Beautiful day, seven trains , 2.5 hours , South Fork bridge...

[butch]

Beautiful day, seven trains, 2.5 hours, South Fork bridge...the only problem was I was hiking the cut at Kings Mountain.

Today was a beautiful day and I just had to make up a reason to get out.  I'm giving a tunnel talk to a local RR modelers group in March, so I figured I'd head to Rockcastle County to try for shot I've been wanting to get.  Yeah, I know its CSX, but I'm getting there.  Anyway, I wanted to get a southbound coming out of Tunnel 14 and frame it through Tunnel 15.  Everything was perfect except for the lack of trains. 

Eventually I gave up and switched to option two.  I've also been wanting to get some better pictures of the north portal of the CNO&TP Tunnel 2 at Kings Mountain.   I wasn't worried about the afternoon shadows, since the portal is covered by the hill.  In the 2.5 hours I spent hiking the cut to the north portal of Tunnel 2, checking out the north portal, then back through the cut to the south portal (150 feet of knee deep water inside the north end), then as far as I could get through the tunnel and back; I was blessed with seven trains.   Now I'm not scanner savvy, so I can?t give the details, but I can confirm that the pictures I took were mostly deletes. 

Then I decided to cruise South Fork on the way home.  The bridge looked great against the blue sky and I decided that the place to have been was watching the trains go across the bridge.  I bet I could have gotten some pictures worth keeping.

Hey, does anyone know if the McKinley Depot Restauant is a good place to eat?

Anyway here are two best of a miserable lot, the first and last trains of the day.

[JCagle]

That's the way it always seems to go when you have good light you get no trains and when you get trains the light goes away. I wouldn't say the day was a total loss. There's always something to be said for just enjoying a day out.

[E.M. Bell]

Id have to say it dont matter how many trains you DIDNT shoot..that one shot framed in the tunnel mouth is killer! I did the same thing down in Nemo many moons ago, will have to find the slide one of these years..

I hate to tell you thing, but if you where not in the mood for that 4 mile hike, you could have driven within maybe 700 or 800 feet of the North Portal of #2. Been a few years since I treked back in there, but the road was not that bad..it comes off the gravel road off of 501.

[JCagle]

I like that mouth of the tunnel shot too. It's got something about it that just draws you in.

[butch]

Gentlemen, thanks for the kind words on the portal shot.  My Dad always said he had never had a bad fishing trip, he just caught more fish some days.  I try to use the same approach, and there is definitely something to be said for just getting out and enjoying the day.   

Emmett, on the access to the north end you mentioned, Gordon told me about it a couple of years ago and that's how I made my first trip.  But it got ugly just above the portal, so it ended up being a good walk down to the tracks and then back up to the tunnel.  And yesterday, I was hoping for enough ice to be able to walk back through the tunnel, but it was only about 1" thick.  And as you know, I don't mind a good hike.   

[KyBlue]

Great job on that tunnel Shot!  Well both of them look good to me, but I like the tunnel shot best.

[E.M. Bell]

Yes sir...you do love a good hike. I think I still have blisters from that brisk 20 mile hike we made looking for tunnels in the below freezing temps a couple of years ago..   The road back to the North end  can be a bugger at times, and when its wet. I have gotten down the hill a time or two, not knowing how I was gonna get back up  

[J-man]

Nice shots Butch! Oh, and the McKinney depot restaurant is pretty good!  Well, I should say it should be good, as the original owners moved from there to Stanford.   It's been a long time since I ate at the one at McKinney.

[butch]

Thanks for the restaurant info, I'll have to try it out next trip. 

And Emmett, I think it was more like six miles round trip.  It was climbing up from Gum Lick Branch twice that made it seem like 20.