FL9

About thirty minutes after leaving Burnside and the Cumberland River bridge, we rolled into Stearns, the home base of the Big South Fork Scenic Railway.  There was no sign of their passenger train at the depot, but suddenly the radio came alive on the assigned frequency of 160.800 with a very close by conversation.  I had Judy drop me off on the overpass south of the depot, and within a minute the train appeared with a caboose leading as it shoved into the station.

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None too soon the anticipation was over when I heard a horn around the corner south of the bridge.  I looked over at the highway to my right and saw several law-enforcement type vehicles heading north in a small convoy, but thought nothing of it.  I got ready on the ledge with hopes of a solid lashup of NS power, but then I was disappointed to see only two familiar yellow units on the short train as it rolled out onto the bridge.

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The ex-Southern Cumberland River Bridge at Burnside, KY is about 100 yards east of the highway bridge, and the best photos taken there are of northbound trains in the afternoon from the west side of the tracks.  I had read there was a trail from the highway to the overlook, but I could see no sign of one as we drove along.  There was also construction going on along the road on the north side of the highway bridge, so we decided Judy would drop me off with camera bag and water and drive around to keep Molly cool while I tried to get my own picture at this railfan-famous location. 

I followed the path of least resistance through the thick growth of small trees until I got to the fence line paralleling the tracks deep in a cut.  From there I was able to make my way reasonably well to the spot where the land fell steeply away down to the river next to the bridge.  I moved a short way back west and found a rocky ledge to sit on with an opening in the trees that gave me an excellent view of the bridge.   No trains had run since we caught the NS 9788 South, but as I had been making my way to this location the radio informed me four southbounds on Track #1 were headed my way.  While this sounded good in principle, the ideal picture here was actually of a northbound train, so I hoped fate would be on my side.  Before long the NS 8667 South rolled out across this majestic span.

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Judy and I followed the map to keep up with the tracks as they angled away from the main road south of Burnside, KY.  We new we had found the deep cuts formed by daylighted tunnels when we crossed a simple bridge with a low railing and looked down on what looked like an HO scale layout.  We parked off the road and it was only seconds after I got into position on the bridge that the UP 4638 North came around the corner on Track #2 with the sound of dynamic brakes in full whine.

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