A winter storm, EMD's and a little heritage on the Louisville District

[E.M. Bell]

The old adage "be careful what you wish for" seems to have finally caught up with me. After a sorry excuse for winter here in the Bluegrass State the past couple of years, I had been wishing for some snow....and sure enough got what I wanted...  The weather has been a wild ride around here this winter, with a lot of rain to start with, a couple of small rounds of ice back in December, followed be almost Two weeks of abnormally cold temperatures...then on Tuesday January 21st, the snow finally showed up with a vengeance.  

When I got to work around 0600 that morning, it had just started to snow ever so lightly..by the time the sun came up the storm had grown to the point it it looked like a blizzard. The roads got bad quick, and I decided to call it a day early and head home to get the camera and get out in it...no use in wasting the snow I wanted!

After a long, slow drive back home, I grabbed the camera and some warmer clothes and headed back out. The temperature was hovering around 10 degrees with a lovely (and constant) 40+mph wind that was causing near whiteout conditions at times, and coated everything in snow. While the traffic on the roads was almost non-existent, the Louisville district was alive with trains. Carmon and I spent the rest of the daylight hours shooting what we could, including another new CN GE on a Westbound rack train, a spartan cab SD70 on train 275 and finished the day up with the Lehigh Valley heritage unit on 23G. We never got more than about 20 miles from home, but had some great luck.

On Monday the 27th, I got home just in time to learn of a special High / Wide train that was leaving Danville (KY) headed West. A rail-train that was working around Talmage delayed him until almost dark, but I still managed a few decent shots with some great "Blue Hour" lighting.

Another nasty round of winter would hit us on Saturday the 25th, and we spent that whole day out on the CNO&TP....I will share those in a few days, but for now here are a few teasers below, and you can check out the whole set over on Pbase at this link >>>  http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/ns_ls_2014_eb

01/21/14  

A brand new CN GE (we have been seeing a LOT of those around here) leads Westbound NS 289 across the creek at Salvisa KY. This location is less than a 1/2 mile from our house, but with the road conditions it might as well have been 50.


Eastbound 275 comes rushing through the storm at Nevin Station, KY with a spartan cab SD70 in the lead. As I stood there in the storm and watched the train pop around the curve at 40 mph bringing its own blizzard with it, I thought to myself "This is gonna suck"...then that mobile blizzard hit me right upside the head with wind and snow. Sometimes I think sunny days are overrated...I live to shoot in this stuff that sends most folks running for home!


We caught back up with 275 again after they ducked into the hole at Talmage to meet a Westbound. Normally its pretty easy to get back ahead of a train on the Louisville District, but not this day. If they didn't happen to stop, we only got One shot.


Eastbound loaded coal train 704 comes through Vanarsdale KY with the lead unit coated in heavy, wet snow.


After meeting Westbound 224, the 704 struggles to get back on the move at East Talmage, KY. This was one of my favorites from that day.


The storm was starting to die down as 224 slowly pulled out of the siding at West Talmage, KY with a SD70m in the lead.


The last shot of the day...Lehigh Valley 8104 is the DPU on train 23G, seen here crossing the bridge at Salvisa, KY. The snow was gone, and the sun popped out just enough to add some great light to end the day.


01/25/14

Saturday the 25th, we spend the day out in the snow again on the CNO&TP (stay tuned for those shots later on)..  After yet another day of bad weather, the sun once again came out right on cue for one last shot. Eastbound M67 at Vanarsdale, KY.  The little but of sun we had here was gone before the train was..perfect timing.



01/27/14

Monday 01/27  a Westbound 053 High / Wide special with a Trio of turbines headed to Texas starts across the Louisville District during the "Blue Hour" after waiting near Danville for a MofW train to clear up (and the sun to go away).  The train is seen here just West of Harrodsburg KY at Bohon, and then a parting shot at Talmage, Ky

[dschlegel]

Over on TO I said I like the LV unit on the bridge, which I do. Here on jreb though I think I may like the 053 better!
PA Dan

[NSMoWandS]

Ha Ha! Yup! Be careful what you wish for! Glad you got a "real" snowfall. Love the SD70 shot! And yes, I have had the same thought while shooting in the snow... "This is going to suck... " but, then I think about how it will not suck later after I go through the pics and see what I got. DE Dan