I met Jeff Troutman in Perry on Sunday evening to catch CSX ethanol train K614. There were three other railfans there as well. What was special about his train is that it was led by Canadian National 8952, the Grand Trunk Western heritage unit. It passed through just after 7 p.m.
Photograph by Edward Ribinskas
On March 16, 2013, which was a day of the train show at Lake Land College in Kirtland, Craig Sanders and I started out in Perry in extreme winter conditions as a lake effect squall dumped heavy snow on the area.
We were fortunate to get great photos in a 24-minute span, which included a late Amtrak No. 48. The top image of a Norfolk Southern train illustrates the fierce elements.
Amtrak’s eastbound Lake Shore Limited showed up at 8:42 a.m. and a CSX eastbound came along at 8:51 a.m.
We then retreated to the warm car. Later we would catch a train Painesville before heading to the rain show to work the Akron Railroad Club’s table. By then the snow had stopped.
Photographs by Edward Ribinskas
Railfans and their cameras were out in force on Saturday in Northeast Ohio as CSX train 166 came through the Canadian Pacific No. 6644 on the point.
The SD70ACU is adorned in a special livery paying tribute to World War II veterans.
It is shown above passing through Perry at 12:24 p.m. on the CSX Erie West Subdivision. On the rear of the train was a distributed power unit with its nose facing outward, a bonus for photographers.
Catching the 166 with something out of the ordinary was the highlight of the photographer’s first railfan photography trip of 2021
It is an unexpected but pleasant surprise that while waiting for one train you sometimes get the opportunity to photograph another train that also has something attractive in the consist.
That happened on Saturday to Ed Ribinskas about noon on Saturday as he waited in Perry for an intermodal train with a special Canadian Pacific locomotive.
But first came this eastbound grain train with a pair of BNSF units. It never hurts when railfanning to have the railfan gods smile on you.
Winter storms that dump six to 12 inches of snow are not unusual in Northeast Ohio. If you can get out of your driveway today the sunshine that will grace the region will lead to opportunities for some dramatic winter railroad images.
This photograph was made Jan. 16, 2012, following a storm that buried Lake County in more than a foot of snow.
Ed Ribinskas and I ventured out to Perry to photograph trains on CSX and Norfolk Southern. Shown is an eastbound CSX intemodal train kicking up the snow as it charges along.
Within about a day or so the passage of trains at track speed will likely blow most of the snow off the rails and diminish the blowing show effect.
Until then some memorable photographs are waiting to be created.
CSX recently repainted two of its ES44AH locomotives to honor veterans and first responders.
The first responders unit is numbered 911 and named Spirit of Our First Responders. Spirit of Our Veterans is number 1776.
Since being released the two units have traveled as a pair. They recently passed through Northeast Ohio, going east on Q020 in the early morning hours and returning west on Wednesday on the Q017.
It was while pulling the latter train that most NEO photographer captured the pair.
Among the many Akron Railroad Club members who went trackside to get the 911 and the 1776 was Edward Ribinskas, who captured the Q017 at Perry in mid afternoon.
As this was posted about 7 p.m. on Thursday, the 1776 and 911 were leading eastbound stack train Q015, which should pass through Akron in around sunset or later.
I found the three images posted here in a folder while going through another folder in which I store images that I want to post online.
Like so many images that get sideline, I had forgotten what I had until I opened this folder during a house-cleaning operation.
All three images were made in Perry during an outing I had with Peter Bowler last May.
It had been a frustrating day. We missed an opportunity to photograph a late running eastbound Lake Shore Limited because we neglected to check if No. 48 was running on time or late.
Then we heard on the radio that the Norfolk Southern local to Fairport Harbor was operating today. Despite multiple efforts, we never could find it in a place where we could photograph it.
Our last “failure” occurred in Perry while waiting for it to return to home rails and go back to Conneaut.
We ran out of time. The consolation prize was getting a few CSX and NS trains on the mainlines that run through Perry.
Although you have to look for it, in the middle photograph, CSX locomotive 5327 has the Western Maryland “fireball” emblem.
My first train of 2017 had a few things in common with my first train of 2016.
It had been more than a month since I had been trackside. Holiday activities, bad weather and other factors had kept me at home.
The stars finally lined up on Sunday, Jan. 15. I drove to Painesville to meet with Ed Ribinskas to take care of business related to the transfer of the Akron Railroad Club’s treasurer duties.
It was a sunny day and we moseyed over to Perry where the Erie West Subdivision of CSX and the Great Lakes District of Norfolk Southern run a block apart.
Let the record show that the first train of 2017 that I photographed had a few things in common with the first train that I photographed in 2016.
Both were short, headed eastbound, captured in January and there was no snow on the ground.
But the first train of 2017 was a CSX intermodal whereas the first train of 2016 had been an NS local.
Does this mean anything? Not really, but it is of passing interest.
We arrived in Perry around 11:30 a.m. and by the time we left at 4:30 p.m. we had logged 12 trains.
Three of them were on NS, all eastbounds. Interestingly, the NS traffic came within a 45-minute window.
Otherwise, NS was quiet the rest of the day and there was not so much as a peep of a westbound.
CSX offered some moderate variation. Six of its nine trains were intermodals with a seventh being the Canadian Pacific run-through train that is mostly stacked containers with some manifest freight tacked on.
