NS train 69?

[florida581]

A fellow railfan just saw a manifest train running eastbound towards Roanoke, VA using the symbol 69 (or 069). Would NS 69 (or 069) be a symbol used for a foreign railroad's train running on NS rails? A detour train perhaps?

The power for the train is NS 7612 and CN 2655.

[TheVARailFan]

From what I have the NS 069 is an Amtrak/Steam special, are you guys sure it was the 069? I could see 096, that's foreign moves.

[florida581]

From another source, it was NS 169.  I believe 169 is a Conway - Sharonville, OH train so I'm not sure why it was heading east towards Roanoke. 

[TheVARailFan]

Just noticed that you saw Mikes video too, interesting that she took the South Yard, if she was going south she would have had to reverse and run the Winston-Salem in reverse until the next siding capable of a run-around or run-around and reverse to JK, then down the Winston-Salem. If she was headed to Lynchburg they would have undoubtedly ran the Blue Ridge there. 169 is a Conway-Sharonville train, very interesting. NS doesn't run over the AVR through Hazelwood, PA, do they? If so it could be a re-route from that.

[E.M. Bell]

169 is now a Conway to Birmingham train, via the Piedmont Div.  The first one to use the new routing was 169-13 

[florida581]

169 is now a Conway to Birmingham train, via the Piedmont Div.  The first one to use the new routing was 169-13

Thanks for the info, E.M.

[NSSpike]

NS 169-13 rolled west through Temple Georgia this morning around 1:30am. A discussion between the crew and dispatcher centered around where they would tie down the train. The dispatcher was leaning toward Anniston.  The crew suggested that due to the length of the train Hefflin. ALA would be better as they wouldn't be blocking any road crossings. Just "real slow going" the crew reported. Not sure how long this manifest was but from the time they called out clear Morgan, until the detector went off was a good 8 minutes plus. Sources tell me NS 7612 was leading with a CN unit.