Eastern Railroad Discussion > They're invading!!!

I'm currently wrapping up a three day weekend and will be back against the grinding wheel tomorrow. Having just come back from a long temporary assignment, you'd think my bosses would give me some vacation, so much for that. I hadn't been out shooting at night in what felt like ages.

Anyways, I got a phonecall on Thursday afternoon indicating that NS 12R had a CN SD70M-2 on the point. The Noodle Deuce isn't all that special in and of itself, but I wanted one for my personal collection of photos and I hadn't had the opportunity to get one before now. My friend stated that 12R was still down south of Charlottesville, and he guesstimated that it wouldn't be into Manassas until after dark. My boss would be pleased to know that I had time to finish submitting my travel & expense reports before leaving.

I really couldn't decide where I wanted to go and shoot the 12R, I mused about several different spots that I know. I finally settled for Delaplane on the B-line. He passed me there around 9:30 or so (Photo 1), and was shortly followed by 36Q and 214 both being led by the ubiquitous C40-9W, but since I was there and already set up I shot them too. Photo turned out acceptable, and I figured what a great way to kick off the weekend, right?

On Friday, I spent most of the day doing chores around the house and getting caught up on some homework. This time; a late afternoon text message from a friend up near Hagerstown telling of a BC Rail C40-8M leading a southbound manifest out of Harrisburg, but he was unsure of the train ID. Given the time of day it was either 15T or 35Q, which put me in a tricky spot. 15T normally hangs a right at Riverton to head straight to Roanoke and 35Q takes the left towards Manassas, so it was a tossup either way without knowing for sure what the symbol was. Consequently, I opted to go sit at Cedarville, VA just a bit north of Riverton and wait to see if I heard anything on the radio feed set up at Boyce.

I was about 15 miles out of Front Royal when another text message came in indicating that the BC Rail was in fact, leading 15T. So now I knew he was going down the H-line and I started thinking about the myriad of options for night photos. Some high risk ideas such as the trestles at Overall or Compton came to mind, or the decidedly lower risk but more complex setup of the trestle over Hawksbill Creek in Luray, VA. I'm no stranger to the Hawksbill Creek shot, as I recreated the O. Winston Link shot there a couple years ago, so I knew what the setup entailed, so that's what I went with.

After arriving at Luray, I knew I had at least an hour before I even had to start setting up. So I walked around town near the tracks to scope out other potential photo angles, made some notes for future reference and finally went down to the so-called "Hawksbill Greenway". I'd secured permission from the town mayor/council a few years before to park alongside the walking path along the creek. So after about 45 minutes of fiddling with flashes, triggers and relays, I had the composition I wanted it was a waiting game. 15T passed over Hawksbill Creek at about 2:15AM (Photo 2)

After being out all night on Saturday and not getting back in my front door until 6:30 AM, I was exhausted. I tried to steal a couple hours of sleep before going to play a softball double-header and was mostly successful. I had been waiting to hear what the status was of an unpatched SP AC4400 that had been spotted in Enola earlier in the day. There was some reporting that indicated it was being assigned to intermodal train 201, and it ultimately was, but in the trailing position. So my afternoon appeared to be heading for a night of beer pong at the neighbor's house.

Around 5:00PM, I'm on the phone with a friend of mine up near Allentown who had been told that CP 9142, one of the few remaining CP SD90MACs was leading NS 204. I knew I had to get this one too, they are simply too rare to catch easily anymore, so I immediately started considering my options. I was exhausted, running on about 4 hours of sleep, I knew I wasn't driving too far, so I settled on Boyce, Virginia. I've shot the old N&W station at night dozens of times, and for me, it has gotten old.

Fortunately, I secured permission from the property owner of a farm on the north edge of Boyce to set up shop in the field behind the barn. I figured with the big red engine, and big red barn, it would be an interesting arrangement of color. 204 passed me at around 9:05PM and I packed it up and went home. I was beyond tired and couldn't wait to kick back on the couch and watch a little playoff hockey.

3 different Canadian locomotives in 3 nights, all in Virginia! I covered more than 300 miles of Virginia countryside over that period, I'm sure most will say I'm certfiably crazy, but what is a weekend good for if not to screw off and do whatever you want?

Hope y'all enjoy the pics!

Trains, work, baseball and beer pong? Sounds about right to me :-)

Posted from Android

Fantastic shots and I really love the first one, thanks for sharing!


Jay

Youve done it again Sean, awesome work!

Great shots.

I have heard that NS has leased several of the CP SD9043MACs, so they may turn up some more, too.

toledopatch Wrote:
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> Great shots.
>
> I have heard that NS has leased several of the CP
> SD9043MACs, so they may turn up some more, too.

From what I've been told, CP turned the last remaining four over to NS to settle up on HPH. One of the four may be out of service though, and my understanding is that they'll never turn a wheel in revenue service for CP again anyways.

Still, it is pretty dumb luck to get one of the 3 or 4 left in service on a train in Virginia.

CP 9108, 9142, 9157 are on NS.

Bill Miller
Galt, ON

AWESOME stuff!!! Thanks for sharing. Oh, the stuff I miss..... :<(

Splendid!!

Posted from Android

Thanks for the compliments folks!

NS through the Mid-Atlantic has been a treasure trove of unusual power for the last several weeks. TONS of Canadian stuff, especially older cowl units like the C40-8M's have been seen at least a dozen times since late February, and even a couple of wayward IC SD70's turned up recently as well.

If there's one advantage to the railroads being so power-starved, it's the potpourri of power that gets scattered far and wide from the usual haunts.

Wish a couple of high-hood SD40-2's would materialize on a UPS train. (Hey, I can always hope, right?)