Reading Leading coal on a sucker hole Saturday!

[E.M. Bell]

I have had rather bad luck the past Two weeks with the Reading heritage unit that has been in "captive" service on the 76J / 77J coal train, and found myself at work every time it ran with the 1067 leading (or it was after dark).

This train operates with two sets of KUCX coal hoppers, from a mine on the old AW&W in Southern Indiana down to the Kentucky Utilities E.W. Brown power plant just North of Burgin Ky. It operates on a very predictable schedule, with a train arriving at the plant every other day.  The only part that is hard to figure out is the TIME they may run, as this is controlled by crew availability, mine loading schedule ect.

The weather forcast for this weekend looked to be awesome, and knowing that the train had went West early Friday morning, I had figured they would be back sometime on Saturday 08/11/2012, probably late in the day. As it turned out, they would run early in the day. Thanks to a phone call from Joe Vittitoe (SRman here on Jreb), I was alerted to the early run...if Joe hadn't called me I would have flat out missed it again!  With his call, I was out the door in under 5 minutes, headed West to intercept.

I had hoped to make it to Waddy and start there, but didnt make it. My first shot of the day was at Alton Station, just West of Lawrenceburg KY. From there, it was a fairly easy chase across the Louisville district.  I was joined by Chris Starnes (who was on the way to Summer Rail in Cincy) and also Gordon Brandenburg, who I had called to let him know about the train. The further East / South we went, the more clouds we encountered, but it seemed like every time we found the train, we found a sucker hole to go with it. By the time we got to the wye just North of Danville, the sun was all but gone, but that helped out by allowing us to shoot a couple of Northbound shots on the CNO&TP that would have been otherwise backlit.

Below are a few samples from Saturday. The entire set (12 in all) can be found over on Pbase, much larger in size...just click this link..  http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/ocs12

Reading 1067 leads train 76J up the stiff grade out of the Benson Creek Valley at Alton Station, KY


"Bee Line Service" for KU coal, seen here at Nevin KY


Rolling through the dip at Convoy


Chevy vs EMD and 12,000 tons of coal in Harrodsburg KY...the 1067 almost got some red paint on the plow.


76J accelerates out of downtown Harrodsburg


90 cars of Indiana coal that will keep our lights on here in Central KY, stretched out in the "Dix's Dip" just South of the power plant.


Gordon, taking a picture of me as I shoot the train at East Harrodsburg.

[thpbears]

Looks like some noce pics.

[jhicks7]

Awesome shots E.M.!

[Badhorse79]

Im not sure why .... but the shot of the endless coal in uniform is pretty cool.... great pics EM

[E.M. Bell]

Thanks guys... You cant go wrong with something that pretty to shoot. I am done with that one now..time to switch it out with something else...I am thinking something green and gold!

[Matt L]

It's nice to seea new Reading unit hauling coal.  ;D

[Ed Fury]

I want to see the 1067 one more time before she vanishes from our area forever.