EMD's A-Plenty and a Heritage Sandwich

[E.M. Bell]

Carmon and myself rolled out of the sack at 0630 this morning and made
the short drive over to the Kentucky Utilities power plant at Brown KY,
to be in place to shoot NS 76J which SHOULD have had the Reading 1067
leading. 76J got to the plant about 0815 with the 1067 as the 2nd unit
on the head end, facing South. This would have it in position to lead
the train back to Louisville with the empties after they worked the
plant, but the heritage "curse" that has followed me all week struck again.

After 76J had pulled high on double track between Brown and High Bridge,
they cut the power off the North end and ran around the loads (the
switch to the power plant opens to the South). Standard practice for
this train is to make that move, pull the empties, spot the loads, and
go back towards Louisville, which would have meant the 1067 would have
been in the lead. After they cut off, the engineer could not get the air
on the 1067 to set up for lead. The air brake computer kept showing a
fault and dumping the air. After a lengthy session of "knock the
breakers down and back up" a couple of times on the radio with MOC , it
was decided that the computer was not going to work, and that was that.

They spent the next Two hours switching the NS 1008 off the bottom (DPU)
and getting it in position to lead, which put the Reading unit in the
middle, and bringing the CNO&TP to a grinding halt in the process. By
the time they got all that done and shoved the loads into the plant, the
dispatcher had them lock up and proceeded to run a whole mess of trains
that had backed up. I had hoped to follow them back West, but the
computer problems and the fact that all of the empty cars they had to
pull where NOT empty yet put a quick end to that.

We did get a few shots, including train 143 which also had a SD70Ace
leading, so I don't guess the morning was a total loss.. I had hoped the
1067 was stay captive on the KU train for 2 or 3 weeks, but I guess it
will soon be on the way back to Chattanooga or Roanoke for computer work..

A few pics from the morning at the link, top of the page..
http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/cs1stdistrict12

76J pulls South past the lower KU yard with the 1008 in the lead


Reading 1067 from the topside..not exactly what I had in mind for the day!


NS 143 rolls South with another groovy Ace on the point.


Coal, Clouds and a Redhead...Carm goes for another artsy unit train shot..