Norwood Hill-1985

[Ponce de Leon]

This past weekend I've been scanning old slides on the N&W Clinch Valley District for a new book by Ed Wolfe. I regret not shooting more "genuine" N&W on this line, but I was actually surprised to find some slides and negatives I had long forgotten----including some black and white shots around St. Paul taken in 1965.

However---I also found several slides taken on the CNO&TP in 1985. This was early in the NS era, as a few "horses" were showing up on trains to mar the all-Southern look with which I was more familiar. In some cases, a few N&W units were mixed in.

Attached is one shot I found kind of interesting. This is northbound train 188 climbing Norwood Hill (not sure of the exact location----so Emmit, Butch and some of the guys who frequent that area more than me might know). Two Southern SD40-2s are spliced by a third one in NS paint. The date was September 28, 1985.

I kind of like this shot---but there's no light on the nose of the lead unit, so that's a no-no with the boys at RP.net. They have this fixation about such things, so rather than risk a dreaded rejection (oh perish the thought!), I'll just share it with the folks on JREB.

[lwjabo]

Train 188 was a dreaded train down in Georgia. They ran it behind 230 but it would get ran around at least once. Went on the law a lot. They put the set out pigs for Dalton on it so were in no hurry as long as it got there before 9am the next day. Still those were the days my friend and we thought they would never end. You going to make it to Chattanooga this weekend?

[mbgphoto79]

Classic as always.  I like the backlighting in this case, it gives the high hood a real imposing look especially without the ditch lights. 

[E.M. Bell]

This one has me stumped. I cant really place where that might be on the hill at all Ron.

[Ponce de Leon]

It's been a long time ago, of course, but a friend of mine was with me when I took the shot. We were headed home from Louisville after a failed attempt at making a r/t to Lexington with KRM's just-rebuilt L&N 152 (I returned a month later for the engine's triumphant return to service as she pulled two coaches and Monon BL2 no. 32 to Lexington and back without problems). However...on the way home we decided to go through Somerset so I could show my friend the CNO&TP. No. 188 was the first train we saw, and I remember back-tracking up the hill and catching that shot. Afterwards, we visited Paul Darnell (I think that's his name----forgive me if I'm wrong) who was a CS dispatcher at Somerset. We sat in the dispatcher's office, which had a glass between the north and south end dispatchers. Paul would tell us what was coming and where, and we ended up stepping outside to photograph at least three other trains before we headed east for Virginia. I recall no. 150 had two SD50s----one in NS paint and one in N&W paint. I'll scan those shots and share later.

Ron