Winter arrives on the NS Louisville District

[E.M. Bell]

I was just about to make myself believe that we here in Central Ky would not have a real winter this year. We have had the cold, the rain, but no snow to amount to anything. ....and then POOF, that all changed. 

Starting Sunday evening (Feb 15th) the snow started, and b the time it was over we have 17 inches on the ground here at the JREB World HQ in Salvisa, KY. That was followed by record cold temps (It was - 30 here this morning!!)  and now we are fixing to get another round of 4 to 10 inches of snow tonight and Saturday, followed by a good chance of accumulating ice.......did I mention this is the stuff I live for...I LOVE winter!! 

The bad weather actually started on Valentines day (Saturday the 14th) and Sunday, and I was out on the CNO&TP both of those days giving the dollar tour to a friend of mine from North Carolina. We had some great luck in the moody weather, and I will share those images in a few days.  For now, here is a quick look at what I managed to shoot this week on the NS Louisville District while trying to get Carmon and myself to and from work on the bad roads.  I hope to have some more from this weekend as well....if the weather is bad, you can bet I will be out on the middle of it. 

You can check all of these out in full sized at this link >>>> http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/nsls15

Saturday 02/14/15

The rear DPU's on Westbound empty coal train 891come by "The Fence" at Vanarsdale, KY in the last light of a very cold day. It had been cloudy and windy all day, but the sun popped out just in time for this shot, providing some interesting color and light.


Tuesday 02/17/15
Eastbound 376  eases around to the signal at West Talmage, KY a few hours after the heavy snow had stopped. At this point, the RR was struggling with frozen switches and broken rails.


A look up the road at West Talmage. There is not a lot of traffic back in there, and I was busting drifts on the way in.  This was typical of the road conditions found around here the past few days.


Thursday 02/19/15
The temperature was around 5 degrees with a delightful 15mph North wind as I stood knee deep in a snow drift to shoot NS 223 at Vanarsdale, Ky behind a KCS Duo.