Miss Liberty Dodging Snowflakes in Vermilion

The snow is flying as the NS 65V with the Central of New Jersey heritage unit in the lead passes through Vermilion. The former New York Central station is the right.

The wind-angle perspective of NS 1071. The Vermilion railfan platform is the far right.

My friend Adam and I were doing to get in some railfanning before attending a banquet Saturday night in Berea.

As we drove out that way we saw an online report that the Central of New Jersey heritage locomotive was leading a westbound 65V and getting a new crew at CP Ram in Cleveland.

Our plan was to intercept this train in Olmsted Falls. It was snowing steadily and traffic on I-480 was slow. As we were passing by Cleveland Hopkins Airport Adam saw an online report that the NS 1071 had just passed trough Berea.

We would never make it to Olmsted Falls in time. Plan B was to drive to Vermilion. We easily got ahead of hit despite the snowy conditions.

Much to my delight the snow continued to fall as we waited beneath the overhang of a shop on the north side of the NS Chicago Line.

After waiting longer than expected, the headlight of the NS 1071 came into view to the east. That gal looked good in the snow.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

Recent Norfolk Southern H Unit Sightings

Of late, it has been a good time to see Norfolk Southern heritage units in Northeast Ohio. Here are a few miscellaneous heritage unit grabs from the past couple of weeks. Nos. 1071 and 1067 haul North Carolina-bound coal past the former Amtrak station in Canton. The train is the NS 746. Although this motive power consist was still together this week, it did not return via Ohio. The 8114 is shown leading the 20R by Motor Yard in Macedonia. It ia slso shown meeting the 15K.

Photographs by Roger Durfee

1 out of 3 Wasn’t a Bad Day’s Work

This past Sunday I went to Pittsburgh to tour some model railroad clubs.  We got some railfanning in along the way.

Online reports had three of the Norfolk Southern heritage units at Shire Oaks, a coal train staging yard on the Mon Line.  Hopefully, we might see a couple.

While driving to McKeesport, Pa., we saw the Central of New Jersey heritage unit leading a coal train north.

We got a grab shot at a crossing. This train was No. 776 and it would later head west across Ohio.

That made it one H unit down and two more to go. After visiting the McKeesport model railroad, we continued south to Shire Oaks yard.

Driving past the south end of the yeard, we saw the 8101 (Central of Georgia) or, more precisely, the roof of the 8101. But the engine was buried behind other locomotives andno photo would be possible.

A quick check on Heritageunits.com  confirmed that the Monongahela unit was at the Bailey mine with a train.  This was too far away for this day’s trip.

Still one heritage is better than none and a good time was had by all.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon