EB nad JR's most excellant adventure, Part One, shooting the Money Makers

[E.M. Bell]

F units, OCS, Two Days, 4 states, 2 men in a Ford at a high rate of speed and a prayer...that was the plan we hatched a couple of weeks ago.

After Actually putting some thought into what we where about to do, how many miles we would have to drive on day One, in territory we didnt know to maybe get 3 or 4 shots of said OCS, We changed the plan, and it seemed to have worked out for the better.  Day One, October 29th 2007,  would be be spent shooting the South end of the 2nd district of the CNO&TP, scouting out some new locations, enjoying all the scenic wonder of Southern KY and TN in the fall and perhaps driving at a slightly lower rate of speed.  I stuffed some clean drawers in a sack, rounded up all the camera gear and we departed JR's house at 0630.

We more or less drove straight to the New River Bridge down South of Onida Tn. We had decided that we wanted to shoot the OCS at that location Tuesday morning, so we tried to get there about the same time the train would. We arrived around 0800 and found the bridge totally socked in with fog.  If you look real close, you can almost see the bridge...



We continued on South trying to find some sunlight to shoot a 285, and finally found a patch of sun at Glen Mary Tn. It was looking like it would be tough to shoot the OCS this time of morning with the hard side light and shadows.

NS 285 at Glen Mary TN.



A little later in the morning we made it back up to New River, and the fog was gone. We shoot a 124 crossing the bridge.



Moving back North a bit to bear creek for One South and  Two North.

NS 283 at Bear Creek TN.



North Bound 53W at Bear Creek TN



NS 224 at Bear Creek TN.



With some info that there would be a 117 out of Danville with a pair of KCS units, we decided to move on further North to postion ourselves to follow him back South. Along the way we get Two more Southbounds.

Grain train 56W passes a MofW crew putting the finishing touches on some cleanup for the OCS the next Day.



NS 143 at Wiborg KY with a clean Conrail Leader. We would see this one later in the day further South.



117 was very close behind the 143, so we moved up to Parkers lake to get the first shot of him. We would wind up following him South all the way into TN.  The next series are all of 117.

117 at Parkers Lake KY





Revilo KY



Climbing up the grade out of Onida Tn, near Pemberton.



Robbins TN



And the last shot of the 117, starting down the hill at Pilot Mountain TN.



Later in the day after scouting out a couple of new spots, we moved down into Oakdale TN for a coupe of trains.

NS 223 pulls up for a crew change as the 143 cools its heels in the yard at Oakdale.



223 at Oakdale.



223 manged to get ahead of us out of Oakdale, so we let him go and moved over across the Emory River to shoot 143 and 196.

143 departs after making a setout at South Waters TN.



143 at Harriman Jct TN



Northbound 196 at North Waters TN. This would be the last train of the day. Stay tuned for part 2..the OCS chase.