OCS on the Rathole

[butch]

12 hours and 434 miles later here is the shot I planned the day around.  952 exiting the south portal of Tunnel 26 at Oakdale TN.  Plenty more and tales of the trip later.

[Batman]

nice one !

[E.M. Bell]

Well worth the effort my friend..I think we all did pretty good keeping split up and getting different places, but you get the major prize in my book. Nobody there but you!

[Ponce de Leon]

I'll be brief, except to say I really had a great time yesterday----particularly seeing many of you folks.

Also, thanks to Butch for photographing me (with my camera) talking to Wick Moorman at Burnside. Wick and I had worked together some 40 years ago. Obviously he's at the pinnacle of success, and I certainly applaud him. He had the "right stuff" when I first knew him, so I'm not surprised. During our brief conversation, we talked about some of the people we had both worked with all those years ago. He asked what I thought about the F-units, and my response: "Nice ride...."

Yes...the idea of asking for a cab ride in the F-units crossed my mind.....but, NO....I didn't ask. As Emmitt told me, the light would have been bad shooting northbound trains, so that was my primary consideration.

Here are some shots of mine.....at Norwood, Cumberland Falls (Parkers Lake), and a southbound rail train at Pemberton I shot on the way back home to Virginia.

All in all, it's hard to have a bad day on the CNO&TP.

RF

[butch]

Emmett, thanks for the kind words and I can't wait to see your posts.  Ron, excellent photos as always and it was a pleasure-though after using your camera, I now want to upgrade from mine because it's already 8 months old.  And now for the trip tale...

After two weeks of forum discussions about the OCS 952 trip down the former Rathole, the big day was here.  Vacation day-check; sidekick-check; cooler full of drinks-check; beautiful day-check.  So Bill Marshall and I hit the road headed to Kings Mountain.  I wasn't sure how the sun would be in the cut, but it was a good place to start and we were meeting Ron Flanary there.  We rolled in right at 10a, knowing from Emmett's updates that the OCS was already in Danville.  Ron was there talking with fellow jreber Bruce DeMaeyer   Unfortunately, 952 projected to be at Kings Mountain before the sun would get high enough to get down in the cut.  After a short discussion, Ron and I decided to move further south in search of better light while Bruce was going to stay there (here are some of his pix http://www.jreb.org/ns/index.php?topic=10843.0 ). Waynesburg and Singleton Road weren't great either so we headed for Norwood where we expected to run into Emmett and his posse, though we didn't.  We passed on the signals and set up at the curve leading into the Mt. Zion Road crossing.  It didn't take long for us to get our first look at 952 as she came around the curve about 10:45.  Now the chase was on.  We wanted to try to beat it to the Burnside bridge which was a 50-50 proposition even with the by-pass around Somerset.  We heard it call Woods just as we were reaching US 27 on the south side of Somerset.  I had our odds down to 33% at that point.  But as we reached the lake, I suddenly realized there was good news and bad news.  The good news was that we had indeed beat it to the bridge.  The bad news was there was a northbound at Grove sitting on Main 2 that blocked the view of Main 1.  So we dropped on down to the new NS office at Burnside and shot it easing in about 11:15.  I was impressed that Wick Moorman waved to me...until I realized he knew Ron and that's who he was really waving to.  After a brief promotion to official photographer for Ron while he talked to Moorman, we went on down to the Antioch Road cut where there was a jreb user's group meeting be led by Emmett that included  John Owens, Jacob Gwinn, and John Scott.  We left Ron there and headed further south.  

[butch]

Part II:  If the light was good, I wanted to shoot the OCS coming under the Keno bridge; if not, I knew we could get something at Dead Ox Hollow.  The bridge shot looked good so we set up there.  Five minutes before noon it rounded the curve and came under the bridge-it was not easing this time, it was cooking.  We got several good shots and I got a video [slow load] http://home.insightbb.com/~heyref/OCSKeno.AVI.   

[butch]

Part III:  As we hit the road, I started doing the math on beating it to Oakdale which was the main attraction of the day for me.  I wanted to get it coming out of Tunnel 26.  I estimated that we had two hours and that would be cutting it close.  As we hit the road I became concerned that I wasn't getting close enough to pick it up on the scanner.  By the time we got to Sunbright I was worried that it just wasn't going to happen.  Talking to Emmett, we were only about a mile behind him and Bill was grateful for some of the traffic that had slowed me down.  952 was still ahead of us, but I did hear it call the Lancing signal.  Still not optimistic, I caught/passed Emmett and his entourage going up the hill into Wartburg-they were going on to Oliver Springs.  Once again I lost contact with the train as it was following the river.  Then, as we were about to head down the lane that ends at the south end of T26, we heard it call north Oakdale.  We had made it!  We had a good seven minutes to spare as the OCS cleared T26 and headed on south on Main 2 about 1:50.  I got several shots and another video that I really like, but is way to big to post.  And as I took a last look at the observation car heading through the signals, I couldn't help but wonder if they were looking at us and saying something like "Them again!"

[butch]

Part IV:  The road home...We knew there was another SB waiting at Oakdale for 952 to pass so we waited on it, then started the trip home.  About 4p Bill finally talked me into stopping at Subway for a sandwich-lucky for him I needed gas because I still had Cheez-its, some Oreos, and half a cooler of water and Mello Yellow.  Anyway, at Sunbright I decided to check the signals and sure enough, it was lined for a SB.  It came through about 20 minutes later with a leased former UP leader.  And shortly thereafter, it lined up again so we stuck around for a second SB.  Hitting the road, we ducked into Glen Mary just for fun.  Main 2 was lined for yet another SB and while we discussed whether or not to wait for it, the question was taken out of our hands as it rounded the bend and cruised past us.  Again heading north, we swung by Helenwood before cutting over to pick up I-75.  Guess what, another SB green on Main 2.  Again it didn't take long to show up.  Then we headed for home to close out the 12 hour, 434 mile, outstanding road trip.  Hope the guys we saw as well as the ones we've only seen pix from had as much fun as we did.  Now to decide where to go tomorrow...

[E.M. Bell]

Awesome stuff guys..simply outstanding!

Ron, if it makes you feel any better about the different career paths between you and Wick, at-least you are not having to sport that lime green superman vest

[Ponce de Leon]

Thanks Emmitt. If I made what he did I would wear lime green underwear.

[butch]

Uh, I think that's a photo op I would pass on...

[butch]

Thanks Carmon, I went after the T26, but I agree the Keno pic is the best.  We'll have another excursion again soon I'm sure.