NS Heritage Conrail

There's nerds in every crowd, I should know 'cause I'm a nerd in several different crowds. Among railfans, there are those that chase the Norfolk Southern Heritage locomotives. These engines are like Pokemon for Railfans ... "Gotta Catch'em All!" This is the second one I've seen in person, and the first one I've seen 'in the wild'.

NS Heritage Conrail at Copper Creek

The Conrail was working as a trailing DPU, pushing hard on the tail end of this long consist of coal cars as it crosses Copper Creek near Duffield Va. - the Copper Creek viaduct used by CSX is visible in the background.

I got wind of the Conrail's impending pass through our area about noon but it had been raining all day and I figured there would be no chance to get a picture. But the rain stopped about 6, another tweet said the train had just made the turn at Bulls Gap which gave me plenty of time to get to Copper Creek before the train. I scouted out the best angle considering the engine was at the rear of the train and waited.

About 7:00 it started sprinkling again, and at 7:01 I heard the train. So I covered the camera and lens with a towel and took some practice shots on the coal cars as they passed by about 30 mph to make sure I could stay focused on the engine as it passed by. The practice shots helped, and this was the best of the ones I got.

2 down, 18 to go!

#1 1069 Virginian
#2 8098 Conrail

Trains in Tunnels

This past Saturday I ventured out to the Natural Tunnel State Park in Duffield Va (aka injun territory) for the first annual Norfolk Southern Railroad Days. The main attractions for me was getting to walk the railway through the tunnels and getting to see the Norfolk Southern Heritage engine painted and lettered for the Virginian Railway.

the Virginian is an EMD SD70ACe - bigger than you think

the nose

the crossing light and horn at the pedestrian crossover

oh, i forgot, an Operation Lifesaver C40-9W engine was there too
here it's moving backwards into the tunnel

Norfolk Southern paid homage to its predecessor railroads during its 30th anniversary year by painting 20 new locomotives in commemorative schemes that reflect the heritage of those predecessors. Go here if you're interested: http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/Community/Heritage%20Locomotives

#1 1069 Virginian

Big Water

After a weeks worth of rain I wanted to go see how much water was flowing over some of the waterfalls around home. The problem is that most waterfall hikes require multiple creek crossings, but creeks that are flooding makes that a non-starter. So I needed a waterfall that I could get to without a creek crossing ... there's only two that I can think of : Rock Fork and 

There was a break in the rain on Saturday morning, so I talked the spousal unit into accompanying me on the relatively short walk. We'd easily be done before the rain started again, right?

The Nolichuckey river was way up and way muddy. But as we got to the creeks higher up they were running full, but not real muddy, excellent. There were a few hardy folk trout fishing in the Rocky Fork creek, it looked like a waste of time to me, lots of water with a lot of color, but they were hard at it. 

The first picture is Rocky Fork Falls taken from along the main road. There was so much water flowing and it was generating so much mist that getting a picture from down along the creek bank just wasn't going to happen.

The second picture is of the triple falls ... except there's so much water flowing that you can't tell there's supposed to be three distinct sections to the drop.

The last picture is of the last waterfall along the creek. Again there's so much water rolling that it loses all of it's recognizable features.

Hot Gossip, Cold Drinks

With construction on the new traffic roundabout at the busy intersection of State Route 81, State Route 353 and Depot Street set to begin this summer, Five Points Grocery is about to become a pile of rubble.  The store officially closed its doors Sunday, March 31. 

In a town that is proud of its oldest-town-in-Tennessee architecture, Five Points is not a picturesque building, or situated in a particularly nice location, but it's been around a long time and deserves to be remembered, if only in pictures.

