I’ve had good luck of late catching and photographing Norfolk Southern’s Virginian heritage locomotive, including twice this week.
In both instancing No. 1069 was leading a stack train.
In the top image, the Virginian H unit is leading eastbound 22K at 10:23 a.m. in Painesville at Madison Avenue/Park Road.
Four days later it came back west on the point of the 23K, which I caught at 12:22 p.m. at Bank Street, which is the west end of the bridge over the Grand River.
The Virginian heritage locomotive of Norfolk Southern made a pass through Northeast Ohio on Tuesday on the point of intermodal train 22K.
Ed Ribinskas caught No. 1069, an SD70ACe, on the bridge over the Grand River in Painesville just after 11 a.m.
The train is bound for Ayer, Massachusetts, and originated in Chicago. It is a pretty reliable daytime sighting in Northeast Ohio.
For nearly two hours the CSX New Castle Subdivision through Kent had been quiet. That is not necessarily a rare occurrence as that line can have some long dry spells.
From what I could tell it didn’t help that train Q299 had suffered a locomotive failure, which had Track No. 1 tied up.
Finally, I heard the Q137 call the signal at Davey Tree northeast of town. I got into position on an observation platform that is part of the now decorative dam on the Cuyahoga River just south of the Main Street bridge.
I couldn’t see the train until it emerged from beneath the bridge. Imagine my surprise to see a Norfolk Southern unit leading the train.
Now that’s something you don’t see every day on the New Castle Sub.
At first glance, the trailing unit, though, didn’t look anything like NS or CSX.
What is this? As the train continued its westward trek on Track 2, I recognized that it was the Virginian heritage locomotive of NS.
A check of the unit’s spotting history on HeritageUnits.com found that No. 1069 has been on CSX since at least Oct. 17 when BNSF handed it off in Chicago.
No. 1069 led Q138 eastbound through Akron on Oct. 18 at 7:30 a.m. and when I saw it last Friday it was returning westward.
As of this morning, NS 1069 was still on CSX, having been spotted on two trains in Michigan over the weekend.
Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian arrives in downtown Altoona.
I didn’t do any chasing of Nickel Plate Road No. 765 this past weekend since I already had planned a trip to Altoona, Pennsylvania, with my friend Larry Luther.
On Friday, we did Horseshoe Curve and on Saturday we were in downtown Altoona for some Norfolk Southern and Amtrak action.
Later that day we rode the Everett Railroad to Brooke Mills then did a chase of its long excursion of the year to Martinsburg with the locomotive facing forward in both directions. I’ll be posting my images from that outing in multiple segments. Today will focus on the curve and Altoona.
Photographs by Edward Ribinskas
Here comes the Virginian heritage locomotive of Norfolk Southern leading train 20Q around Horseshoe Curve just before 5 p.m. on Sept. 15.
Getting up close and personal with NS 1069.
Cameras are out as the Virginian H unit rounds the curve.
On the other leg of the horseshoe as seen from the park.
Some Norfolk Southern action in Altoona.
Amtrak arrives into the Altoona station.
Norfolk Southern Train 18M at CP Shriver near Flat Rock with the Virginian heritage locomotive on the point.
Despite some meandering clouds, I wanted to get out and enjoy some warmer weather last Sunday.
So I headed for the Bellevue area, where the Virginian heritage unit of Norfolk Southern was leading an 18M east out of Bellevue after changing crews.
He had to wait for some traffic to clear, which helped me as I got a late start from home.
While waiting at CP Shriver in Flat Rock for the 18M to depart the siding on the ex-Wheeling & Lake Erie/Nickel Plate Road Toledo main back in Bellevue, a westbound freight with a Union Pacific-NS combo showed up.
The good news was he didn’t block the shot of the 18M, which showed up about 10 minutes later.
I caught the 18M just out of Bellevue at Flat Rock, at the CP Shriver crossovers
After waiting for two CSX trains to clear the diamonds at Attica Junction, he finally came around the curve at the old Sunrise elevator in the town of Attica
Then it was back to Bellevue where I lucked into a 2-for-1 photo op as a westbound 941 work train, led by the NS 3535, departed toward Toledo, while an eastbound set of light power, with NS 7596 on the point, was coming by on the ex-Pennsylvania Railroad’s Columbus main.
The 18M rounds the curve as it cruises into Attica.
