Sunday, May 18, 2014

Precision Transportation

Being a railfan in the era of social is pretty darn cool. Keeping track of the movements of the Norfolk Southern Heritage fleet is done quite well through a several pages on the Facing Book. The latest win was the Norfolk and Western 8103. 

Most railfolk knew that it was scheduled to drag the NS611 steam engine from Roanoke to Spencer, NC for the Streamliners at Spencer event the weekend of May 29. But it had been hanging around in southern Indiana for a a couple of weeks. It snuck (is that a word?) into Knoxville TN in the late evening of 5/17 and was gassed up and ready to go somewhere. I was hoping that it would be making its move to Roanoke on Sunday morning on 38Q, which usually gets to Jonesborough about 6:30AM.

Armed this info I decided to take a chance and just go hang out in Jonesborough about 6:15 Sunday morning and see if it was on 38Q. I reckoned that since it was still very early and the clouds were really thick that I'd need some street lights to help make a picture. The scanner has been completely quiet so I had no confirmation of train movement to go on. 

Just as I got to to Main St in Jonesborough I saw rail cars going by ... crap crap crap ... I missed it. So I banked hard left and drove back toward Johnson City, hoping that I could outrun it to somewhere that had street lights or was really open toward the morning sky. I decided on the crossing at OmniSource (Johnson City Metal) which had both. I'd never shot there so I knew I would need a few minutes to see if there was a reasonable angle with reasonable light. I fired off a few test shots with the F-stop wide open and kept bumping the ISO and shutter speed until I had a workable histogram. I knew the pics would be noisy at ISO 800 but you gotta work with what light you have. About a minute later I heard the horns.

As you can see below, the pics are noisy. When I got home I saw how underexposed they were and that will only make the noisier when I brighten them up in LR5. Regardless, I have pics of a new heritage motor for me! I'll get better pics when it comes back through, they always come back.

It wasn't until I got into post processing that I noticed the front door was open and the lead engine was #8013 (close to #8103).

NS Heritage 8103, Johnson City, TN (05/18/2014)
NS Heritage 8103, Johnson City, TN (05/18/2014)
_______________________________________________________________
This is a new heritage engine, # 14 of 20.

#00  1030 The Forgotten Heritage Engine
#13  1065  Savannah and Atlanta
        1066  New York Central
        1067  Reading
#12  1068  Erie
  #1  1069  Virginian
  #8  1070  Wabash
        1071  Central RR of New Jersey
#11  1072  Illinois Terminal
  #4  1073  Penn Central
        1074  Lackawanna
        8025  Monongahela
  #2  8098  Conrail
#10  8099  Southern
  #5  8100  Nickel Plate Road
  #7  8101  Central of Georgia
  #9  8102  Pennsylvania
  14  8103  Norfolk and Western
  #3  8104  Lehigh Valley
  #6  8105  Interstate
        8114  Norfolk Southern
_______________________________________________________________
This is not a new Special Interest engine for me.
#1 6920 Honoring Our Veterans
#2 6963 GoRail
#3 Southern 630

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

The Veterans Engine

On Tuesday of this week the Norfolk Southern 6920 Honoring Our Veterans unit made another run through Jonesborough ... this time during the daylight !

It was trailing 3rd of 3, westbound on 37Q, but it came through town about 7:45, perfect timing for catching on the way to work.





_______________________________________________________________
This is a not a new heritage engine, still at # 13 of 20.

#00  1030 The Forgotten Heritage Engine
#13  1065  Savannah and Atlanta
        1066  New York Central
        1067  Reading
#12  1068  Erie
  #1  1069  Virginian
  #8  1070  Wabash
        1071  Central RR of New Jersey
#11  1072  Illinois Terminal
  #4  1073  Penn Central
        1074  Lackawanna
        8025  Monongahela
  #2  8098  Conrail
#10  8099  Southern
  #5  8100  Nickel Plate Road
  #7  8101  Central of Georgia
  #9  8102  Pennsylvania
        8103  Norfolk and Western
  #3  8104  Lehigh Valley
  #6  8105  Interstate
        8114  Norfolk Southern
_______________________________________________________________
This is not a new Special Interest engine for me.
#1 6920 Honoring Our Veterans
#2 6963 GoRail
#3 Southern 630

The Forgotten Hertitage Engine

The red-headed step-child of the Norfolk Southern Heritage fleet is the EMD SD70ACe #1030. While at the gathering of the Heritage fleet in Spencer it was representing modern-day Norfolk Southern, sporting the current horsehead paint scheme. The "30" in the road number signifies the Norfolk Southern 30th anniversary. The front number boards on the #1030 were temporarily changed to 1982 and 2012 to represent the 30 years since the merger between the Norfolk & Western and Southern Railways


The 1030 came through the area after dark earlier in the week on a 22A so i had hopes that it would return on the 23G today. And another win for the FB folk with a nicely timed heads-up when it left Bulls Gap. 23G got hemmed in at Sand Valley by today's 22A which made timing the 23G through Jonesborough very easy.

_______________________________________________________________
This is a new heritage engine but I'm still at # 13 of 20 official heritage engines for me!

#00  1030 The Forgotten Heritage Engine
#13  1065  Savannah and Atlanta
        1066  New York Central
        1067  Reading
#12  1068  Erie
  #1  1069  Virginian
  #8  1070  Wabash
        1071  Central RR of New Jersey
#11  1072  Illinois Terminal
  #4  1073  Penn Central
        1074  Lackawanna
        8025  Monongahela
  #2  8098  Conrail
#10  8099  Southern
  #5  8100  Nickel Plate Road
  #7  8101  Central of Georgia
  #9  8102  Pennsylvania
        8103  Norfolk and Western
  #3  8104  Lehigh Valley
  #6  8105  Interstate
        8114  Norfolk Southern
_______________________________________________________________
This is not a new Special Interest engine for me.
#1 6920 Honoring Our Veterans
#2 6963 GoRail
#3 Southern 630