Since us country folk don't get many chances to drive in roundabouts (also called roundy-rounds or rotary intersections) I figured it's my civic duty to learn the proper method of navigation through these traffic-control devices. So I did what modern folk do when they have a question ... I turned to the interwebs. So here ya go, put some knowledge in your head:

A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is slowed and flows almost continuously in one direction around a central island to several exits onto the various intersecting roads. In a modern roundabout, entering traffic must always yield to traffic already in the circle. Elimination of the opportunity for the most deadly crashes at intersections (T-bone or perpendicular crashes) is the greatest benefit of the roundabout design.

 

Saying the roundabout is “absolutely safer” than a traffic light at the Five Points intersection, Steve Allen, TDOT project planning director, added that studies show there are fewer severe crashes using that type of intersection design. The absence of traffic signals keep traffic moving during slow times, Allen said. The main drawback, he said, is the public’s unfamiliarity with using roundabouts, an issue he said can be addressed by using plenty of well-placed signage.

Notice that Mr Allen dis not say "fewer crashes", he said "fewer severe crashes", just pointing that out. With a high school full of inexperienced drivers forced to use the roundabout twice a day, five days a week, and the rest of the citizenry generally being older drivers, the potential for incidents is quite large. My guess is that one of Jonesborough's finest will be stationed at the roundabout full time.



Here's an artist rendering of the proposed roundabout at the Five points intersection. Dwight Armstrong with the TDOT Project Management Office in Knoxville describes the design as a typical roundabout with a bypass lane.


The upside is that there won't be any red-light cameras installed at this intersection.

Would it be in poor taste to take bets on when the first crash in the roundabout takes place?

Maybe we should run a contest to name the roundabout !

Chasing Steam

The restored Norfolk Southern 630 was back in town this past weekend. I spent the day with John and Ian chasing it round the area.

The 630 rolling back to the Bristol Train Station on Saturday evening

A shot of the Bristol Train Station after everyone had gone home

In front of Gilley's Hotel / Bulls Gap Train Depot

and yeah, technically it's a fake ... the diesel pic was taken about
an hour before the 630 arrived, I merged the pics in CS5

Rolling downhill past the old Limestone Depot ... notice the lack of steam and smoke

There was a mechanical problem with one of the diesel pushers between Limestone and Jonesborough
which made the arrival in J'boro about a 45 minutes late. Here the 630 is passing the Salt House headed for Johnson City.

the last shot of the day was the 630 crossing Boone Lake over the Bluff City bridge

VA in the Snow

I lost interest in the Bowl of Superness ... so I spent the time working over some pictures I took at the VA Mountain Home in Johnson City today ... enjoy.

Oh, and here's a picture of a barn in a field across Headtown road ...

First ...

It's important to start a new year off with a win; it sets up a winning attitude that can carry a person successfully through the next 364 days. Several years back I made a resolution to get a good night's sleep on new year's eve, and I am proud to report that once again I succeeded in sticking to my resolution.

The weather report said that New Year's day was going to be a total washout - and it was - so if I was going to get a year-ending picture posted it would have to be taken on the 31st. But I needed an idea of something that needed it's picture taken. As providence would have it I got a FB message from George Stacy about an old farmhouse on Simerly Creek road that he liked. The spousal unit needed to go to Elizabethton anyway, so the timing was right to swing by and see the house for myself.

It is a neat old house, sitting about 10 ft above the road. This angle is the best as there is a power pole with several guy wires to the right of the house.The gray skies made the surroundings a very unremarkable mix of browns and grays, with just a touch of green. Even the rust color on the roof was rather flat. I was hoping that some of the recent snow would still be on the ground, but no joy.

The clouds were rolling fast and the sun was popping in and out, so I waited until there was consistent cloud cover and snapped a three shot bracket that yielded this HDR. Since there was real lack of color in the picture I thought I would have to make it a black & white, but the HDR processing was able to bring out enough color to make it interesting.

Now that I know the house is a cool structure, I'll go back out there when (if) it snows again, and in the spring, summer and fall when the trees can provide some colorful backdrops.

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Directions: the house is 3.3 miles from the intersection of Simerly Creek Road and Route 19E (between Hampton and Roan Mountain).