Sunshine, Stacks and Chicken Feed at Parkers Lake Ky.

[E.M. Bell]

 A week ago today, (02/26/12)  Carmon and myself once again headed South for the 2nd week in a row to shoot down South of Somerset KY. This time, it was a rather last minute decision to go and meet John Owen and Doyle Massey for the day. As I am sure you saw in Camr's post earlier in the week, we had a remarkable change in weather condition's, with a perfect spring day...warm temps and abundant sunshine. A substantial change from all the snow and wind we had encountered a week earlier.

Below are a few images from the day, and as usual the whole set in stunning Technicolor can be found at >>>>>   http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/cs2nddistrict12_eb_

Shortly after meeting Doyle and John, we headed up the hill at Garlands Bend to shoot a early morning grain train. It seems that Grain and Chicken Feed trains destined for Ga and point South made up the bulk of the days traffic. Here is the 57Q with UP power, coming through the signals at "New" Tateville.


John had never been to any of the bridges or cuts, so we made our way on up the hill to wait for another grain train. Here is Southbound 44A-24 as seen from the Cave Springs bridge near Keno.




After hearing on the radio that the 44A would get held up at Cumberland Falls to meet a Northbound, we made haste for Parkers Lake, getting there just in time to shoot Northbound 216.


After shooting 216, we moved down to the CP at Cumberland Falls to shoot the 44A-24 again as they left. They wound up having to wait for another Northbound, but soon got back under way. A Southbound train stopped at Cumberland Falls is stretched out on a pretty decent grade and wrapped around some sharp curves...not the best place to have to start a heavy unit train. It seemed like it took them for ever to get it moving once they got a diverging clear, and we where treated to a good show. Here is 44A as they drag out onto single track in #8 with sand flying! This was probably my favorite shot of the day.


Next up was yet another grain train, and another 44A at that...Here is 44A-25 at the Parkers Lake cut.




And one last train...NS 168, Northbound near Greenwood KY, at a place locals call "Charlie Hughes" road. The lead engine on this one had a old N&W RS5T horn..a rare thing to be heard on a mainline today.


And the parting shot..John and Doyle hoof it up the hill on Charlie Hughes road right before 168 got there.

[T. Mahan]

Great stuff... Cave Springs has been my favorite place of all time.  Great photo op, light trafficed road, and the locals are friendly!