Heritage in There Someplace

The sun was still rising above the tree line when I arrived in Goshen, Indiana, last Sunday in search of fall foliage.

I knew from last year that the trees in Oakridge Cemetery along the Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern could put on quite a display. I also knew that it might be several days before the foliage reached its peak color.

But the weather looked promising for Sunday morning so I made the trek to Goshen in search of color.

I had scarcely arrived and parked along River Avenue when NS intermodal train 22X showed up with a “special guest.”

The Norfolk Southern heritage locomotive was the second of the three units working the 22X eastbound. You can sort of see it even though it is enveloped in shadows. Likewise, trailing behind the NS H unit is a “Southern Belle” of Kansas City Southern.

It was a quite different motive power consist and got the day off to a good start.

Article and Photograph by Craig Sanders

More Trail Equals Fail Tales

Seeing your blog post on Trail-Fail reminded me I’ve had a few over the last week or two.

The first is from Berea involving Norfolk Southern No. 4001 one of the “blues brothers,” a GE Dash 9 rebuilt with AC traction motors. 

This was not only a trail=fail but it was almost blocked by another train. An empty flatcar saved the day.

Second is the same engine a week later at Rootstown. It had been leading but PTC issues forced the crew to wye the power at Rockport Yard, making this a trail=fail as well.

Third is also at Rootstown about an hour later with DC to AC unit not trailing but in low light as the sun was rapidly going down.

Finally, there was the instance of the Reading heritage unit trailing at Hudson.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon

2 For Tuesday Heritage Units in Alliance

It is not common to see Union Pacific heritage locomotives in Northeast Ohio.

Of course Norfolk Southern heritage units are regular visitors to the region given that it is served by one of the railroad’s busiest main lines.

But to get two heritage locomotives of different railroads in the same place on the same day is quite a feat.

In the top image, the Norfolk Southern H unit of NS is shown headed westbound through Alliance on Nov. 16, 2015.

On that same day another NS westbound had the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (a.k.a. as the Katy) heritage locomotive in the motive power consist.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

1 Hour, 2 Heritage Units

I watched Penn Central No. 1073 this morning at 9:15 a.m. on the Horseshoe Curve rail cam. Also around that time I saw NS 8114 had been posted on Heritage Units as being in Chesterton, Indiana. What would be the chances for seeing two in one day?

I called fellow Akron Railroad Club member Jeff Troutman and he was attending a funeral but said he should be back home in the afternoon.

They were closing in so I figured if I drove we would have to be on the road by 3:30 p.m. I called Jeff and he was to be home a little after 3 p.m. I got him at 3:30 p.m.

We got to the Tot Lot in Bedford at about 4:50 p.m. The first two photos were made about a minute later.

A young railfan from Wisconsin with his father had no idea this was coming and was super excited. Then his excitement returned about 50 minutes later. It was a good day for everybody.

Article and Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

By the Glint’s Late Day Light

I had a trunk load of railfan magazines to convey to Marty Surdyk to be sold at trains shows at which the Akron Railroad Club has a table.

We arranged to exchange the magazines one evening last summer in Olmsted Falls, which is a favorite railfanning haunt for both of us.

After transferring the magazines, we settled in to do some evening railfanning. I had brought my tripod to try some night photography.

But before you get to darkness you get to that time when the low sun angle makes for some nice glint lighting.

Of course you need a train to show up when the light is just right to go glint hunting.

On this evening NS cooperated by sending eastbound manifest freight 16G at just the right time. As a bonus, the Norfolk Southern heritage locomotive was on the lead.

Strictly speaking, the going away shot of the NS 8114 below is not a glint shot. But I liked it and included it in the gallery because it is part of the story.

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

Few Trains, But Lots of Variety

The original Norfolk Southern heritage unit leads the 20W east through Oak Harbor, Ohio. Good things seem to happen when I chase the Nickel Plate Road No. 765.

