A Weekend on the "Pokey" - Part 2

After being up shooting until 11:15PM the night before, we didn't hit the road looking for something to shoot until 8:45AM. This didn't turn out to be such a bad thing for us as we would soon run into the first train of the day, NS 194 being led by UP 4692, at an S-curve outside of Welch at 9:08AM. This eastbound would take us all the way to Elkhorn with shots at Welch, Kimball, Keystone, and Elkhorn.

Elkorn is known as Crozier on the railroad, and that is where we ended our chase of 194 at 9:44AM. As soon as the power went around the corner, we heard him radio a westbound warning him to make noise for "some photographers" at the crossing. Two minutes later, NS 6788 would poke out from around the corner. It was still too early for a good angle on the westbound, but I happened to grab a shot of the power going away including NREX 9294, an SD45T-2, which had "B-unit Do Not Occupy" on the door.

Apparently we wanted another eastbound since it was still early and we drove back west ending up in Twin Branch for the first time this trip. At 10:49AM we got our eastbound exiting Twin Branch tunnel behind NS 9155.

Rather than chasing east due to the lack of a direct route out of Twin Branch, we ventured further west to Iaeger. With nothing happening on the mainline, we spent a few minutes shooting whatever we found in the yard.

It was already noon before we started heading back east. We ended up at Roderfield where we found the westbound we had seen at Crozier in the morning sitting in the tunnel. A helper set led by NS 9368 would run around them a few minutes later.

With the sun swinging to the west, we drove a little further east to Welch. Things were about to become a whole lot busier on the Pocahontas District! At 1:12PM we caught an eastbound autorack train behind the lone NS 6605. Of course, an eastbound is the opposite of what we wanted but some lucky clouds made a shot possible.

We drove up the little ways to find the eastbound we had shot at Twin Branch sitting by the coaling tower at Farm waiting for helpers to be put on the rear.

We went back to our spot in Welch between 2:27PM and 3:06PM to catch a westbound behind NS 2661, a helper set led by UP 9788, an eastbound manifest (no good photo), and another helper set with NS 9024 up front.

Finally, NS 9155 was on the move from Farm so we changed our location for a better sun angle. We chose the east end of the twin-bore Huger Tunnel in Superior.

Knowing there were helpers on the end for well-lit going-away shots, we picked Vivian as our next spot. Before we would get the eastbound, we saw yet another helper set heading west past a (what-I-can-only-assume-was-an-abandoned) baseball field.

We continued the chase of the eastbound as it sailed through Northfork and wound up getting ahead of it again at Crozier.

I believe we were driving back west when a westbound caught up to us around Kimball with NS 8304 in Conrail blue on the point.

We thought ahead and went straight to Sandy Huff, just east of Iaeger, where the light would be the best. Upon our arrival, we found the helper set with UP 9788 on the west end sitting by the crossing. A cloud would pass in front of the sun as NS 8304 finally got to us at 5:43PM.

We made our way east towards Landgraff and the Elkhorn Inn once again with only a sunny shot of the helper power to show for our efforts. One more surprise was in store for us in the form of NS 6742, also in Conrail blue, working the small yard in Kimball in beautiful afternoon light.

We arrived back at the Inn in time to see the helpers of an eastbound disappear out of sight from the porch as the sun ducked behind the mountains to the west. I went out for a few more shots before darkness would fall over the valley. A helper set rounded the corner heading back west at the same time an eastbound rounded the curve at the end of the long straightaway in the opposite direction. Perfect timing yielding one of my favorite photos from the entire trip.

Light faded quickly as we made our way back onto the porch as another eastbound slipped by some 12 minutes later followed by a westbound at 8:48PM.

The hazy/foggy conditions in the valley made another night of photography too luring to pass up. We went down to try to get more "anticipation" photos as trains lit up the scene before appearing into view as was the case for this eastbound at 10:41PM. This was by far the best shot of the trip and made for the perfect ending to the trip.

A Weekend on the "Pokey" - Part 1

Back in August 2006, my brother, Christopher, my cousin, Mark, and I set off for a weekend adventure on the NS Pocahontas District, or the Pokey, between Bluefield, WV and Williamson, WV. Checking the dates, it looks like Mark took Friday off from work to make it a three-day weekend, Aug. 4-6. I believe we stayed overnight somewhere in Virginia before starting Friday morning in Bluefield, WV. We didn't spend too much time (no photos) here before moving further west along the line to Yards, WV on the VA/WV border where we got the first official train of the trip (at least to me), a westbound manifest splitting the CPL signals at 11:05AM.

We made our way up the line, stopping at Bramwell to take pictures of the station before reaching our destination of Welch, WV or "Farm" on the NS. This location boasts a steam-era coaling tower as well as a group of ex-N&W CPLs. The CPLs have since been replaced with new Safetrans signals. At Farm, we caught an eastbound work train led by a sole leaser SD40-2, FURX 7245, at 1:45PM.

After the departure of the work train, we stuck around and were rewarded with another eastbound an hour later at 2:46PM. This time it would be a loaded coal train, which the line sees many of, being in the heart of coal country. NS 9656 would be the leader followed by NS 6571 and NS 8884, whom we would see later this trip.

This eastbound would be our entertainment for the afternoon as we took off in pursuit of it. We would get ahead of it at Kimball where we set up at the portal of Vivian Tunnel. NS hadn't started its Heartland Corridor project yet (the reason I think we took the trip down there) so it is nice having views of the untouched tunnels.

