NS 9-1-1 on the CNO&TP

[Gage O'Dell]

It's been a while photo forum! Since I've been away for awhile, instead of snow shots, I'll kick it off with a heritage of a kind. Tuesday night, I saw that 9-1-1 was leading NS 117 somewhere around Columbus. It would've been a perfect time for it to come down on a daylight trip on the CNO&TP and the weather looked to be clear, if all plans went right. Well... They sort of went right, but not exactly as I was hoping for. But, that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes. I had Paul's mobile scanner playing on my phone so I could have a little heads up on when it was approaching. I heard North End Dispatch tell 117 he had 3 cars to pick up in Lexington before continuing on south.

So, I headed out the door, thinking it was relatively close, and proceeded towards Lexington. Where I found out there was a traffic jam beginning to build up in the yard at Lexington. A LORAM Rail Grinder was working slowly up track 1 northbound while NS 196 stopped at the yard in Lexington for a pick up.. Not to mention, 216 coming from Danville, and 229 fast approaching. So I drove to Georgetown hoping to catch it at the 67 signals.. After a text from a buddy saying it looked like it was at Akers, I u-turned and headed to Kearney Hills near Greendale and waited for the plunger to unclog the mess..

So finally... After waiting for 229 to run south, then 196 and 216 went north.. North End finally let 117 go and the chase was on. Briefly though, since he had to work the yard. Which allowed for some roster shots of the beautiful locomotive. After maybe 10 minutes, he was back on his train, 215 ran around, and the chase was back on! Again though, only briefly.. After shooting him at Burgin, I hightailed the new car down the country road toward North Wye trying to get back ahead... But it was all for not, since he stopped at the Wye anyway. I only had till 2pm, so I could hit the road back to work. By the time they stopped at the Wye and I took a few shots, it was past 2pm so I had to leave the chase.. Which is okay, because it didn't get through Danville till 4:30 because of congestion.

So without further ado, here are the pictures from the chase! IF you want to see more, head over to my Flickr page and follow me! >>https://www.flickr.com/photos/46459752@N08/

NS 117 rolls down single track near Greendale with NS 9-1-1 leading


NS 117 departs Lexington Yard after a brief stop


NS 9-1-1 Roster Shot


NS 9-1-1 rolls through Burgin as the sun comes out for the first time


NS 117 stops at North Wye after a spirited run down the First District