Eastern Railroad Discussion > What if the real Conrail was still alive today???

We would have big beautiful blue ES44ACs pulling intermodal trains, no doubt!  

This was nearly the scene last Saturday as I made my way home to PA from a family vacation in the south.  We drove into Bristol, TN/VA so that I could finally drive down the famous State Street, which of course has its center line on the TN/VA border.  What I was not expecting was to find NS train 23G just getting ready to leave town, with the Conrail heritage unit as the west facing DPU on the rear!  This could not have worked out any better, since the NS Pulaski District basically parallels I-81, our route of travel, for its entire legnth.  While the weather was gloomy, this meant that all photo angles were in play, and I could shoot both ends of the train at any location.  We ended up chasing the train for about 75 miles, before calling it a day and continuing home.

Pic 1 - We catch up with NS 23G on the Pulaski District at Hayter, VA.  The obligatory head end shot.
Pic 2 - NS 8098 brings up the rear in the beautiful southwestern VA countryside, with Spring in full bloom.
Pic 3 - Our chase came to a brief pause at Glade Spring, VA to let counterpart train 22A continue west.

More to follow

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Pic 4 - A rustic old barn at Atkins, VA made for the perfect Virginia prop to shoot both ends of the train.
Pic 5 - One positive about shooting on a cloudy day is that there is no bad sun angle.  CR 8098 brings up the rear.
Pic 6 - My final shot, as the 23G DPU shoves around the bend and past the N&W CPL signals at Wytheville, VA.

Enjoy and have a nice weekend!

Jon

 

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That second image with the CR unit is really nicely composed!

Quality images Jon. All of your shots are very well framed and composed.....not just the standard 3/4 shots or from a cell phone.

Nice job buddy.

Posted from iPhone