I chose to put some shots in black & white for two reasons: 1. the weather wasn't too cooperative on the first day 2. we didn't do a great job picking spots that offered the best lighting situations but we did okay! After Kimball, we got back ahead of them at Northfork. Northfork is the site of O. Winston Link's famous photo "Main Line on Main Street." The buildings seen in Link's photo were destroyed by a flood and are reduced to ruins as seen at our next location.

We continued eastward to Switchback where we set up by a small waterfall created by recent rainstorms. The N&W put up slide fences along parts of the route because of the proximity of the tracks to the rocky cliffs and hills. One such fence can be seen in the photo at Switchback.

We waited for the helpers to pass for a going away shot.

We continued the chase a few miles to grab one last shot of the helpers going above the road at Maybeury at 3:58PM.

For whatever reason, we turned around and headed back west to Welch arriving sometime around 5PM. There we found another eastbound coal train sitting under the coaling tower.

Nothing happened with them so we made our way further west to Roderfield, in between Roderfield and Vaughn Tunnels, where we would see a westbound light engine move led by UP 9788 at 6:05PM.

This would be the last movement in daylight we would see for the day as we went to check into the Elkhorn Inn in Landgraff for the night. Traffic appears to have been pretty good as I have (bad) photos taken from the porch of one at 9:09PM and one at 10:11PM. I don't remember if all three of us went down to the tracks to do some night stuff or just me, but it didn't take long for another train to come along as the headlight started lighting up the valley at 10:37PM. The fog and light from the train helped create an amazing effect silhouetting the CPL signal bridge in the distance.

I stayed out for the next train, a westbound, a little over half an hour later at 11:11PM. You can see my brother and cousin on the porch of the Elkhorn Inn as the headlight of the train lights up the surroundings  and again as the end of train device flashes away.

That would be it for the night and we were up and out by 8:45AM the next morning in Part 2!

A Warning for the Future

I've been going through a lot of photos from past trips this week, mainly to see what's in store for me when I begin some serious organizing/editing once I finish moving things around on my external hard drives, but also to reminisce a bit. While looking through one folder, a trip to the NS Pocahontas District in August 2006 that I went on with my brother and cousin, Mark, I decided to start editing some shots since I lacked the necessary skills back then. There was some cool stuff and a lot of stuff that made me go why didn't we shoot here or why didn't we chase that, but all in all it was a good trip.

Since I edited the shots, I decided I might as well do a little write up about it. I figured it would also be a good way to break up the blog, a mix of new and old.

Even when I begin editing in an organized manner, I'll still pick random trips or folders to edit and write about if something piques my interest.

Keep checking back for updates whether they're new or old!

A Sunday Afternoon with a Warbonnet

This adventure started at home while I was surfing the Internet aimlessly, I get a Facebook message from Steve (Steven Welch for future references), "M SLAAMS1 02A should be departing Slaton soon with a Warbonnet leading a GEVO and then a SD40-2 3rd out." The lazy Sunday afternoon was about to get a lot more productive. (The morning was productive. Miranda and I bought and assembled a recliner, 3-shelf bookcase and rolling kitchen cart!) Anyway, instead of napping we killed about an hour watching shows online before heading out the door to catch what the crews call "the SLAAMS train" at Canyon Junction.

We got to the junction around 5PM and there was no sign of the train so we drove around to 2nd St. to see into the north end of the yard, no headlights, no engines, no SLAAMS. I texted Steve asking if he could find out where they were and whether it was worth moving or just being patient. "By West Slaton 1655! The local is ahead of him" received at 5:06PM. That means he left Slaton 10 minutes ago and at 55mph wouldn't be getting to Lubbock for another 10 minutes or so. We took off for the south end of the yard to follow the line towards Slaton to head him off. We didn't make it very far before we saw a headlight coming at us. I turned the car around and headed for one of my favorite spots by East Lubbock looking back at the Attebury Grain LLC complex.

I've been lucky and the Warbonnets I've seen have all been in great shape and BNSF 759 was no exception!

We drove back to Canyon Junction to wait for them to do their switching before heading north to Plainview and Amarillo. (SLAAMS is the Slaton, TX to Amarillo, TX manifest that works Lubbock and Plainview on the way.) After a few minutes of nothing happening, we drove back to the apartment to get my telephoto lens which I had forgotten. We got back and they were in the same exact spot, but I noticed there was something green in the consist now. They had picked up an ex-BN SD40-2. A few moments later, the conductor queued up the radio and gave directions for the next move. I hopped out of the car to shoot them coming under the Marsha Sharp Freeway (US 82/4th St.).

We went back to the west side of the tracks by the actual junction to wait for their final moves and their departure out of town. I took a few shots of them sitting by the ex-ATSF cantilever signal to kill time knowing they still had a few moves to make.

 
From our viewpoint on 2nd St. we saw a gang of 5 puppies run across the street towards the tracks. With nothing better to do, we decided to go see them up close.

It proved to be worth the side trip because the engineer of the sitting SLAAMS waved me over to the curb to give me his email address to send him some photos. It was nice to finally meet someone who knew that I was just a railfan rather than calling me in as a suspicious person which has happened twice already.

We drove back to our spot on 2nd St. on the west side of the tracks and watched the shadows grow longer and longer and slowly creep up the locomotive until it was completely dark. There wasn't much light left... I noticed the shadow of the signal on the silos next to the tracks and figured I'd shoot something while waiting (and praying) for them to leave.

Finally, the sun ducked under the Ave. Q bridge behind us, fell below the tree line and ended any chance of getting the BNSF 759 in sunlight under the signal. I ran up onto the bridge to see what the shot looked like for future reference and took one last photo of the SLAAMS before heading back home for dinner.