2nd District road trip

[E.M. Bell]

I have had the itch for a roadtrip for a couple of months now (some that know me call these a "deathmarch") and late last week made plans do do just that. The weather forcast looked good, and I didnt have to work the weekend for a change. We made plans to leave before daylight Saturday morning and be South of Somerset before the sun came up.  Several of us had attended a NTPA tractor pull Friday night, and as a result, it was after 0200 when I got to bed. A bit after 0600 the cell phone wakes me up, and its Caleb on the other end "hey, I have been sitting in the driveway for a while..you gonna get out of that bed anytime soon?"  Oh well, it's not very often I oversleep...we leave a tad later than planned, and instead of seeing the sunrise South of Somerset, we see it over Danville (click the thumbs for bigger pics) ...



Traffic is light and we make good time on South. A few trains are heard on the radio and we make plans to get ahead of them and start shooting when the sun gets better. We make a good run through stop light city (Somerset) and stop near Parkers lake to shoot Two Northbounds.

NS 230 with a pair of SD70's passes my truck at Parkers Lake. Ky.


NS 180 with a new GEVO at Parkers Lake Ky.


After shooting those two it was Soutbound again and we soon crossed over into Tn. A quick stop is made at Bear Creek to see Northbound Triplecrown 264. Its hard to shoot Northbounds here except very early in the Morning during the summer..



We hear 123 meeting 264 on the radio and decided to go back a North a little ways to find a place to shoot him with a better sun angle. 123 is having engine troubles and is instructed to meet the shop truck at Ratliff Tn. In this view, the shop is working on a stuck layshaft on the trailing unit. Problem was soon resolved and the train continued South.



Soon after 123 gets moving again, and we move back down to Bear Creek to shoot 167 as it passes the old tipple and stored coal cars.



Caleb watches 167 at Bear Creek.


Train traffic dropped off for awhile and we took the time for lunch and to snoop around Onidea some. After a hour or so the radio came back to life and we moved down to Pemberton TN to shoot a couple,  In the span of 30 minutes, 223 and 224, then 132 and 133, meet in front of us. Here, NS 223 climbs the grade out of Onidea.



Shorlty after 223 clears, 133 passes by on #2 track at Pemberton.


Using another lull in traffic, we started back North. I had been wanting to shoot some stuff around the state line for a few years, and this seemed like a good time. We shoot 3 trains at the KY/TN state line in the span of 45 minutes. Here are the results..







NS 124 just North of the Stateline.



Later in the afternoon, NS 177 passes by the Sout Fork Coal prep plant at Revilo Ky.  This plant has not loaded any trains in several years, and the guard we spoke to said there is little hope it ever will again. He was the only one there, and was happy to grant us access for some pics.



By now it was getting late and we made tracks back North towards home. A stop was made in Burnside to shoot Two Northbounds..the light was just to good to pass up!!

NS 284 crosses the Cumberland River.



The last shot of the day was NS 23G, with a former Sp AC44 leading. Seen here on the bridge at Burnside.



For those of you who enjoy tractors and pulling, clicking the thumb below will take you to a gallery of some of the stuff I shot at the NTPA national points pull at Standford Ky on Friday 07/07/06.



Thanks for looking!

[Tweetsiefireman]

As usual, very nice, photos.