FL9

I drove back to the motel to pick up Judy and Molly, and after checking out and fueling up we headed back to the tracks north of Somerset.  Judy dropped me off at a grade crossing with a perfect view of a signal bridge and went up the road to check out an antique store.  Personal displays of mourning the loss of a loved one in a train vs. car accident are evident all over the country, and this spot was no different.

(Read on …)

The ex-Southern “Rathole” is a north-south line, and listening to the radio I had determined where double track existed the east track is Track #1 and the west track is Track #2.  This meant the 7500 North I had just photgraphed was on Track #1 at the Norwood Crossovers.  A few minutes later the NS 3551, A GE B32-8, arrived from Somerset northbound with a work train consisting of seven loaded ballast cars on Track #2 and stopped south of the crossovers.

(Read on …)

The Comfort Inn in Somerset, KY was just that, and Judy decided to sleep in comfort while I headed out before dawn to railfan the Norfolk Southern on Saturday August 18th.  I had read about the ex-Southern Railway’s famed “Rathole” in southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee for many years, and this would be my first opportunity to see it first hand.  I planned to try to photograph a northbound train on the Cumberland River bridge in Burnside to the south in the afternoon, so after a stop at McDonald’s I drove north to explore.  Using the map to stay close to the tracks I found a nice sweeping curve just north of the Norwood Crossovers in Science Hill, KY a few miles north of Somerset.  The radio indicated a southbound train was heading my way about twenty miles out, so I explored a few more miles further north before deciding the curve was my best bet for a nice open shot and headed back to set up.  At 8:15am I recorded my first train of the day with the passing of the NS 9910 South.

(Read on …)

Thanks to David Hawkins I knew the UP 1988 had gone out to Odessa Tuesday night on the UP MFWOD train.  So it was not a complete surprise Thursday morning at 6:00am when I heard the Baird Sub dispatcher on the radio tell the UP 1988 on the MODFW-10 train to take the siding at Preble and prepare to tie the train down.  I made arrangments to come in late to work and headed west on I20.  I made it out to Preble by around 8:30am where I visited with the crew while I wated for the sun to come out from behind a cloud before taking this series of photos.

I felt like I had it covered well enough by 9:00am and was about to leave when I heard the detector at milepost 283.0 a few miles east go off.  I waited and set up for this shot of a westbound “Z” train led by the 5228 speeding by on the main just after the MODFW crew left in a van.

The dispatcher told a work gang further west at Brazos he had trains in the sidings at Iona, Earls, Weatherford, Preble and Judd, and the westbound “Laser” and an intermodal were leaving Fort Worth back to back.  I believe the “Laser (or Lazer)” is the new NS/KCS/UP expidited train from Atlanta to Los Angeles over the Meridian Speedway.  I drove to North Annetta but could not find a good angle for this westbound three-units pulling a short train hotshot coming out of the sun.  I set up at the Highway 5 crossing for a shot of the train coming out of the sun partially obscured by a cloud, and turned the final result into a black-and-white in Photoshop.

Driving on to Aledo I still had the same backlighing for westbounds issue, but I resolved it by arranging more of a side view to include the rustic front porch of a local restaurant along with the grain elevator when the UP 4040 West arrived.  This train also had three units but was considerably longer, so most of these containers must be empty.

Now it was time to go on to work, and in Saturday’s blog I’ll start the tale of my day on the ex-Southern “Rathole.”