Railfanning 1-23-2014

Hi, Thursday turned out to be our final day of photography for the trip. We started out in Anderson, SC. After a quick visit to the Pickens Railroad shop, where we learned the rough location of their train, we began our search.

We found two of their U18Bs pushing a hopper on the east side of town.

They pushed the hopper to NS interchange and then

ran around the cars set out by the NS (above and below).

After coupling up (above) the crew sorted the train into 3 blocks in delivery order.

We then moved around the corner from the switch that gives the Pickens access to the interchange tracks.

The train waited here for the conductor to walk forward from the rear of the train (above and below).

We caught the train 3 more times in Anderson (above and 2 below).

This line had a few hogbacks.

The final hogback was on the approach to Gluck, location of the Pickens engine house and office.

The crew did some additional switching on their arrival in Gluck (above and 2 below).  They then went to switch industries in a large industrial park.  As the park looked difficult to gain access to and, as Dale remarked, we had sucked the jelly out of this doughnut, we moved on.

We stopped in Belton, SC where the Greenville and Western is headquartered.

A GP30 from their sister railroad the Aiken was present.

Next we moved on to Republic Locomotive where the photographs above and below were taken with permission.  At his point the only locomotives being built are these RX500 industrial locomotives.  What makes them unique is AC traction.

Former CSX engineer Dale Diacont is in the cab of an RX500.  This shows either you can't keep an old dog down or you can't teach an old dog new tricks.  Obviously he enjoyed being back in a locomotive cab again.

Republic builds locomotives in the former Piedmont and Northern Shop in Greenville.

On our way back to Dale's we spotted this critter so we doubled back to grab a shot.

Thanks for looking.