Chasing Autoracks - 01/28/11

[VirginiaSouthern]

I took a day of leave today and decided to head west to Columbia, SC to check out the CSX and Norfolk Southern action there.  Since I see plenty of CSX action in Sumter, I was hoping for more of the latter.

The weather started off mostly cloudy when I first arrived in Columbia.  I arrived to find Norfolk Southern local 77N (out of Andrews Yard) stopped just before the Lincoln Street crossing. Power for 77N almost always consisted of high-nose Geeps in the past.  Today's power was a pair of chop-nose, rebuilt GP38-2s.


I couldn't quite gather from my scanner what was holding 77N up, but it was possibly due to them waiting for CSX to give clearance for the short section of shared trackage at Devine Junction. Either way, about 20 minutes later the train received the clearance to proceed.  GP38-2 5578 is seen moving through the Gadsden Street crossing on it's way west towards Hardeeville, SC.


After 77N cleared the mainline track to Andrews Yard, 2018 (BMW autoracks; Spartanburg, SC to Charleston, SC) made it's way through the junction towards the yard.


After waiting a little while longer in Columbia, I decided that I wasn't interested in CSX today so rather than wait, I decided to chase 2018 southeast to Orangeburg.  The sun had finally broken through the clouds when I caught the train heading through the cut that divides the small town of Saint Matthews, SC in half.


I took my final shot of 2018 making it's way through Orangeburg at a rather brisk pace.  I'm still getting used to changing my settings on the fly with my new camera so this last shot came out a little blury.


Thanks for looking!