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.
First came the Southern heritage locomotive . . .
. . . followed by the combination of the Reading and Central of New Jersey units.
Where there are heritage units there will be photographers. Shown are (from left) Ben Pozmann, Brenda Long and Roger Durfee.
No, the environmental compliance sticker on this locomotive was not a mistake.
Tuesday proved to be a good day for catching Norfolk Southern heritage power. Two NS freights with a total of three heritage paints came through Northeast Ohio within minutes of each other.
One was a 64V oil train for the East Coast, which had the Southern heritage unit leading.
Following right behind was Q47 an extra 747 empty coal train for the mines south of Pittsburgh. This had the Reading and Central of New Jersey units for power.
As if those weren’t interesting enough, I caught a recently painted SD40-2 on another train. This engine, oddly, had a General Electric emissions sticker that is normally seen on Gevos and Dash 9s.
Well, this was not a shop person’s error but a legitimate paint scheme. GE makes parts for the EMD 645 motor and if the engine was overhauled with these parts, it receives the GE compliance sticker.
Further research showed that this engine, No. 3584, was purchased secondhand by NS. It was originally BN No. 7281 built in 1980. Railfanning never gets old. I learn something new every day.
I took off Friday from work to head for the “All Aboard Altoona” event, but due to the horrid weather over that way most of the weekend I elected to go west and try to catch the 65R that had departed Conway that morning with the 1067/1069 heritage duo.
My first stop was at Oak Harbor where I set up and waited, shooting other trains until the 65R arrived.
After getting my initial photos, the chase was on. I had planned on heading straight for Toledo, but scanner talk indicated our train was getting held up behind a couple of other moves waiting to get through Toledo.
I found the colorful duo sitting at signal 274 near Martin, Ohio. After about a half-hour, the traffic ahead started moving, so another spot a bit west of 274 was found for some additional photos which included an across the field meet with an eastbound.
After those it was off to the depot in Toledo in hopes of getting them passing the old passenger station.
In a bit of “railfan’s luck,” another westbound stack train departed just ahead of the 65R on main No. 2 and blocked the desired photo.
At least the offending train had a neat UP leader. Since my destination was now Butler, Ind., I tried for more photos of the 65R.
I managed one nondescript photo at Crissey (not shown) and then one last photo splitting the 311 mileposts. All in all, it was a spirited chase of this colorful train.
Here are a few less than perfect views of some Norfolk Southern heritage units that I have seen over the past week or so.
The Reading unit was the DPU on a 64R that is shown passing work (Motor yard) just as the sun came up.
I didn’t like the pole above the train, but I wanted to get the milepost in that second photo. This is a deep crop of a deep telephoto shot, but I like the angle enough that I will try that location again with better planning.
The Wabash heritage unit was leading the 19A and even stopped right at the yard office. But it was on ugly day weather wise. No. 1070 appears to have had some plow repair work done.
I saw a report online Tuesday afternoon that the Reading Lines heritage unit was the DPU on Norfolk Southern train Z4R.
I drove out to Olmsted Falls to intercept it. It had been reported out of the Toledo area at 2 p.m. and I figured it might reach the Falls by sometime in the 4 p.m. hour.
Shortly after I arrived, the 11V went past and promptly stopped at CP 197 a short distance west of the depot. I would soon hear the Cleveland Terminal dispatcher tell a following train that the Toledo East dispatcher was single tracking and there was no railroad for westbounds out of Cleveland.
I could only pick up bits and pieces from hearing the Toledo East dispatcher, but I was able to discern that the 14N was having some type of trouble and that trains were not getting the signal at CP 207.
For the next nearly two hours nothing moved on NS past my location. Westbound trains were stacking up in Cleveland and eastbounds were backing up west of Elyria.
I called Roger Durfee to see what he knew, which was that the Z4R was by Amherst at 4:30 p.m. Roger was at Rootstown, hoping to catch the Reading unit there, but it didn’t look promising.
The NS Cleveland Line dispatcher was single tracking between Alliance and Ravenna.
Finally, an eastbound intermodal train came by and about 20 minutes or so later came the Z4R. By now the clouds had moved out and nice late day sunlight was bathing the tracks.
I had predicted the Z4R would get to my location at 6:10, but it actually was 6:05.
Why that time? The last NS heritage unit I photographed at Olmsted Falls, was the Norfolk & Western unit, which I saw at 5:10 p.m.
Shown below are a selection of westbound trains that I also captured once the logjam had broken.
I would learn after getting home that the Penn Central heritage unit passed through not long after I left. But it was trailing on the 64R and the light would not have been good for an eastbound train.
After waiting at Lewis Road, the 21G is finally on the move westward with its load of containers.
There is a hint of fall color toward the top of the tree at far left. Fall foliage scenes are coming.
Trains meet in the fading light at Olmstead Falls.
There was a 65W coming west on Norfolk Southern on Sunday morning through Pennsylvania with the Reading Lines heritage unit leading.
It passed by work (Motor Yard) just as the sun peeked over the horizon. With the light being no good for that “perfect” photo, I elected to catch it just as the nose caught a bit of the early morning sun as it passed a work train in the yard.
Truth be told, I was probably happier to see the tie gang train there than the H unit since that means those pesky ties will finally be inserted and be out of my photos.
Norfolk Southern’s Reading Lines heritage unit sits at Klines in Bellevue between assignments.
I made tracks to Bellevue earlier this week to catch the Reading heritage unit, a.k.a. the “Queen Bee,” earlier this week on a parked 55A empty grain train sitting at Klines along the Toledo District. The clouds were thick, but a few “sucker holes” opened up allowing some photos of the “Queen Bee” with an interesting sky.
An even darker sky above just after an eastbound freight had cleared.
Roster view of the clean Reading Lines unit.
NS 1067 had it’s own personal sucker hole as both its train and the passing train’s leader were in shadows.
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