This is my first attempt at sharing photos on here so bear with me. Comments and suggestions, of course, are welcomed.
My wife had already made plans to be gone most the day so I decided to get out for a little while on a beautiful, but cold, early spring morning. I decided to head south because there was some great scenery south of town and to ensure that I could catch northbounds in good light since they tend to run late on weekends. After a short jaunt down I-85 I jumped off at Bessemer City to check signals since the scanner was eerily quiet. Nothing was lined up at Arlington so I continued south following the tracks. Finally at Kings Mountain a green for a northbound so I hustled south to head it off. I thought I might try to catch a train at Blacksburg SC passing the local power but when hit the state line 172 was already calling Broad River so I stopped to shoot him coming into the double track at the state line in Grover. Unfortunately I had accidentally left the camera in the car over night and it hadn't quit warmed up yet and was very sluggish. The only shot I could fire off was this one:
(https://www.jreb.org/ns/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pbase.com%2Fstillbre%2Fimage%2F75860122&hash=139b2d9cade60fa9b64652ec753deef1558ee30e)
I jumped back in the car and gave chase back to Kings Mountain to shoot 172 again passing the old Martin Marietta spur. No DPU's today.
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Next it was back to Grover to catch 214 which is a rare daylight treat since he's usually through Charlotte by 6am.
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Heading further south I decided to shoot the power assigned to P16 and P17 in Blacksburg. They had a pair of GP38-2s spliced by a spacer car that is needed to spread out the weight of the power in order to cross a trestle on the way up to Shelby NC.
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Next up was NS 204 behind a trio of UP SD70s at Thicketty. The bridge across Thicketty Creek is impressive, especially to cross a creek, but its hard to get a good angle on the bridge due to the US29 bridge right next to it.
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I chased them back north hoping to shoot them again but thanks to South Carolina drivers who insist on driving 30 in a 55 and the fact that 204 was hauling ass, I had to jump back on I85 in order to get back ahead of him. I decided to get in a couple shots of the power assigned to P40 and P43 waiting out the weekend in Gastonia.
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Then again with 204 cruising past.
(https://www.jreb.org/ns/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pbase.com%2Fstillbre%2Fimage%2F75860474&hash=bad46ebd1179ffea6cd77dcc2bc9c38654a6c15c)
I heard P83 talking to the Columbia District DS. He was sitting at South Advance waiting for 338 to arrive from Rock Hill.
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Heading back on into Charlotte I let 212 sneak up on me. If I had heard him coming I would've waited at Lowell where the light was better and a stranded 750 coal train was sitting to shoot him. But alas, Charlotte Jct is still a pretty decent shot, especially with GP60s leading.
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338 arrived off the R-Line soon behind 212. I hate taking two shots in a row at the same spot but when trains run on each other's blocks there's not much choice. 338 was the only Catfish consist today, mainly due to 9000, 9002, 9007, and 9014 being equipped with special electronics to test the new signaling going in between Columbia and Charleston.
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Grabbing a quick bite to eat at Bojangles and stopped to eat it at Summit Ave and to wait out 213 who was meeting 212 and 338 at Haydock. I shoot this shot way too many times but I still like it.
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Then I swung by the yard to see my buddy Ben Lee on the Rouster Job with CEFX 3154.
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One last train for the day turned out to be a pretty good one. All EMD lash-up for 119 back at Charlotte Jct.
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It was my parent's wedding anniversary and I offered to cook them a nice dinner so I had to call it quits for the day and head to the grocery store. All and all not a bad 4 or 5 hours. And true to Caleb Herndon fashion, today's soundtrack was provided by Pink Floyd and Lynard Skynard.
no pics.
try links to photos, that may work better. ;)
Let's try this again.
http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860122 (http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860122)
http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860161 (http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860161)
http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860222 (http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860222)
http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860263 (http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860263)
http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860387 (http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860387)
http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860460 (http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860460)
http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860474 (http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860474)
http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860481 (http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860481)
http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860488 (http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860488)
http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860505 (http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860505)
http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860539 (http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860539)
http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860548 (http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860548)
http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860586 (http://www.pbase.com/stillbre/image/75860586)
A Great set of photos from the Piedmont Division, Josh. ;D
Nice shots!!! ;)
Thanks for sharing...
~Mike