Carolina report

last week I went to North and South Carolina for work and to visit my daughter in Charlotte, and had time for some shotgun railfanning.

On the drive from the airport, I paid a brief visit to the NS Charlotte yard.  Its about the same size as Waterville, fairly busy, and there was the usually collection of big look-alike GE's (yawn), with single and paired high hood GP-38's serving as switchers and local power. The Amtrak station is perched on the mainline along the northern perimeter of the east-west yard, and I found this North Carolina regional passenger train preparing to load passengers. Its a state-funded Charlotte to Raleigh train that runs several times daily, operated by Amtrak, kind of like the Downeaster.  The well-maintained equipment appears to be ex-GO locomotives and rebuilt P-S smoothside lightweight coaches. In addition, the Southern Crescent and the Carolinian also serve Charlotte

A few blocks to the south was the former (ORIGINAL) Norfolk Southern yard, now operated by Aberdeen, Carolina and Western, where I found these good looking SD-40-2's laying over

The rest of the week was spent dodging allligators, cottonmouths, chiggers and spiders the size of peaches in the swamps of South Carolina. I was based near Columbia, which is the cross-roads of numerous secondary mainlines of NS and CSX, including the former Seaboard mainline to Florida.Theres' a decent amount of traffic but its a difficult place to railfan as  no one line has all that many trains, the trains run sporadically, and the closest thing to a central location is Devine Junction, just south of downtown along the USC campus.  It's an H-shaped junction that sprawls across about five city blocks, and even though about 75% of all rail traffic passes through no matter where you position yourself you ineveitably miss part of the action.  In addition, Devine Jct is a bland photo location, good only for ground level wedge shots despite the interesting track arrangement.

My most interesting catch in Columbia was actually in  across the Congaree River in Cayce.  The CMC steel plant had this interesting switcher, a re-engined RS-1. The plant and its rail operations are easily and legally observed from the 12th St Extension bridge and light is good all day. They also have a former Laurinburg and Southern S unit. Both these untis recently replaced an MP-15. The track in the foreground is the CSX mainline south.

Cayce is also home to the local CSX yard, which is situated on a 90 degree bend just west of the river crossing.  Both ends are accessible. My last visit here was 5 years ago when it was a melting pot of older EMD's in random paint schemes. But today it was populated by the usual GE's.

This old building hidden amongst other downtrodden warehouses, near the east ladder, hints at the source of the town's name

some power and jobs that were working the east end of the yard

and the west end of the yard

Summer Solstice Road Trip

Carl and I had a full day to roam south of the 'L-A' area and we were going to take advantage of the nice weather and long daylight hours to seek trains. 

Our first stop was at Wells to see what we could see.  A northbound was due shortly at 10:50am but it was running about 15 minutes late.  I'm always trying to catch that nose lettering just as well as possible.  This one seemed to work.



From Wells we proceeded to Exeter.  No particular reason other than we had not been there before.  As we drove we heard scanner chatter about EDPO being stuck at MP261 and 509 going down to rescue it.  We didn't have any info with us so we had no clue where that milepost was.  We figured it was near but, as it turned out, it was just around the bend from the Exeter station.  Carl happened to wander down to the crossing west of the station and saw the train sitting down the line a couple hundred yards.  We had no clue what mile post we were near.  Before this discovery, we noticed that the northbound at 12:52pm was no where to be seen.   We just stood in the shade and waited for developments.

A hi-rail truck got on at the crossing and passed through the station heading east before the time a 2pm southbound was due.  This didn't look good.  We figured things would shake loose long before this so the scanner was sitting in the car, out of ear range.  It was quiet when I tried to listen.  A track car would mean the southbound Downeaster and 509 were not around yet.  Apparently LA-1 was approaching the rear of EDPO.  Carl saw the headlights behind EDPO but didn't know what that meant at the time. 




Around 2:15pm 509 appears from the east and passes through the station.   This is a good sign.  Something is going to happen in the near future.  In 40 minutes it does.  Smoke and sound appears in the distance.  Soon the horn for the grade crossing.  More rumble and smoke as it passes the station. 

