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.

Railfanning 1-22-2014

Hi, Stan Short, Dale Diacont and I spent most of  Wednesday photographing the Alexander Railroad in North Carolina.

The crew goes to work at the engine house in Taylorsville.

From the engine house the crew ran light to a small yard and industrial park on the east end of town.

After pulling 2 box care from the industrial park

a plastics covered hopper from the small yard was added to the train.

The crew then headed east through Stony Point (above and below),

and Swits (above and below).

At Loray they passed an elevator

before arriving at an industrial park where they cut off their train and headed into the park to do some switching.

 

There was some delay during which the locomotive and a short cut of cars was perfectly posed (above and below).

During the pause we took a short jaunt over to Statesville where the railroad's GE 44 tonner sat in a lumber yard.  When only a few cars are to be moved a crew will drive to Statesville and use this locomotive.

Then it was back to the industrial park for some photos with a zoom telephoto lens (above and below), and

a medium zoom lens.  After the the crew was done assembling the cut to be picked up it was pushed up the grade toward the plant on the left.  They placed the locomotive on the spur in the center-right side of the photo and let the cars roll down past the locomotive thus getting it in front of the cars.

The pick up was then backed up the grade to the main where they were coupled onto the cars left on there (above and below).

The crew then proceeded into Statesville where

they left their train next to another feed mill and

took the engine down to the NS interchange.

After picking up their inbound cars (above) a great deal of switching ensued at a small yard a few block west of the interchange track.

Another industrial park just north of the small yard was serviced first with the delivery of a covered hopper, then

with the pickup (above and below) and

delivery (above and 2 below) of some boxcars to a paper plant.

Finally,the crew brought one of the boxcars it had taken down to the paper plant back up to the yard where more switching was done.  At his point we decided to quit for the day and move on to Greenville, SC, where we spent the night. 

Thanks for looking.