Eastern Railroad Discussion > Bullish on a little Grey Goose at 0800 on a Friday???

It has been my white whale, my Moby Dick, since the gathering at Spencer, NC back on a hot muggy July 3rd, 2012. Over the years I have leisurely photographed NS' heritage fleet plying the rails across the companys Piedmont Division here in northeast Georgia. Working from home has aided in the ability to go trackside at the last minute to go shoot these as well as any other special units or trains that come rolling through. But today was finally going to the be the day, where the stars aligned and I was going to be able to shoot the Monongahela unit leading a train. With notice mid-day yesterday that she was leading 211, I was eagerly anticipating seeing her in the wild, as 211 usually rolls through mid- to late mornings. While the past two days have brought both the N&W and the Central of Georgia units across the district, having the Monongahela unit roll through is the pice de resistance for me. Every other time she has come through, it has been night time or I have been half-way across the country, a feat I managed to over come with both the Interstate and N&W units as well.

So, this morning. I fire the desktop up at 0500 and hop onto Heritage units and see that the last report on 8025 was at 0022 hrs in Thomasville, NC. My brain starts to calculate rail distances and crew change points and so forth and so on, but I figure since today appeared to be a light day at work, I would head trackside immediately after dropping the kids off at school. Since 211 was typically a later morning. train, I figured I would daudle up to Yonah, GA (MP 569.1), light should be brighter, more of an open area with a nice super elevated curve just south of the signal bridge. A great spot for serveral other SB's that I have shot over the years. ATCS showed that there was a train lined south on track 2 through Gainesville, and since Amtrak #19 has a scheduled stop at Gainesville at 0700 daily, I though I was safe, with Amtrak being ~1 hour late. Well, I managed to cross the mainline by the depot and look to north, as see headlights rounding the curve about 1/2 mile north. I made my way down to the the interchange track with the Gainesville Midland (now CSX) and figured I would set up for Amtrak. I was wrong. NS 211 had scooted through the Linwood and Greenville crew changes and was 3 hours earlier than expected. (Turned out Amtrak #19 was 3 hours late....) I fired a few shots off, attached is the best of them bunch. Hopefully now that I have shot her, NS will continue to have her run through the area during sunnier daylight hours, as they have the other heritage units.

Image #1 - NS #8025 leading a NS Dash 9-44CW and a UP SD70M at MP585.0 on the Piedmont Division running on an Approach Diverging at Midland.

Image #2 - A well worn Mack B-61 that has recently shown up at a local tire store in Gainesville, GA. I know, a little off topic, but the mainline is 50' behind the truck and that would be a sweet weathering project in HO scale.

Hope everyone has a great and safe weekend railfanning, shopping or doing the honey-do list!

Russ

 

---

---

Glad you caught it, and that Mack is pretty cool. I’d actually like to try driving it!
Dan

Posted from iPhone

I shot the 8025 six different times when it was running the Chicago line back in 2016.

My white whale is 8103.

Michael Fair
Royal Oak, MI

Great story to go along with a great catch!!
Good for you Russ!!!

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA