Eastern Railroad Discussion > A month of catch-up; Lots of goodies in VA!!!

Been falling behind on my posting here (Last was Feb. 20 with the double heritage), so here's a nice compilation of the best of VA!

February 21; A monster 219 car, 12 locomotive Q416 heads up the RF&P at Potomac Run. The train was nearly 14,000 feet!
February 22: Another monster, this one 200 empty coal hoppers and 6 motors head west on the Buckingham branch. 
And a nice Q401 rolling south at Taylorsville with a UP unit third out. 

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February 23: Down to Collier for an afternoon with a buddy. 23G seen at Sutherland with a CN and BNSF on the head end, and there was an NS being used as the DPU. 
Later that day, local 'V68' came west with a slug-set and this beautiful N&W Scale Test car, out testing in Suffolk after the massive derailment just a few days prior. 
Down at Stony Creek for some last light railfanning sees hotshot Q031 screaming by grain train G672, both featuring older AC leaders. 

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A day trip with another friend on the 24th sees us in the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia on the Ex C&O around Clifton Forge, Covington and White Sulfur Springs, WV. 
Buckingham branch local Z631 was first up, coming out of some thick fog with a trio of BB motors. 
Empty coal train E751 heads up the grade, seen passing 'A-Cabin', located at the crest of the Allegehney Grade. 
And on the other side of the tunnels, loaded grain train G649 is on his knees with an AC4400 leader, and 4 other units in trail. 

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The morning of March 2 had me in Richmond for a while, where I caught local V24 returning from West Point with a trio of 4 axle EMD's and a nice size train. 
March 3rd lent itself to a day trip to the Roanoke & Christiansburg areas, and boy what a day it was! Seen here at Singer, NS 195 takes a pause as hotshot 217 cruises by on main 1. 
We managed to shoot 5 class 1 railroads in under 5 minutes. Where the Christiansburg ducks under the Whitethorne, 234 featured a UP-CP-NS lashup, and not long after was this train; 188 with a CN-CSX lashup.
This was the whole day; Unexpected surprises, and in a good way!!!

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Loaded coal train 746 featured a CN C40-8 trailing, seen just a couple miles west of Bradshaw. 
Ex A&O SD9043MAC trailed hopper train 825, seen at Vickers. 
And the Southern trailing hopper train 817 not long after. 

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Wrapping things up (or so we thought) was power move 965, which featured the EMDX Tier 4 demonstrators....
and the Penn Central bringing up the markers. 
Our true last train was NS 822, seen here stopped at South Yard with NS 7336 trailing as the conductor hops across the nose making sure the train is on good ground air. 

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Things were pretty slow until the morning of the 9th rolled around. Word going around was a Portsmouth grain empty had a YN2 SD60I leader, but with it coming off at Weldon around 10:00 the night before, I figured there was no hope on the BB.... WRONG!
Seen here just out of Richmond, V623-07 heads west with SD60I #8726 and an AC4400 leading the way.  
Second shot is behind Kings Dominion, rolling past some C&O flare. 
Shenandoah Junction on March 12th; the first day of Daylight Savings Time. 
We rolled up on this scene; a good start for sure to a nice day!!!

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Q276 featured an SD50-2 leading an SD40-2, seen here just west of Shen. 
16T rolls through the fields with a re-built AC44C6M 5th out, in mostly primer paint headed for the paint booth. 
Local D787 was the last train we shot, seen heading out of the sunset with a nice EMD quartet. 

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Exports!!! This was the first time I'd been able to grab one of these moves, seen here in Waverly on 3-15 as '096', these are bound for the Pakistan Railway. 
Later that evening at Collier, V18 had a very nice pair, with SD60 #6691 leading the way of a BNSF unit. 
St Patrick's Day weekend saw me helping around the Museum. Half of our commuter train is seen coming out of the Museum, headed to hook up with the other half. 

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A beautiful Sunday afternoon, and work train W045 heads north at Jones' Crossing with a GP40 leading an SD40-3. 
Circus Train Time! NS 047 is seen here in Pilkinton, a few miles outside Richmond heading north for the Final Time. This train will head south on the former Richmond & Danville main in just 2 days for the final time. 
A day in the Crewe, VA area started off right, with manifest 189 lugging out of town with an SD60M leading. 

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Manifest 159 headed out of town with an Ex Southern Pacific leader, another fellow UP trailing, and an NS bringing up the rear.
It was a while before action kicked back up, due to a few things. 1. The Virginian was shut down for T&T, so no loads came east, and 2. 234 hit a tree near Appomattox, thus holding up traffic behind him, as well as at Crewe. Seen here, hopper trains 825 (left) and 41N both wait for signal indication, pending 234's movements. 
We had 3 westbounds coming, so we headed them off en-route to Petersburg. The middle man was S21, seen here just west of Wilsons with a GEVO on point. 

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Just a couple more! These from today (3-24). 
Trash train Q705 featured a nice pair; with SD70ACe #4835 leading SD70AC #4702 and a hefty 24 cars bound for Jessup. 
The sunset on the rails was a nice touch to end the day. 

Thanks for looking; hope all enjoyed!!!

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GREAT stuff....!!  You certainly covered all your bases.....:<)

The sunset pic at Shen is one of my favorites!!

Good shots bud!

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Great!

Nice series. Good catch of the CSX#87226. Nice picture with the moon and the signals at Shenandoah Junction.
John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/17 05:11 by jmbreitigan.

Good light can make a photo look almost 3-D, V 24

Nice.. thanks for posting.....Really like the pics on the C&O...

Fantastic images, all of them!  Really quite beautiful.

-Tom

Amazing set of photos...very well done.  Thanks for sharing!