That Western Look

I caught Norfolk Southern intermodal train 234 three times this spring in Bellevue or on the Sandusky District and all three times it had western railroad motive power.

Two of those times it had Union Pacific locomotives in the lead. The third time the train had BNSF motive power upfront.

Train 234 is an easy one to catch. It originates at Landers Yard in Chicago and follows the former Nickel Plate Road mainline to Bellevue where it turns south onto the Sandusky District.

It’s ultimate destination is Norfolk, Virginia. It tends to reach the Bellevue area in late morning to early afternoon.

In the top photograph, the 234 is on the move off the Fostoria District after getting a new crew. It is making its way through a set of crossovers to get to the connection to the Sandusky District, which can be seen in the lower left-hand corner.

In the middle image, the head end is about to cross Slaughterhouse Road. In the bottom image it is skirting a farm as it rounds the connection to head toward Bucyrus, Marion and Columbus.

Across the Vineyards

I was driving along U.S. Route 20 east of North East, Pennsylvania, when it occurred to me that this area might make for a nice across-the-vineyards photograph of a CSX train.

I didn’t attempt that on this trip, but kept the idea in mind for the next time I got over to North East.

That turned out to be about two weeks later when the Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts held an outing to the depot museums in Conneaut and North East.

As it got to be late afternoon, our small but dedicated band, which also included Akron Railroad Club members Marty Surdyk, Bill Kubas and Tom Kendra, decided to relocate to Bort Road.

We caught a few trains there on both CSX and Norfolk Southern. Bill and Tom had to get going toward home, but Marty and I stuck it out a while longer.

Marty had agreed that the across-the-vineyard shot had possibilities. The shot works best in the late evening light of mid summer.

We heard CSX stack train Q008 calling signals on the radio and knew this was our opportunity.

We had scouted for a location earlier in the day as we drove from North East to Bort Road. We sought an area that was open and slightly higher than the tracks.

The challenge was to find a place where the tracks could be seen rather than being blocked by the grape vines.

We had found it and made out way back there in plenty of time to catch the Q008, which had the usual consist of a CSX stack train of two wide-cab locomotives and a rainbow of colors in its containers.

I tried different angles and zoomed in and out for varying compositions. You can see the results in this galley of images.

 

Sunday Afternoon With NS

The nose of the lead locomotive of an eastbound stone train peeks through the vegetation.

These days a primary reason to hang out next to a busy Norfolk Southern mainline for several hopes is the hope of seeing one of the railroad’s 20 heritage locomotives.

That wasn’t the primary reason why the Akron Railroad Club held its summer picnic at the Willis Picnic area of the Bedford Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks system on Sunday. Yeah, we chose this site because it is next to the NS Cleveland Line, which is a very busy route.

Our hopes of seeing a heritage unit, though, were dashed early. Although three such units had been in Conway Yard in Pittsburgh earlier, none of them were going to be assigned to trains likely to pass by our location during the picnic.

But NS sent 28 trains by during our 11 hours in the park. Shown here is a sampling of the action from Sunday.

Photographs by Craig Sanders

A short stack train rushed past headed west.The view is looking west into the park.

The head end of another westbound intermodal train passes over the bridge of the street leading into the park.

The other side of the bridge from the park side. An eastbound RoadRailer approaches.

Getting up close and personal with the RoadRailer.

The trees made nice framing devices for the trains.

Another in the parade of late day westbounds.

Headed eastbound in the dying light of the day. It was the second to last train that we would see.