A day on the East Penn

Hi, On Monday, December 30 I received a call from friend Jim Kleeman informing me that the East Penn would be running west the next day on the Otocraro branch and asked if I would like to go.
The answer was an immediate yes.

We arrived at the East Penn office in Kennett Square, PA a few minutes after 8 AM and learned that the crew had gone on duty at 7 AM and already was working at Avondale, a few miles west.

Having spotted the train still working in Avondale we headed to a spot Jim had photographed on a previous trip.

We followed the train west catching it at West Grove,

Kelton,

Elkview Trestle,

Lincoln University, and

on the east side of Oxford.

The crew stopped to switch in Oxford (above and two below)

before moving on to the Herr's plant in Nottingham, PA. Locomotive #1800 is a former New York Susquehanna & Western GP18; one of four bought new by the railroad and its last new power.

We caught the train on the east side of Nottingham,

and when it stopped to switch in Oxford again (above and below).

The crew stopped to work the Tastykake plant on the east side of Oxford. The shadows were getting long so at this point we headed for home.

Thanks for looking. 

The Shenandoah Valley - 12/22 - 12/24/2019

Hi, Early on the morning of December 22 I left my home in Silver Spring, MD and joined friend Dale Diacont a few miles south of Charlottesville, VA to begin two and a half days of railfanning.

Our first stop was Huron Ave. in Lynchburg where we hoped to get the Amtrak train from Roanoke; which we expected around 10 AM. We had done this location once before in cloudy, misty weather but we were expecting sun this day. We didn't get it. At least there was no mist.

Next we moved to Alta Vista, VA as I wanted to get a train on the big trestle there. However, highway construction in the background had a negative impact on the shot. Also, and more importantly, no trains ran on the mainline while we were in the area. In fact the only other train we saw this day was this southbound coal train coming off the former Virginian trackage at Hurt.

NS now uses DPU's on many of its mineral trains and heavy freights (above and below).

After photographing the train north of Gretna, VA. we let it go and headed for Dale's house.

The next morning was spent on the Shenandoah Valley. Diesel engine work had just been completed on this lease unit and it was being tested in service prior to being returned to its owner. It originally was built for CN as a GP40W. Our first shot was at Verona, VA,

We photographed the train again south of Weyers Cave and then

crossing North river at Naked Creek, VA.

The southbound chase started at Crawford, VA and moved on to

Weyers Cave,

Sydney (above and below),

And Verona, VA.

At Verona the crew worked Dixie Gas (above and below). We spent some time in the afternoon looking for activity on NS and CSX in the Waynesboro, VA area but were unsuccessful.

Tuesday dawned foggy with occasional drizzle. We were only track side a few minutes when we heard a northbound train calling signals. It turned out to be 18T (replacement for 16T) shown here at Waynesboro.

We caught the train at Sampson,

Lynnwood,

Island Ford, and

Stonewall, VA passing the DPUs on a coal train in the siding here.

Dale thought he heard a southbound coming so we broke off here. Though there was no southbound it did provide an opportunity to shoot this rebuild which was the trailing unit of the DPU.

Thanks for looking.