A Trip Down Amnesia Lane - Norfolk Southern High-Hoods

[VirginiaSouthern]

Since I'm currently deployed, it is going to be awhile before I'm able to photograph trains again.  Because of this, I've been doing a lot of looking through photos from past railfanning adventures.  I'm especially reminiscent when it comes to photos from my teens.  Roving the Virginia countryside in my '86 Chevy Nova (read: re-badged Toyota Corolla) to photograph Norfolk Southern's Blue Ridge and Altavista districts as well as shortline railroads in the area.

To that end, I've been going through a few photos that I've taken the time to have professionally scanned (I plan on having a lot more done after my move to Maryland).  Some of my favorite are those I was able to get of Norfolk Southern's high-hood SD series locomotives.  By the time I started chasing after trains, the high-hoods had mostly moved on from regular mainline use, but they were still abundant and fairly easy to find on locals and other short runs. 

I'll kick off this journey to the past back in the Spring of 1997 at Abilene,  VA (it's just a spot in the road) where Norfolk Southern's Blue  Ridge and Altavista districts converged.  This was my first Spring with a  driver's license and I was eager to put  it to use in the pursuit of trains.  On my very first visit to this  spot (just east of Abilene) I found NS 1624 (former Norfolk &  Western SD40) idling on the siding with a string of Maintenance of Way  gondolas carrying railroad ties. Mind you, these photos were taken before I even cared about photography skills and the photos that go with this story were taken with my mom's (it basically became mine...lol) P&S 35mm camera.



For the continuation to this story and more, please check out www.easternrailfan.com.

Cheers!

[Conrail Tweety]

I think the period after dot com is keeping the weblink from working.

Dennis