Shiny new 70Ace's, Grungy SD60's and wide loads

[E.M. Bell]

I am still working on our stuff from this past Saturday and Sunday and the derby trains, but besides all the F units, we caught a few other goodies as well.

Saturday evening (05/05/12) , about an hour before sunset I heard the dispatcher talking to a R-55 coming East on the Louisville district. R-55 was an "extra" move of the semi-regular 055 that moves solid trains of CAT high/wides from the plant in Peoria Il. We have been seeing maybe one of these trains a week for over a year now, and they are fairly short. This particular train was reported to have been the longest they have ran to date, and was almost 5,000 feet long. The power was interesting as well, with a pair of SD60's (including one of the second hand HLCX units NS recently purchased) With the sun finally out after after a cloudy wet morning, I ran down the road to my favorite place on the Louisville district to grab a couple of shots of this one..

And again, late on Sunday evening, after following the outbound NS Derby train from Louisville, I found myself back at the White Fence to shoot a 55A empty grain train with a fairly new (and really clean) SD70Ace #1031 and the 1001. We where sitting with Derby train at Talamge (KY) while they waited for the 55A, and when I saw the power he had, we quickly let the passenger train go, and went after the 55A (only to have them sit and wait in the siding for over an hour)

I know have about worn this location out, but its a mile from home...just so handy!

Here are a few shots of those goodies...Derby train stuff will be out in a few days. As always, check out Pbase if you want to see the big version of these..   http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/louisvilledistrict2012_eb

NS R-55, Eastbound at Vanarsdale Kentucky. 05/05/12






And Westbound 55A, with a groovy set of new EMD's at Vanarsdale 05/06/12. (the full sized version of this one on Pbase is huge, just like the power!)