next stop was Painesville at trestle over the Grand River.  We just beat the 206 but not in time for good photos.

That was OK as the 22K showed up about 15 minutes later. We picked up a passenger, new club member Cindy Luther, and drove to Conneaut.

Arriving just ahead of the Southern we got some photos on the bridge over Conneaut Creek.

We continued the chase to North East Pa., and got the 22K one last time.

Next was a quick visit to the Lake Shore Railway Museum. Across the tracks quite a crowd had gathered there as well.

Little Joe 802 and NS 3563 made some nice photos. The 3563 is a B32-8 that is a recent addition to the museum collection, which focuses on GE products.

On our way back we stopped at the GE plant in Lawrence Park just outside Erie. A new Union Pacific heavy Gevo was sitting on the interchange track.

Designated ES44AC-H, it is a specially weighted engine for unit train service.  We also took photos of a new mural on the wall of the GE plant.

One last CSX train with Canadian Pacific GE’s finished out day.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon

 

I Finally Hit One Out of the Park

This was the appetizer for the main course that I was served on Saturday afternoon. Keep reading and looking.

When baseball players are mired in a deep batting slump, they must keep focused.

They take extra batting practice and field extra balls. But what do veteran railfan photographers do? They keep going trackside, keep pressing the shutter release button and hope that they get a break.

Of course, it doesn’t help to be sitting on the bench and seeing the “stars” of such sites as Railpictures.net and Trainorders.com hit pitch after pitch out of the park when you can’t make it to first base.

And so it has been for me this year. I’ve been thrown a lot of curve balls that I swung at and missed.

First, there was the Saturday back in early January after one of the East’s many snow and ice storms. Amtrak No. 49 was running about eight hours late with Phase III livery No. 822 on the lead.

I wasn’t working that day and there was brilliant sunshine.  I was set up with good lighting just west of the Grand River in Painesville.

The pitch came sailing toward the plate. It was an eastbound CSX freight with an attractive lash-up. I worked it for a base on balls.

But no sooner had I gotten to first, No. 49 came rushing past on the other track and I missed the shot.

I had gotten picked off and went back to the dugout without having scored.

In March, we were on our way from back from Disney World about the Silver Meteor. To our surprise the Meteor came into the Orlando station with P42 No. 145, the Phase III heritage unit, as the second unit.

Alas, we were loaded down with luggage and my camera was packed away. The best shot I was able to get was from on board the train from our Viewliner sleeper room.

I would get another turn at the plate when we stopped in Jacksonville. But Amtrak threw me a high, hard one.

No. 145 was obstructed by the platform canopy. I call this getting on base by an error then getting stranded.

A few weeks ago, Jeff Troutman and I were all set to get the Norfolk & Western heritage unit at Bedford on a westbound.

As I stood in the batter’s box, an eastbound intermodal came creeping past. And I do mean creeping.

I could see the tail end of the intermodal coming, but I also could hear the approaching westbound.

The best I could do was to “see” the NS 8103 between the trailers of the eastbound. Finally, the eastbound cleared and I got a going away shot of the N&W unit.

I would score this getting to second base and then getting hit by a batted ball in fair territory. I trudged back to the dugout.

On Saturday morning, I got a phone call from Craig Sanders. Think my luck has been bad? He hasn’t photographed an NS heritage unit on the lead since last October. Talk about a slump.

With his encouragement in the form of letting me know that the Southern Railway heritage unit was leading the 22K eastward, I kept watching Heritageunits.com and Trainorders.com.

The 22K takes the former Nickel Plate Road to Buffalo and my house is just a few minutes away. It was my weekend off, the skies were blue and things seemed to be setting up in my favor. Over in Cleveland guys were hitting the ball out of the park like the wind was blowing out at Wrigley Field.

I camped out by the single track NKP for two hours. No way was I going to miss this one. The guy in the batting order ahead of me got on base when the 206 came past with a BNSF unit leading.

It was my turn to step into the box. And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go. And now the air is shattered by the force of Edward’s blow.

Casey might have struck out, but it felt good to finally be circling those bases after hitting one out of the park. It’s been a long time and I had almost forgotten what it feels like to score.

Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

Who would have thought getting a pumpkin and a war bonnet would be considered a disappointment?

Somewhere on the other side was the locomotive that I *really* wanted to get.

The best that I was able to do was only so-so.

 

Not much to work with here.

 

It’s better than nothing, I guess.

Just when I thought I was going to get a pitch that I could drive, I see this eastbound coming.

Somewhere between those trailers is the N&W heritage locomotive. You’ll need to look carefully.

It is almost in clear sight.

The best I was able to do in this at bat. At least it wasn’t trailing. Then it would truly be failure.

It might be. It could be.

It is! A home run!