The first train of the day was an eastbound NS stack train.The second train was an eastbound CSX train.The Herbert C. Jackson with some familiar Cleveland landmarks behind it makes it way upriver on the Cuyahoga River.The Reading heritage unit leads the 21E at Hudson.
The annual Akron Railroad Club Dave Mckay Day at Berea was chilly but had sunny skies all day.
Four members attended including Bill Kubas, Paul Woodring, Dave Kachinko and myelf.
I counted 21 trains during the time I was there which was 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. It was a fair mix of NS and CSX traffic although NS had a few more trains.
No heritage units went by although NS 4001, one of the Blues Brothers, trailed on the 12Q.
The Reading heritage unit did lead westbound 21E but that didn’t show up until after 8 p.m.
After leaving at 3 p.m., I went downtown to do some boat chasing. The Herbert C Jackson was heading upriver and I caught it several times.
I also ran into Roger Durfee during this chase so that made five ARRC members out today.
After that I went to Hudson and caught three more trains including the aforementioned 21E with the Reading heritage. That brought the day’s total to 24 trains and one lake boat.
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.
For eight years the Reading Lines heritage locomotive of Norfolk Southern eluded the efforts of Ed Ribinskas to photograph it leading a train.
Then last Saturday his fortunes turned when NS No. 1067 led a westbound stack train through Cleveland.
Ed drove to Bedford to catch the SD70ACe under cloudy skies. But the weather didn’t bother him. He now had all 20 NS heritage locomotives leading a train.
Forty-eight hours later the 1067 was back in Northeast Ohio, this time leading the 22K eastward on the NS Lake Erie District just minutes from Ed’s home.
And this time the weather was good. The train is shown above crossing the bridge over the Grand River in Painesville. There is even a touch of fall foliage to book.
That is what I proclaimed at 1:05 p.m. on Saturday in Bedford. Once I saw that Norfolk Southern No. 1067, the Reading heritage locomotive, was leading stack train 21Q I promised myself that the 8 1/2 year-quest would be completed.
It started way back on April 9, 2012, when I photographed Nickel Plate heritage unit 8100 at Ashtabula Harbor.
Even though the lighting on Saturday wasn’t perfect, I did not care. Looks good enough to me. I can proudly say I have all 20 NS heritage units leading a train.
Apparently, Norfolk Southern trains 316 (Bellevue-Buffalo) and 149 (Buffalo-Bellevue) have been replaced by trains 178 (Irondale, Alabama-Buffalo) and 179 (Buffalo-Irondale, Alabama).
Over the weekend I saw that 178 was coming up with Lehigh Valley heritage locomotive No. 8104 leading and Reading heritage unit No. 1067 trailing in the motive power consist.
My focus would be the 1067 because it is the only NS heritage unit I’m missing.
At Bellevue the 8104 was taken off but the 1067 remained third in the consist facing west.
My first photo opportunity (top image) of the 1067 occurred on Monday at 8:10 p.m. in Painesville and turned out blurry because there was hardly any light remaining.
I got another chance on Wednesday at 6:50 p.m. with better light even if the 1067 was still trailing. Alas, the photo, also made in Painesville, has a slight blur (middle and bottom images).
I would say my collection is 19 and a quarter out of 20 complete since I need No. 1067 leading from the engineer side and in sharp focus.
A short one-hour stay in Berea on Saturday morning netted the Norfolk Southern GoRail engine and a pair of new GE Tier 4 demonstrators on a CSX train.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Central of New Jersey and Reading heritage units combined on a 746 coal train for a run across Northern Ohio. I went to Massillon for the curved bridge shot and was rewarded with a nice sunlight view.
I chased this duo to Mansfield where the crew tied down the train but unfortunately the sun did not hold up very far west.
It has been a good week for Norfolk Southern heritage units with several in and around the Cleveland area.
I elected to skip the Nickel Plate Road unit on a stone train last Sunday due to the fact that the Wheeling & Lake Erie depot in Kent was being moved that same morning. That trumped an H unit in my book.
There were back-to-back trains with H unit power early in the week. These included the Southern unit leading an oil can train followed by a double H set on empty hoppers, both seen at Hudson.
On Wednesday the Penn Central heritage locomotive led an oil train that is seen here at Atwater. The GoRail also paid a visit and the original NS unit was due through on Thursday night.
Although not an NS heritage unit, this ex-Pennsylvania Railroad E8A could be called heritage. It’s nothing special as far as photos go, but I just wanted something on a piece of track that doesn’t see much action. That’s the Interstate 480 Valley View bridge in the background.
Amtrak’s many troubles over the past couple of days were described at length in a posting on this site on Friday morning. I followed the progress of the eastbound Lake Shore Limited as it made its way eastward on Friday with an eye toward photographing it at Olmsted Falls.
No. 48 came breezed through the Falls at 12:15 p.m. It arrived at the Cleveland Amtrak station at 12:35 and departed 10 minutes later, nearly seven hours off schedule.
After bagging No. 48, I then went up to Avon Lake where the Reading heritage locomotive has been reported to be reposing on the wye by Miller Road on the former Nickel Plate Road mainline.
It arrived there a few days ago on a coal train and railfan scuttlebutt was that it would spend the long July 4th holiday weekend there.
It was still there when I got there but who knows how long that will last. For now, it is tethered to a Union Pacific unit.
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve managed to catch a small selection of NS heritage units. The Reading unit spent a good bit of time sitting in a siding just east of Bucyrus with a damaged traction motor.
This “sitting duck” allowed me to check out a few different angles along with the standard roster view.
Another sitting duck was the Interstate unit on Easter Sunday at Freshly Road a little west of Alliance on the Fort Wayne Line. Someone, a “PC” fan from the looks of it, put the PC logo in the nose dirt.
The New York Central unit led an empty oiler west past work last week.
While not NS, this Illinois Central unit can sure qualify as “heritage” in my book. It was the middle unit on the circus train power in Youngstown last week.
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