Here are three from Orrville made on Oct. 19, 2021. The Norfolk Southern local that switches Orrville and other locations runs push-pull in order to make the reverse move and to switch industries. NS 6345 and NS 6308 are westbound at the still in-use ex-Pennsylvania Railroad westbound signal at the east end of Orrville. Having pulled into Orrville, the local reverses with NS 5607 on the point as the train heads up the spur to Smucker’s and an industrial park. The two locomotives are being towed up the spur.
Norfolk Southern GP38-2 5060 is backing up to the end of the track in the industrial park in Orrville on Aug. 5, 2015. The crew will leave one or more cars and switch the rest.
Here is a series of images of the Norfolk Southern local in Orrville on Sept. 2, 2021. In the top image we see NS 6317 and its short local westbound by the ex-Pennsylvania Railroad position light signal east of South Walnut Street.
We also two images of see NS 6308 is being towed west by NS 6317, and the 6317 and its train in the industrial park in Orrville.
The precision scheduled railroading era has ushered in super sized trains that are a mile or longer and contain blocks of freight that used to move in separate trains. Therefore, you might find a long cut of double-stacked containers in the consist of a manifest freight or manifest freight in the consist of a train carrying an intermodal symbol.
It has meant fewer and longer trains, which management likes because that means fewer crews to pay, hence lower expenses and an improved operating ratio.
The longer is better trend, though, has yet to be applied to locals although in some instances through freights have been assigned switching responsibilities once performed by locals that have since been abolished.
Shown above is Norfolk Southern train L82 sitting just south of Cowan, Indiana, on the New Castle District. Based out of East Yard in Muncie, it works as far south as New Castle Monday through Friday before returning.
When I ran across the L82 on a recent Friday afternoon, the give-car train was sitting short of a control point known as York Point, where a four mile passing siding ends on its south (railroad east) end.
The dispatcher had informed the L82 crew that it would be waiting on a 122, a daily manifest freight operating from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Decatur, Illinois.
Those plans later changed and the L82 was allow to do some work at Oakville.
But at the time I photographed the L82 it was doing was trains have always spent part of their time doing: waiting.
Here is a series of images made on the Fort Wayne Line of Norfolk Southern in Massillon at CP Mace on May 14, 2021.
In the top image, NS SD70ACe leads a westbound manifest freight. Behind this train was a local led by GP38-3 No. 5822. It is shown in the middle image. The 5822 was rebuilt from an GP50 originally built for the Southern Railway in 1981
The third image shows the east end of the westbound local, which is being pulled by the 5822. On the east end is SD40E No. 6308.
They used to be on every freight train but then technology and labor reductions consigned them to a long list of things that used to be but are no more on America’s railroads.
But the caboose has a more romantic aura about it and was better known to most Americans than, say, an interlocking tower or trackside telephone booth.
Today the caboose is all but gone, primarily found on local trains. And even then it may not be a caboose per se but a shoving platform even if it used to be a caboose and still looks like one.
Shown is westbound Norfolk Southern local B23 in Goshen, Indiana, on the Chicago Line. The local originates in nearby Elkhart and works only as far east as Goshen before returning to the yard.
When I made this image on April 22, the B23 had two covered hopper cars and a caboose.
It may be battered and bruised but NS 555616 still has the classic look of a caboose and it’s still something out of the ordinary.
Norfolk Southern local CO6 is shown above with GP38-2 Nos. 5208 and 5321 sitting on the far east end of the industrial park trackage in Orrville on Oct. 9.
A maintainer had been called to fix the switch at the other end of this trackage so the CO6 could enter the mainline, reverse, and head east.
This industrial park trackage is the last remaining part of the now-removed line that ran from Warwick to Orrville and was once known as the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus.
After the maintainer had fixed the switch, the CO6 backed onto the main, reversed directions, and left Orrville to return to Canton.
Last Sunday I was able to catch Norfolk Southern train C89 a Youngstown to Sharon, Pennsylvania, turn. I caught it leaving the Youngstown Line at Bell Wick Road and again on the street trackage in Sharon. it was almost dark when it returned south led by an Operation Lifesaver GP38-2.
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