Last week I took a "mental Health Day" on Friday, making for a lovely Three day weekend to spend some time with Carmon and take advantage of the first of the fall weather that has descend on Central KY. We spent Friday photographing at the Woodford Reserve distillery (my favorite Bourbon) and then spent that evening getting a few shots of the new RJC Dinner train that is running out of Lexington. Saturday the 14th, we met up with Gage and Aaron to spend the day out on the CNO&TP.
Saturday morning dawned clear and cool, with the temps down in the low 50's around sunrise. For me, that is almost perfect weather wise..I am happy when I can put on a sweat shirt and not have to spend a day sweating and being hot. A lot of folks dont like the cold weather, but for me the colder the better! We knew that there would be no Heritage units or other special stuff running, and we planned to just go out and shoot what ever ran. Aaron had not spent much time on the North end of the 2nd district, so we decided to work the area between Danville and Kings Mountain Ky and let him get a good look at the area and just enjoy being out.
The weather stayed nice all day, and the trains ran hot and heavy as usual. We even had a few motive power surprises, making it all that much better! Below are a few samples, and I invite you to check out the entire set over at my 2013 2nd District at Pbase....just follow this link to get to the whole set >>>> http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/cs2nd13eb (http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/cs2nd13eb)
The first train of the day would be Northbound 282. Here he is rolling through the farmland at Bowen, Ky in some sweet morning light.
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As soon as 282 cleared, a rather late 167 with a UP SD70m was ready to get on the move. The train had died on the law at Bowen, and a fresh crew had taken over after the train had spent most of the night tied down here.
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The signal work seems to have slowed down for some reason, and we noted very few changes in the past few weeks. At Bowen, the new signal mast was laying face down on the ground while the old searchlights still stood tall doing the work they have for over 6 decades now.
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After the 167 made it down to Palm, OTTO decided to run a few Northbounds. It was still fairly early in the morning and we found a place where the light was good for them. Here is Triple Crown 264 sprinting up the valley at Moreland, KY with a barn full of freshly cut tobacco and Jenkins Knob in the background.
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We stayed in the valley for awhile longer to wait on another Southbound that was out of the yard at Danville. Here is train 117 passing the Red barn in the Northern suburbs of Moreland, KY
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With another Southbound right behind 117, we moved down to Southfork to shoot it coming by the signals there. They say the devils in the details, and details abound in this image. NS 2671 brings a Southbound manifest through the CP . Take a minute to ponder what you see..its almost like a visual trip back (and forward) in time....The old searchlight signals with the brand new replacements standing by, the old Southern blow board for Northbounds and a new "W" blow board on the other side...a fairly new EMD on the point with a old SD40-2 behind. There is a story to be told here..what does it say to you??
(https://www.jreb.org/ns/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fjreb.org%2Fv-web%2Fgallery%2Falbums%2FBellpost13%2Fns2671_southfork_091413_1_001.sized.jpg&hash=64228ff13919379ed065c0064f5f22f82019eb63)
In this modern world with the internet, text messages, email, and even the old fashion telephone, its becoming increasingly rare to be surprised by a train. It seems that if anything good is on the way, the network will be buzzing about it long before it ever gets to you..the element of surprise is just not there anymore...usually. With that said, its nice to be in the dark once in a awhile, like last Saturday when we had NO idea what was leading anything. We just went out to shoot what was running and got lucky. Standing on the bridge at Kings Mountain, we could hear that sweet EMD music long before we saw it...and then the 6118 popped out of the shadows and the shutters stated clicking and the plans for the rest of the day started changing. I dont think it would have been near as much fun if we would have known ahead of time! NS 6118 leads train 275 up the hill at Kings Mountain.
(https://www.jreb.org/ns/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fjreb.org%2Fv-web%2Fgallery%2Falbums%2FBellpost13%2Fns275_kingsmnt_091413_2_001.sized.jpg&hash=d85ce2ed84954d12cf37232a8cdb1dd4d27d2360)
While we had not planned to go any further than Kings Mountain, that SD40-2 quickly changed our minds. We sped out of Kings Mountain like a GE salesman was chasing us, and somehow managed to beat that 275 to Gradison by less than a minute. Here is the 6118 again, bringing over a Mile of loaded racks through the roller coaster at track speed..it simply does not get much better than this!
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After that 275 got by us, we never had time to relocated before the usual afternoon Pig Parade started. We stayed around Gradison to see 295, 215 and 229 come by, running less than 10 minutes apart. Here is 215 with a dirty ol GE on the point coming over the first hill on the North side of the CP at Gradison.
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The last train of the day (that I bothered to shoot) was a Northbound 57X empty grain train, seen here coming down off the mountain and under the signals at Southfork, KY
(https://www.jreb.org/ns/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fjreb.org%2Fv-web%2Fgallery%2Falbums%2FBellpost13%2Fns57x_southfork_091413_1_001.sized.jpg&hash=4ce2558aa5df23a443404432962471b6556efdc4)
Whats done with these old signals and signs the railroad replace. Looks like there would be a nice market in re selling them to anyone that would like to have a piece of history.
Some have been donated to SARM..the others get scrapped. From what I have seen of the condition they are in after they are cut down, scrap is about all they are worth...sadly
That 6118 has served a number of times as the power for T27, the Newport local. Happy to see it out for a long run. Great catch!