The UP-NS combination of this train did not block the 18M
A light power move headed for the Sandusky District passes a work extra on the Toledo main in Bellevue at the mini plant in Bellevue.
There was no getting blocked by CSX this time as the Virginian heritage locomotive passes through Berea as had happened three years ago.
The engineer of Norfolk Southern train 15J wasn’t all that pleased with her lead locomotive.
She was exchanging greetings with a crew member on an eastbound train as they passed between CP Max and Berea.
The lead unit on the 15J wasn’t pulling as well as she would have liked and there had been a problem with the horn.
“But it sure looks pretty,” she said after listing the engine’s shortcomings.
Indeed it did for it was NS No. 1069, the Virginian heritage unit wearing its bright yellow and black livery that has prompted some wags to call it the bumble bee.
The 1069 and a trailing unit passed through Berea on late Sunday morning.
I had expected to see the Virginian working solo because the engineer had made reference to having a one unit wonder. Maybe the trailing unit was off line.
It was the second time that I’ve seen No. 1069 at Berea. The first sighting occurred on Oct. 5, 2013, and I had dashed over from the Great Berea Train Show to catch it despite rainy and cloudy conditions.
Yes, I saw the 1069, but it was obscured by a passing CSX intermodal train. And the 1069 was trailing.
I also got blocked this time, too. CSX train Q158 — also an intermodal train — was bearing down on Berea as the 15J approached.
But this time there was enough separation to get clear images of the 1069.
Interestingly, I’ve seen a handful of NS heritage units in Berea, but the 1069 is the first one I’ve bagged that was leading. All the others had been trailing. There was no failing this time.
On Thursday afternoon Norfolk Southern sent two interesting trains westbound. The first was 60H a unit train of gypsum that had the Virginian heritage unit leading.
The second had two brand new DC to AC conversion units leading 65K, an empty crude oil train. Both of these have a black mane but different color separation stripes one one blue and one maroon.
I got both of these trains at Rootstown.
The class leader Norfolk Southern tier 4 GE 3601 led train 34N on Tuesday through Rootstown.
Also the pass through were the Penn Central heritage locomotive — I missed that — and the Virginian heritage unit. I did see, though, a new Union Pacific EMD SD70ACE came through.
The engineer of the 765 waves at the crew of the 145. The two locomotives then exchanged whistle greetings.
Nose to nose in the image that I really wanted to make.
The nose of NS 1069 reflects on the tender of the NKP 765
In the back of my mind I knew it was possible, although it seemed unlikely. The Virginian heritage locomotive of Norfolk Southern was leading the 145 westward on the former Nickel Plate Road route between Cleveland and Buffalo, New York.
NKP 765 would use that line between Cleveland and Ashtabula, Ohio, on Thursday as part of its ferry move to Youngstown for a pair of weekend excursions.
But with the 26R, 22K, 206 and 310 immediately preceeding the 765 ferry move eastbound — which carried symbol 958 — the 145 was marooned in Conneaut, Ohio.
For that matter, the 23K was stuck in the siding in Unionville waiting for all five trains to pass.
After shooting the 765 crossing the Grand River on the trestle in Painesville, fellow Akron Railroad Club member Peter Bowler and I gave chase, but were unable to catch the 958 until right before Ashtabula.
We heard on the radio that the 958 would re-crew at Woodman Road and that it was going into the siding.
As we drove down Woodman, the 145 was talking to the Youngstown Line dispatcher. Maybe there was a chance. As it turned out, the 958 would wait for the 145 to pass before proceeding toward the connection to the Youngstown Line.
The 145 went into emergency about half-mile to the east, a separated air hose the culprit. After everything was repaired, it was on its way. It was the photo opportunity of the day.
The Virginian heritage unit of Norfolk Southern has made a few appearances in Northeast Ohio in the past week. This past Sunday it led an auto rack train bound for Detroit through the Cleveland area during the mid morning hours.
Earlier, it had led the I8V, an extra section of the 28V, out of Rockport Yard in Cleveland to Conway Yard near Pittsburgh.
But before all of that happened, the NS saw spot duty on the BX01 in Cleveland. A gritty old school steel mill looms in the distance as BX01 does it’s air test in the cool shade of a few trees.
Campbell Road yard in the distance was originally a Wheeling and Lake Erie yard. Did any original Virginian units make it to this Campbell Road back in the day?
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