Seeing Blue in Lake County

It was a star spangled start to the railfanning weekend in Lake County with three locomotives focusing on the color blue passing through on Friday and Saturday.

Ed Ribinskas missed the first passage of CSX 3194, the “pride in service” locomotive that pays tribute to law enforcement. It ran east on Q020 on Friday and returned on Saturday afternoon on the Q017.

Ed writes that on Saturday he then saw an online report that this unit was at Ripley, New York at 2:40 p.m.

“I predicted it would be by the Painesville station about 4:10 p.m. Based on that I would have to go to mass at 5 p.m.

He got it in Perry at 4:07 p.m. so his prediction was not that far off.

On Friday, Ed saw on HertageUnits.com that the Norfolk & Western heritage unit was leading Norfolk Southern train 23K.

He called his friend Jeff Troutman to see if he was available. Several years ago the two of them got skunked when they tried to photograph NS 8103 in Bedford at the tot lot on a westbound. But an eastbound blocked it.

Although Ed was fortunate a few years ago getting good photos of the 8103 on two occasions, Jeff still needed it for his collection.

They got it at about 6 p.m.  the Giant Eagle at the U.S. Route 20 crossing in Painesville.

“What was strange were the auto racks on the front of the train. Is 23K now a combined train or was this just an isolated incident? I’m not sure.”

But Ed said when he spotted the 23K with the N&W heritage unit leading as it went past the Elkhart, Indiana, webcam, the auto racks had been removed.

Early on Friday morning Amtrak’s Midnight Blue P42DC No. 100 passed through in the motive consist of the eastbound Lake Shore Limited.

No. 100 was the fourth of four units assigned to the train.

Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

Getting Lucky With NS 8103 Twice

On Sunday I saw that Norfolk Southern 8103, the Norfolk & Western heritage unit, was assigned to train 309 on the lead.

Reports filed on HeritageUnits.com by posters who had seen the 309 after it passed through Erie, Pennsylvania, said that it had a Canadian Pacific unit as the fourth locomotive in the motive power consist.

After seeing the North Kingsville post, I gathered my jacket, keys and camera and went to Maple Street in Perry.

I waited about 25 minutes. Initially, it was cloudy and started spitting rain. About five minutes before showtime the sun came out in exactly the most perfect angle.

The N&W H unit appeared at 5:45 p.m.

Article and Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

Did It Really Happen?

I’ve had terrible luck trying to catch Norfolk Southern 8103, the Norfolk & Western heritage unit.

Five years ago an eastbound blocked the westbound 8103 at the tot lot in Bedford. A couple years ago a slow shutter cut the nose off when I tried to photograph it in Painesville.

On Friday as I was doing chores around the house I periodically checked HeritageUnits.com.

About 2:20 p.m. I looked at the site expecting to see nothing near me.

I couldn’t believe it. A post at 2:14 p.m. for a sighting of NS 8103 had it at Euclid on the lead of NS manifest freight 310.

I put the dish washing on pause and told Ursula, “I have an emergency. I shouldn’t be gone long.”

Grabbing my camera, keys and jacket I rushed to the NS Lake Erie District bridge over the Grand River near Riverside Drive.

Others were already present and another vehicle arrived soon after I got there.

At train time at 2:51 p.m. everyone was very social distancing, which was easy to do at this location.

Aside from the heritage unit, No. 310 had two DPU units in the middle.

I still don’t believe I finally got it. That post for 310 at Euclid was the first post for that train. Even though it was gloomy with flurries I didn’t care. I’m still pinching myself.

Article and Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

I Made the Image Anyway

This image had two strikes against it before it even stepped up to the plate.

The light was as flat as it could be given the overcast skies and rainy conditions.

And No. 8103 was trailing. But it was the Norfolk & Western heritage unit and that’s a locomotive I’ve only photographed once before.

In fact this was only the third time that I’ve seen it. And it had the bonus value of being on former N&W rails.

So I pulled out my phone and made this image. It’s not great, but at least it is an image of the only out of the ordinary sighting of the day.

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

New App Helps Land NS Heritage Unit

I bagged Norfolk Southern’s  Norfolk & Western heritage locomotive this weekend and here are some pictures and a story.

Using a new app that will tell you what NS heritage units are within a certain radius from where you are at (say 100 miles), we were able to chase down and get the N&W 8103 on Saturday.

The app said that it had been spotted at Sandusky about two hours earlier, the time being 1 p.m.). So we loaded up and went to find it.

We checked to no avail several logical places, including the north end of the yard, the docks and the former New York Central local yard.

We then checked the south end of the former Pennsylvania Railroad yards and found the 8103 sitting out in the open. It was a successful trip using Internet reports.

However, not all Internet reports can be trusted. The same app also said that the Lackawanna heritage locomotive was on the former Nickel Plate Road in Pennsylvania heading to Buffalo.

If true it would have traversed Cleveland about 9 a.m., yet there were no sightings or reports here.

Well that was because the Lackawanna unit was sitting at Roanoke. Va., Somone had misposted its location, which they corrected later, but such is the problem with Intenet posts.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon