The New Cannonball

The latest Norfolk Southern Heritage engine that I've seen come through Jonesborough was the Wabash (1070). I saw on the FaceTube that the Wabash was trailing (2nd of 3) on the 15T from Allentown PA, but this has happened before and the engines were taken off at Roanoke. So when I later saw that it had cleared Roanoke with the power intact it became a "simple" task of working out the timing of when it would get to Jonesborough. 

A network of FaceTube friends and a few sites on the Interwebs and a scanner makes it a manageable task to find westbound trains that have made it to Piney Flats and are waiting on clearance to go through Johnson City and Jonesborough on to Knoxville. I've empirically determined that once a train receives clearance, it takes about 50 minutes to get from Piney Flats to Jonesborough which gives me time to get there with time for a few practice shots.

It was cloudy and getting dark fast, so I got lucky when the 37Q came through about 30 minutes before the 15T. It also had three engines which gave me a good opportunity to work out the best angles to shoot from since the Wabash was not leading, and facing backwards. Below are the two best shots, taken behind the courthouse in downtown Jonesborough.

NS1070 Wabash Heritage - Jonesborough, TN - 12/28/2013

NS1070 Wabash Heritage - Jonesborough, TN - 12/28/2013

This was the 8th of 20 for me ... 12 to go !

#1 1069 Virginian
#2 8098 Conrail

#3 8104 Lehigh Valley

#4 1073 Penn Central
#5 8100 Nickel Plate Road

#6 8105 Interstate
#7 8101 Central of Georgia

#8 1070 Wabash

Update:

The Wabash came back through on a frigid Thursday night, this time leading a 15T. It was late leaving Jonesborough, had mechanical trouble in Bristol - the cab heater wasn't working, had to stop for a hot wheel in Jonesborough, and the horn was randomly going off on it's own.