The CP train had CP motive power and an eastbound crude oil train had a pair of BNSF pumpkins. NS train 206 had a Union Pacific unit trailing. That was the day’s foreign power.
CSX also ran a westbound auto rack train, but we never saw one of those 500 plus axles of a monster manifest freight that CSX has become known for within the past year. In fact, we never saw a manifest freight of any length on CSX.
We also seldom heard the dispatcher of either railroad on the radio. Most dispatcher transmissions had to do with speaking to maintenance of way personnel. Only once did the dispatcher give operating information to a train.
As the afternoon wore on the clouds began thickening although it never reached overcast conditions. The sun continued to pop through even if it was filtered light.
All in all it was a nice way to kick off the 2017 railfanning season.
Eastbound NS 22K was the first NS train that I photographed in 2017. The leader is one digit off from being the bar code unit.
That’s the Perry nuclear power plant blowing off steam behind a westbound CSX stack train.
NS train 206 passes a westbound CSX stack train. CSX twice sent a westbound intermodal train past as we waited for an eastbound NS intermodal train.
The lead unit of NS train 310 reflected in a pool of water in a drainage ditch. It was the only manifest freight we saw in five hours of railfanning.
Another short intermodal train. Is this about giving better customer service or was the business handled by this train way down?
Bright colors for the motive power of an eastbound crude oil train.
A westbound auto rack train cruises along on Track No. 1
The day ended as it started with an eastbound CSX intermodal train.
NS train 22K splits the signals at Perry to begin the sequence of four trains that would pass through in an hour’s time on early Sunday afternoon.
Located 34 miles east of Cleveland on the Cleveland-Buffalo, N.Y., routes of CSX (ex-New York Central) and Norfolk Southern (ex-Nickel Plate Road), the village of Perry lies in the heart of the Lake Erie snow belt. It had snowed there all day Saturday and lake effect snow was still falling when the four of us arrived there about 11 a.m. on Sunday.
I was joined by fellow Akron Railroad Club members Marty Surdyk, Ed Ribinskas and Jeff Troutman. It was our annual winter outing to railfan in this town of 1,600 and to putz around with the model railroad layout in the basement of Ed’s house.
We were pleased to see the snow falling. We had come here hoping to get some good snow images. We would not be disappointed as snow was flying on both railroads.
CSX has by far the most traffic through Perry. NS runs in the range of 20 or fewer trains a day so you can spend hours in Perry and see little to no traffic on NS. But luck was with us on this day. NS sent four trains through Perry in an hour’s time starting just after 1 p.m.
Three of the trains were eastbounds and two of those met the lone westbound at Perry. It was the first time I can recall seeing a train use the Perry siding.
We had heard the Youngstown Line dispatcher tell NS train 310 that it would be following the 206 east from UD (Euclid). The 206 was, at the time, at Cloggsville in Cleveland.
Not long after that, we heard the NS detector just east of Painesville go off. It was too soon for the 206 to have arrived. But maybe he was making better progress than we expected.
We got into position by the NS tracks and along came the 22K.
Not long after its passage, the dispatcher came back on to tell the 22K that it would meet the 287 at Unionville. That got us to wondering. She did not say anything about meeting the 206 and the 310. It turned out that the 287 would meet both of those trains at Perry.
The 206 quickly gained speed as its head end passed the head end of the 287. The 310 would come along shortly and unlike the 206 blasted through town at track speed, creating yet another white out in the misty snow.
We relocated to the Maple Street crossing to observe and photograph the 310 and then the 287 leaving town. The 310 surprised us by having an all Canadian Pacific lash-up. That was nice.
The Youngstown Line dispatcher told a track car that he would have a good sized window of opportunity after the 287 cleared. NS would be silent the rest of the afternoon while we were out.
I’ll post the CSX snow photographs later this week.
A wide angle view of the 22K about to cross Main Street.
Snow swirls as the fast-moving 22K leans into a curve on the east edge of Perry.
The 287 ambles along at 10 mph on the siding at Perry. Yes, there is a track ahead of it and a part of the rail peeks through the snow to the right.
The 287 is stopped and the sun has found a crease in the clouds.
The 206 splits the signals at Perry. For some reason the 206 came into town at restricted speed.
The first two units of the 206 meet the head end of the 287. Something about this photograph suggests to me “powerful diesel locomotives.”
The first container of the 206 adds a bright spot of color to an otherwise scene of gray, black and white.
I’ve always liked to photograph long strings of double-stacked containers. The nearly all white containers on the 206 seem appropriate for the winter scene.
The 310 surprised us by having a motive power consist of all Canadian Pacific power.
The 310 is about to cross Maple Street.
The 287 is on the move. The Perry siding continues westward to Fairport Harbor. The track is the former Fairport, Painesville & Eastern.
The head end of the 287 has entered the crossover to regain the main line.
Coming by the signals at the west end of the interlocking. The signal to the left governs movements on the ex-FP&E.
It’s a straight shot out of Perry for a few miles until the track curves to the right east of Painsville.
The auto racks rumble through the crossover.
The rear of the last NS train we would see on this day. The edge of the ballast creates the illusion of being something of a “third rail.”
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