This past Sunday was one of those days where I didn’t see a lot of trains, but what I did see presented quite a variety of subject matter.

I had traveled to Michigan to photograph the Nickel Plate Road No. 765. We waited for it at Vienna Road, located a few miles south of Monroe, Mich. Aside from the Norfolk Southern line between Toledo and Detroit, this location also features a Canadian National route.

NS sent one southbound past our location while we were waiting and a CN coal train came past after the 765 had blasted through and we were about ready to leave.

Our next objective would be the NS train 20W, which had the original Norfolk Southern heritage locomotive on the point. No. 8114 was the first NS H unit that I ever photographed and I’ve seen it just once since then. Interestingly, that was on the same day that I had chased the 765 on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad last September.

There is something about seeing the 765 and then seeing NS heritage units. More than a year ago, I was waiting in Bellevue for the 765 to show up when the Southern heritage unit pulled a train through town. In early May of this year, I saw the Wabash heritage unit on a train after getting the 765 earlier in the day.

We elected to try to get the 8114 in Oak Harbor. After a late lunch at McDonalds and then ice cream from a shop next door, we went trackside, seeing a headlight of an approaching eastbound in the distance.

It wasn’t the 20W, but it did have a BNSF warbonnet as the second unit.

The wait for the 8114 was not all that long. I heard the 20W call a signal and then saw its headlight to the west. After the 20W passed, we began making our way back to Cleveland. We caught up with and passed the 20W on Ohio Route 2. We decided to catch it one more time.

We chose the boat launch in Vermilion. The NS tracks cross the Vermilion River here to the north. The lighting wasn’t ideal. The sun had not yet crossed the tracks but that turned out to be a moot point because we got cloud skunked.

A couple of other railfans showed up just after we arrived and they mentioned that a westbound Operation Lifesaver special was coming, having just cleared Berea.

A westbound stack train with a blue CN unit and a Union Pacific flags unit was the first train to pass by. The 20W was next up and then the OLS train. That made two passengers trains in one day and neither of them carried a hint of Amtrak.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

The first train of the day arrived 45 minutes before the steam train.

We were mildly disappointed that this southbound coal train had BNSF rather than Canadian National motive power. It was, after all, on CN tracks.

The southbound coal train took the siding at Vienna.

An eastbound manifest wheels its way into Oak Harbor.

The old New York Central style signals at Oak Harbor are about to fall.

At Vermilion, this westbound stack train had a surprise site. The motive power consist included a blue CN unit . . .

. . . and a Union Pacific locomotive.

Catching up with NS 8114 in Vermilion. Alas, the clouds had blocked the sun.

Catching the ferry move of the NS Operation Lifesaver train just minutes after getting a heritage locomotive was stroke of good fortune.

 

 

Coloful Motive Power Consist Brightens NS

 

Last weekend Norfolk Southern ran a very colorful lash up on train 37A from Enola to Conway.  On Sunday this same motive power consist came through Cleveland on train 15N.  I caught this train Saturday evening at Leetsdale, Pa. Among the engines were NS heritage No. 8114; Union Pacific Olympic Torch Relay No. 2001; and Canadian Pacific No. 7581, which had starred in the movie Unstoppable.

Photographs by Todd Dillon

N&W H Unit ‘Sags’ Through Beloit

I headed for Beloit, Ohio, and the “Garfield Sag” after work on Wednesday for a little heritage locomotive action. The Norfolk & Western unit was leading a 65K tanker train. I have always liked how you can often see an entire train at this location as it drops down from CP Murph and closes in on Alliance.

Photographs by Roger Durfee

2 Ways to Leave a Powdery Trail

A fast train can kick up some white stuff as seen by the Southern heritage unit on train 24M flying by the Wheelock switches (Motor yard in Macedonia, Ohio), passing a local that had just arrived.

But who needs snow for that to happen? Witness train 66A, a loaded gypsum train, as it sails through Hudson, Ohio, leaving a white cloud behind it, too.

Photographs by Roger Durfee