Last Sunday (August 26th) dawned cool and clear, with a hint of fog and otherwise not a cloud in the sky. Carmon and I rolled out of bed rather early, knowing that the KU coal train (The 76J-77J turn) should have been running, but as soon as I turned on the radio at home, I heard the dispatcher talking to them...already over at the power plant. I didn't know for sure which way the power was turned that trip, but we loaded up and took off in hopes we might get lucky...and we did.
By the time we got over to Brown, they had already spotted the loads and had the empties down in the lower yard, and the Reading 1067 would be leading going back to Indiana. That was the good news..the bad news was that it was WAY to early to be able to do anything with them on the Louisville District..the sun would just not be right.. While they finished up the switching, I got on the phone and sent a few texts to let some of the local folks know what was going on, and we both where silently hoping that somehow, the train would get some delay (a LOT of delay) and not head West until later in the day.
The 1st District crew got the switching done in record time and soon headed back for the wye at Danville. We grabbed a quick shot of them at Burgin KY and eased on over the Faulkner. Danville tower called the train and told them to tie it down and a ride was on the way..the Louisville outbound crew did not go on duty until 1130..that was good news. After the crew had departed, I took the chance to get a few roster and detail shots of the 1067 in the perfect morning light, and then we waited. It was after Noon before they finally headed West to Louisville, and we followed them all the way to Shelbyville KY. The light got really good by the time we made it to Waddy, and several other local fans where out by then,
Below are a few of my favorite shots from the day, and as always you can check out the full sized versions over at Pbase..including a few that are big enough to satisfy the rivet counters. Here is the link to Pbase (18 new images) http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/ocs12 (http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/ocs12)
The church bells where ringing and Sunday service was about ready to start in Burgin KY. as we grabbed a shot of the 77J with the old picket fence around the back of the church.
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A low angle, low sun roster shot at North Wye. When it comes to shooting rosters, it just dont get much better than this!
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Southbound 295 passes 77J at the wye, just North of Danville KY. For the closet GE fans, the lead unit on the 295 is NS 8890, the 2nd widecab GE that NS bought 16 years ago.
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Brent Holt (PAfan) takes aim at the 1067 at East Waddy
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77J takes the siding at Waddy Ky to meet train 23G.
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Even with nothing but empties, 77J was really dragging as they headed into the Siding at Waddy. Its a heck of a steep pull through here.
(https://www.jreb.org/ns/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fjreb.org%2Fv-web%2Fgallery%2Falbums%2Falbum51%2Fns77j_waddy_082612_2.sized.jpg&hash=092fa8ef669841b5634858fc4e2fa5972a6febe3)
Later in the afternoon, 77J slides across the new bridge at Shelbyville KY. Mr. Fury joined us at this location, while everyone else went somewhere else.
(https://www.jreb.org/ns/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fjreb.org%2Fv-web%2Fgallery%2Falbums%2Falbum51%2Fns77j_shelbyvilleky_082612.sized.jpg&hash=94f970f4a58231964dd0c6712162dfaec9aa7e4c)
308 miles East of Saint Louis...77J at Shelbyville KY
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Nice shots EM. One of the engineers here really wants to see this unit, I told her it may get here one day.
Paul