A EMD Day on Christiansburg Mountain

[Ptrainman]

I got out Saturday and shot all day for the first time in quite awhile. Caught 13 trains, 4 with EMDs leading, that good for Roanoke. Did a lot of scouting for 630 next month too.

I left home before light with plans of heading straight to Vicker, but that plan did not work. 236 was coming down the mountain with 3 run of the mill wide body piles of scrap leading. Next I jumped over to the Whitethrone side and caught 18M in full Dynamics at Bradshaw with a SD70M Phase II leading. First one of these Ive seen in awhile.

[Ptrainman]

Next I went down and caught 18M again coming off the siding at Riverside through the CPLs. By that time 757 was by Glenvare so I moved over to Singer and caught him in the curve where 630 died last year. 757 had a SD70M-2 and a SD70 leading a string of nice new gray Bethgons from Freight Car America in Roanoke.

[Ptrainman]

Moved back up the hill and caught 757 again at Shawsville.

185 was right on his heels out of Roanoke so I waited around Shawsville for him. 185 was another EMD train with two of them leading a string of GEs on a very short train. A car almost pulled out infront of 185 here. The woman was thinking long and slow but 185 was short and fast, she changed her mind just in time. The shot of 185 just did not come out right and I cant figure out why.

Then is was up the mountain to Vicker for 23G.

[Ptrainman]

A couple more shots of 23G at Vicker. The second is the colorful string of stacks he had coming under the coaling tower at Vicker.
Back down the mountain for 39Q at Friendship Road with more GEs leading.

[Ptrainman]

By the time 815 showed up, the only place to shoot a eastbound was Wabun so I headed back down the mountain again to catch a odd eastbound empty hopper move made up of a brand new ES44 and about 150 old 3-bay steel hoppers.
I heard 16T coming so I headed to Singer just to watch it go by but when it came into sight smoking this bad even though the light was wrong I could not resist shooting a GE doing what it does best.

[Ptrainman]

While I was at Singer for 16T, 819 snuck in behind me so I headed for Montgomery Tunnel to get him with another newer ES44 leading.
Last train of the day was 188 on the Whitethorne side at Wabun with a standard cab SD70 leading.


Paul

[NSMoWandS]

Paul, 185 look good to me! The SD70M also has a whiteface scheme... very rare! Dan

[Ptrainman]

You know, I had not noticed that till you said something. One of those 70Ms is rare around here. Like I said these two are the first Ive seen in quite awhile.


Paul

[ThoroughBreed]

Either my eyesight is getting worse or theres 2 rpe4c slugs on 188 behind the GE.

[NSMoWandS]

The first one is a GP40-2 in the 3000 series... if you open the file and zoom, you can make out a partial numberboard. Dan

[Matt L]

Why aren't there any vents at end of the long hood on the Geeps? I don't think I've seen any GP40s (or GP40-2s) without the vents.

[ThoroughBreed]

Why aren't there any vents at end of the long hood on the Geeps? I don't think I've seen any GP40s (or GP40-2s) without the vents.

See, thats what made me think they were Rpe4c's, and as for the numberboards, when I open and zoom, it looks like an X for the first number lol.

[Ptrainman]

The unit numbers for the last two units on 188 were NS 3093 and NS 706. The radiator vents on the 3093 are there but the angle and lighting of the shot make them hard to see.


Paul

[ThoroughBreed]

Well, I got one of them right lol. It makes sense that there would be a GP40-2 slug master with the RPE4C.

[Matt L]

OK, that makes ssnese to me.