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