Walking On Empty: September 2015

Sunday, September 20, 2015

The Original

One of the more elusive members of the Norfolk Southern heritage fleet has been the NS #8114 - the Original Norfolk Southern. I'd only seen it one other time, in the dark, in the rain, dead in tow trailing 5th of 6. So while it technically counted as a catch it was a lousy picture-taking opportunity which ended with the expected bad picture.

But, I finally got a good chance with great weather, it wasn't close to home but it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. As has become the norm, the chase started with a post on the Facing Book. The 8114 was leading train #745 which pulls about 100 empty coal cars from Asheville NC northeast through Bulls Gap. The only remaining issues is timing - about 4 hours - the train's travel to the selected intercept point in Bulls Gap. Any time a train travels that far the chance of delays is huge, the saving grace is there's a crew swap in Bulls Gap so it will hang around there a little while for that.

I scoped out a nice expansive curve just west of Bulls Gap and planned my 1 hour travel time to give me a chance to move if the light was bad or the shot just wasn't that good. I turned on the road that goes into beautiful downtown Bulls Gaps on time, BUT, the train was already there, blocking the road into downtown. Krep.

Plan B: go east of town to the road that crosses the track at the far end of the yard and see if I could see the motor from there. When I got to the crossing there were already several folk from the Facing Book group still waiting, excellent, I hadn't missed it.

I hung out with those guys, took a long distance shot of the #1068 Erie that was parked just north of Moore, and waited until 745 was ready to leave Bulls Gap then executed Plan C which was going to the crossing at Whitehorn Rd where there was an old building that would provide some interesting backdrop.

The light was still pretty good when the train got to me, the clouds were epic, and the old building was looking older. A new set of signals and cross-bucks had been added to the crossing since I was last there, so I had to move farther east than I intended, but it worked out fine.

The following is the shot of the Erie and a shot of the 8114 working the yard I took while at the crossing at Moore.

__________________________________

I've seen all 20 of the Heritage motors.

#13 1065 Savannah and Atlanta

#15 1066 New York Central

#19 1067 Reading
#12 1068 Erie
#1 1069 Virginian
#8 1070 Wabash
#16 1071 Central RR of New Jersey
#11 1072 Illinois Terminal
#4 1073 Penn Central
#18 1074 Delaware Lackawanna
#17 8025 Monongahela
#2 8098 Conrail

#10 8099k 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

#20 8114 Norfolk Southern

_______________________________________________________________
This is not a new special interest engine for me.

6920 Honoring Our Veterans

6963 GoRail

630 Southern Railway Steam
911 Honoring First Responders
1030 The Forgotten Heritage Engine
3170w Southern

Thursday, September 10, 2015

NS 9-1-1

It seemed quite appropriate that Norfolk Southern latest engine with a specialty paint scheme made it's maiden trek through Jonesborough on the eve of 9/11. The NS-911 Honoring First Responders and the NS-6920 Honoring Our Veterans led train number 068 down the Bristol line on its way to the Tennessee Valley Railway Museum in Chattanooga for the weekend's festivities.

I started tracking it on the Facing book and I knew it was going to be by here after dark but, as happens a lot of the time, it kept getting a little more behind all afternoon and evening. I took up my usual location for west-bound trains - behind the courthouse in downtown Jonesborough - and took a bunch of test shots with the flash setup, then waited in the sprinkling rain, oh bother. It finally got to me just after midnight. Both engines and the 17 passenger and exhibit cars they were dragging were nice and clean, like they'd all had a recent bath.