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.
As this is written most of the colorful fall foliage has turned brown and dropped to the ground. Some trees continue to display fall color, but autumn color peaked weeks ago.
The fall foliage window is small, sometimes only a few days. Seemingly overnight trees can lose their leaves or be stripped bare by wind and rain.
Shown above is Norfolk Southern Train 25A passing beneath a colorful canopy of leaves in Springport, Indiana, on the New Castle District.
Led by a Union Pacific unit, an eastbound Norfolk Southern merchandise train rolls into Camden, Ohio, on the New Castle District in the southwest corner of the state. The train is crossing Barnetts Mill Road on the north edge of town. There is a passing siding here and a westbound was sitting in the siding having been there for several hours awaiting a new crew. The image was made April 2, 2022.
Everything was in place to get a killer photograph of an eastbound train on the New Castle District of Norfolk Southern in Seven Mile, a small town in Southwest Ohio north of Hamilton.
Train 25A was waiting on the main for a meet with westbound manifest freight 174, which would go into the siding.
We had set up along a rural road to get a view over a cornfield of the 25A passing a grain elevator on the south side of town. We had earlier gotten a side view of the 174 on the north edge of New Miami.
The rear of the 174 rumbled past and we waited in anticipation of seeing the ditch lights of the lead unit of the 25A come on to indicate it was on the move. A bonus was the three Union Pacific locomotives lashed together elephant style that were pulling the 25A.
This is an intermodal train that originates at Calumet Yard in Chicago and carries a block of containers that NS gets from the UP. It also carries blocks of manifest freight.
We waited, and waited and waited. It would be 45 minutes before the dispatcher directed the 25A to continue east. We don’t know why the train didn’t leave sooner.
But as we waited what had been a few decorative clouds grew into additional and larger clouds.
You’ve probably figured out where this story is headed. By the time the head end of the 25A reached the grain elevator the sun had ducked behind one of those clouds.
We got cloud skunked.
I made some photographs anyway, one of which is the top image above.
We chased the 25A to Hamilton and managed to get an image of it coming around a curve in good sunlight. It was nice but not the image we had wanted to get.
After getting lunch at Subway, we returned to our location along that rural road at Seven Mile and waited for another eastbound.
Nothing was moving so we headed north. Along the way we got wind that the 189, a Detroit (Oakwood Yard) to Atlanta (East Point) manifest freight was coming.
The 189 would go into the siding at Seven Mile to meet the westbound 282, a stack train running from Jacksonville, Florida, to Chicago (Landers Yard).
The 189 had a BNSF leader and a Ferromex unit as a rear DPU. The nose of the Ferromex locomotive was pointed outward.
By now we were into high sun and harsh light time but that wasn’t going to stop us from chasing and photographing the 189.
We got it on the north side of Collinsville, Ohio, and then got into place to do the grain elevator shot at Seven Mile.
It wouldn’t be the same composition as earlier with the 25A because the sun had shifted to favor the other side of the former Pennsylvania Railroad tracks.
The clouds had also thinned a bit and we got plenty of direct sunlight as the 189 came rolling past the elevator.
With that we headed north and managed to get the 282 at Eaton. I would catch one more train, the 142, at Conley Road northwest of Eaton before calling it a day and heading home.
School has let out for the day and those who live in the country are aboard the bus on their way home. As the bus travels a narrow road in Southwestern Ohio known as Oxford-Middletown Road the gates and flashers come down for a crossing with Norfolk Southern tracks. The location is near Sommerville in Butler County.
Headed railroad westward is stack train 282, which originates in Jacksonville, Florida, and is bound for Landers Yard in Chicago. In this area it runs on the New Castle District.
It may be that at least one passenger aboard the bus doesn’t mind waiting for the train. He’s a young railroad enthusiast and he’ll take any opportunity he can get to watch a train go by.
Norfolk Southern train 25A passes a pair of unused fence posts along Conley Road near New Hope, Ohio, in the southwest corner of the state. The train originated at Calumet Yard in Chicago is bound for DeButts Yard in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It caries a cut of manifest freight along with a long string of double-stacked containers. It is shown running on the New Castle District. The image was made on April 10.
The crew of the New Castle Southern job was just about done for the day. They had tied down their train in New Castle, Indiana, and were wrapping up some loose ends before going off duty and going home.
But then Norfolk Southern grain train 50Q showed up headed toward Cincinnati. The NCSR crew stopped what they were doing and got into position to conduct a roll-by inspection of the 50Q.
Nothing was amiss so the NCSR crew finished their work, got in a couple of vehicles and drove off to other things until it was time to report to duty again.
Norfolk Southern has outlined its capital spending priorities for 2022, which include extending sidings and improving intermodal terminals.
Trains magazine reported on its website that NS Vice President of Engineering Ed Boyle outlined the capital plans during a presentation to the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association.
Among the sidings to be extended is one in Campbellstown Township in Southwest Ohio on the New Castle Subdivision.
The siding, which is located southeast of Richmond, Indiana, will be extended to 15,000 feet.
It is one of six siding extension projects planned as part of the 2022 capital budget.
Also planned is upgrading yard lead tracks in Cincinnati. Most of the intermodal terminal projects will be in Chicago.
NS has not said how much it plans to spend on capital projects this year or detailed all of its projects. However, it spent $1.6 billion in 2021 on capital projects and expects to expend a similar amount this year.
Boyle noted during his presentation that bridge and structure work also will be a focus of the capital spending plan with plans set to replace 21 bridges and rebuild 28 others.
During this year NS plans to lay 500 miles of new rail, conduct 2,700 miles of tie and surfacing work, and replace 450 panel turnouts.
Getting that first train of the day during a photography outing can feel special, particularly if it comes along shortly after you’ve reached trackside.
Shown is NS train 25A at Ball interlocking in Cowan, Indiana, on the New Castle District. Ball is a set of crossovers toward the middle of a long passing siding south of Muncie, the home of Ball State University and a glass jar manufacturer in whose honor the college is named.
I had first spotted the 25A in Muncie and hustled out here to make this image. I’ve photographed several westbounds in Cowan but never an eastbound.
This train is typical of railroading in the precision scheduled railroading era. The 25A is, in theory, an intermodal train operating from Calumet Yard in Chicago to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
It did have some containers in the consist but these days you can find just about anything in the consist of many trains.
The 25A would not be operating very much further beyond Ball before halting near York Point, where the siding ends. The 142 was coming west.
I didn’t wait around to see that meet. I was heading back into Muncie to catch the 142 on a bridge over the White River.
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.
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