Photos from the Pennyrail Newsletter
July 1, 2015 – CSX Q029 passes loaded coal train N308 at MP 261 at the south end of Romney siding as they head south on the Henderson Subdivision at Nortonville, Ky. – Tech Info: 1/1600sec, f/4.5, ISO 900, Lens: Nikon 70-300 @ 102 mm with a Nikon D800 shot and processed in RAW.
Saturday May 9, 2015 brought about the first photo contest of the West Kentucky NRHS. The only rules set forth by our judge, Jim Pearson, were that you have to be a member of the WKNHRS and that the photo had to be taken on May 9th, which also happened to be National Train Day, so there was a happy coincidence. At our May meeting the chapter decided that we will hold two of these contests a year and the next one will be in November 2015. Date has yet to be determined.
The winners were as follows: 1st – Jim Kemp. 2nd – there was a 2 way tie for 2nd between Rick Bivins and Matt Gentry. 3rd – Bill Grady. Honorable Mention belongs to Blair Terry. Click on each photo to see the full picture.
Other entries were:
June 2, 2015 – Thanks to a heads up post by fellow railfan and great photographer Tom Barrows of Evansville, IN, I was able to catch my second Norfolk Southern Heritage Unit today! – Jim Pearson
When I arrived at the overlook to the Sitran Coal Dock and Abengoa ethanol plant at West Franklin, IN, the weather was overcast and it looked like it was going to be fairly bad, but the sun finally came out just as the train was leaving with Illinois Terminal Heritage Unit 1072 in the lead.
The Illinois Terminal railroad along with many others was bought up by Norfork Southern years ago and NS has repainted about 20 of their engines in the paint schemes of many of those roads.
No More Tears… Photographed on Memorial Day Weekend 2015, this GP40-2 has served CN, Grand Trunk, and started life as DT&I 409. Nowadays, this “HOG” serves the Heart of Georgia Railroad, and was parked at Vidalia, GA – the onion capitol of the world. – Chris Dees
This view, taken on May 2, 2015, looks east on the former C&O main line at Alleghany, VA. At 2072 ft. above sea level, Alleghany is the summit of the C&O’s crossing of the mountains (note the spelling, “Alleghany”, vs “Allegheny” of PA and the PRR and B&O’s crossings). Coal here has always moved eastbound exclusively, towards tidewater at Newport News. In the final days of steam, loaded coal trains had two of the world’s most powerful steam locomotives, the C&O’s class H-8 2-6-6-6. The rear helper, put on at Hinton, WV, would cut off here, and return light to Hinton. With dieselization in 1956, the C&O settled on a standard lash-up of five GP9’s, which negated the need for a helper. Although long closed, the tower, “A Cabin” (cabin being the standard C&O term for interlocking towers) is in the classic C&O brick style, a plan used with variations system-wide. (photo copyright 2015 by Frederick J. Ripley).
NREX engines 3531, 3528 and 3520 sit in the service area at CSX’s Atkinson Yard at Madisonville, Ky. From what I’ve been told the engines have been out of service for over 6 years and are on their way, via the Paducah and Louisville Railroad, to Progress Rail in Mayfield, Ky to be rebuilt. -Jim Pearson
This was taken at the Hopkinsville depot with a dogwood in full bloom in the park on the right as southbound Q029 from Chicago to Atlanta and it is headed by SD50-2 #8660 with the second unit a C40-8. Both are ex-Conrail. -Wallace Henderson
April 22, 2015 – Paducah and Louisville engine 2111 leads a military train past loaded coal train 4516 at Cimarron Mine, which followed it north toward Louisville at Madisonville, Ky. -Jim Pearson
April 30, 2015 – Thanks to the Ky Highway department I was able to get this clear view of CSX Q026-24 as it headed north on the Henderson Subdivision through Romney at Nortonville, Ky. They’re clearing brush and trees along highway 41 in Nortonville which is making for some new nice views! To the left used to be nothing but brush and scraggly trees along the railroad which made it impossible to get clear views. -Jim Pearson
A view that many Santa Fe engineers were all too familiar with sitting in the cab of ATSF 3751 at Fullerton Railroad Days. -Matt Gentry
Long known for hauling intermodal stack trains between Macon, GA and Savannah, GA, with high-nose GE units, one can now see GP30s hauling double stacks in 2015 on the Georgia Central Railroad. CGR operates 170 miles of railroad in the central portion of The Peach State, interchanging with CSX Transportation, Heart of Georgia Railroad and Norfolk Southern. – Chris Dees
A southbound, led by CSX 8724 (a former Conrail unit noted by the red class lights in the nose), runs through the S-Curve as it approaches Walton, KY. on February 12, 2015.
Southbound CSX Q515 passes Madisonville, Ky Depot bound for Nashville on the afternoon of March 16, 2015. Photo by Wallace Henderson
CSX SD40-3 #4001 leads its train along railroad street, destined for Chicago’s BRC Yard. Photo by Wallace Henderson
March 18, 2015 – Norfolk Southern’s NDN1 heads up the SIGECO lead at Mt. Vernon, Indiana with a load of coal for the “Sitran Dock,” a subsidiary of M-Class mining that also owns Savtrans (the 12 miles of rail between McCleansboro and Sugar Camp mine). Once unloaded at the dock the coal is transferred by conveyor to their state-of-the-art barge loading facility nearby. Photo by Jim Pearson