Adventures in SW VA part III; Good News, Bad News at Copper Creek

[butch]

So I get to Copper Creek, the sun is still out, and I know something is coming on the Clinchfield.  I didn't have time to climb the hill so I shot the CSX coal train from the NS grade.  Then I climbed the hill to the higher grade.  The bad news was, nothing else was moving and the clouds had moved in.  The good news was there was still two hours of daylight left.  The bad news was I heard a train call Glenita and I didn't have time to get back to the NS grade.  The good news was shortly thereafter, the Boulder DD went off and I now had trains coming at me one both tracks.  The bad news was I now had trains coming at me on both tracks and no way to get a decent shot of one of my dream pictures; two trains crossing the Copper Creek trestles at the same time.  The good news was that I caught a glimpse of the train on the Clinchfield and it had NS power.  The bad news was that I'm still trying to learn the new camera and cloudy shots have been a problem.  The good news was that I could see both lead engines and it looked like they were going to arrive at the trestles about the same time.  The bad news was that I could see both lead engines and it looked like they were going to arrive at the trestles about the same time and I would miss the shot, even if it was cloudy.  Then the NS coal on the high grade passed the NS local on the low grade and was across the trestle before the local started, so I didn't miss the shot after all.  Yeah, I know I had a little too much fun writing this up, but for about a minute this afternoon, I was pretty juiced up about my good/bad luck.

So for what it's worth, here are the two trains as the first one starts across.  A gloomy shot of the train halfway across, the first train power exiting the trestle just as the lower train reaches Copper Creek.  And the pusher or DPU-not sure which, as it passed by mp 79.