We had stopped at the station merely to try a new location.  After all this time the shadows were much longer and at a totally different angle.  I did what I could with the backlighting.  Carl had relocated to a bridge to the east where it was wedgy but less shadowy. 

Bringing up the rear of EDPO were the two units of LA-1.  GMTX 3001 was an ex-SLR unit so the yellow paint was familiar and added some color to the scene.  306 was just a sludge-gray incidental.  A crew was aboard and the units weren't working very had now that they had climbed the grade.  They seemed to be along for the ride at this point. 

 



 With EDPO out of the way of Exeter at around 3:05, it was a guessing game about which Downeaster would be first.  Apparently the southbound (scheduled to arrive at 2pm) won the logistics battle as it was along about 15 minutes later.  Once again, I was trying to get that white lettering to show up on the nose, and get a little of the place into the shot.  He was about even with the original stone depot here.








Another 25 minutes passed - it was now 3:55 pm and the northbound (scheduled to arrive at 12:42pm) appeared.  Here I was trying to get some old industry and a pulled up siding just west of the station into the shot.  Apparently when the camera started shooting I had taken a step to the right of where I lined up this shot.  The ties were more visible when I was setting up.

At this point we thought it was time to change locations and head off.  We got just far enough away, beyond the point of returning quickly, when a detector went off at MP262.  Apparently another eastbound freight was worked into the gap behind that last Downeaster.  Too bad.  We missed it.  We pressed on to better things.

 At some point we decided to drive by Bow just in case a coal train was around.  Nope. No such luck.  But being at the point on the map gave us the idea to go north away from the densely populated areas of the south and see what was in White River Jct. farther north.  An hour up I-89 turned out to be worth the trip.  These two units were parked by the depot and lots of people were milling around.  We had stumbled onto the arrival of the northbound Vermonter, only about 15 minutes away.  Excellent luck.  We didn't have a timetable so we were basically showing up blind. 

 We had seen the Vermonter do it's choreographed ritual at Palmer where it changes over from CSX to the NECR on many occasions.   One time, the Wheelman and I heard via scanner as it arrived at St. Albans one dark and snowy night driving back from Montreal.  But, this is my first time seeing it actually in Vermont.  I kind of like the old PRR/PC Metroliner control cab on the rear.  Nothing like seeing an important link to the past still in use.



From WRJ it was another hour or so north to St. Johnsbury.  It was too late to catch any action but it was still light enough for photos at 8:30pm.  Carl spotted the MDT flats in the yard so I had to photograph something almost as old as me.  Apparently these were built in 1961 for auto racks according to Carl's best guess at the time.  The latest technology of that day.  The NYC jade green is kind of cool too.  It's VTR MOW now. 


Still a long drive home.  It was nearly dark by the time we cleared Lancaster, NH.  The moon was bright as we passed Berlin and Gorham.  Luckily, the moose decided to wait for me to go by on this stretch of road.  This turned out to be a pretty good day which started with zero expectations that we'd see anything significant, let alone end up in Vermont with more cool stuff to see.

BC

hit and run railfanning in Massachusetts

On my way to Greenfield, Mass for work on Monday, I stopped off at Atkinson, NH, which is right on the NH/MA state line

A few minutes past 2 PM SEPO hauled by with two CSX units; it ran up to the east end of the siding at Plaistow and waited for the westbound Downeaster

The Downeaster sailed by a bit later; note the engine number!

 no NPCU today; a GE on each end! 

Next I checked out East Deerfield, which was very quiet, I scouted for photo locations all around Greenfield (no luck), and decided my next best chance was to find a westbound west of town.  I found my way to Bardwells Ferry, a lonely but lovely spot in a forested gorge along the Deerfield River between Shelburne Falls and Greenfield. The road crosses the river on an interesting elliptical bridge, and the setting has an "Allagash" feeling to it.  Probably only about 2 miles from Greenfield as the crow flies but a 7 mile bushwack on attractive, winding rural roads. Undoubtedly killer fall foliage colors. The trackwork looked nice!  

I was rewarded with a red block signal, suggesting that a train was to the immediate west

A few minutes later 22K rolled downgrade through the gorge