Railfanning

[Cody J]

I took a short little excursion today with my brothers to chase a W&LE coal train from Nelms Mine #2 in Hopedale, Ohio to the AEP Cardinal Power Plant in Brilliant, Ohio.
Here are some of my favorite pictures:

The cab of W&LE 3067 (SD40-3). The train is in push-pull style


W&LE 3067 leading the train through a rock cut. While the coal cars were passing under us we were throwing snow balls in the cars


W&LE 3073 on the tail end, soon it will be leading the train.


God how I love the scenery here, especially in winter


The train crosses over the Ohio Central Panhandle Line on the Wheeling track. The train just came off of the OC Panhandle. And I did move farther away from the tracks as the train got closer.


My brothers being rather risky. Actually the train is going away.


The last place I saw the train moving.


Unfortunately the train stopped about halfway through the trip and we couldn't pick up anything on the scanner. It was on the main and there was a siding with a crossover right in front of the train so maybe something was coming from the east (the direction it was headed) or something was going to pass it which i doubt they would be in that big of a hurry, the train was moving pretty fast. Anyway, we didn't get to see it at some really tall bridges like I had hoped for. It was a fun trip anyway, I took my first pic of the W&LE today, so it was good.

cody

[jettrainfan]

Great job and nice pictures!

[jward]

when i took my weekly run to the ohio valley yesterday i noticed the wye at rayland was blocked with cars. so was the line north of the wye. maybe they were waiting for the line to be cleared?

[Cody J]

Well when I was there it was blocked with cars too. But the train stopped after Pittsburgh Junction. Pitt Jct is where the line splits, one line goes to Rayland and the other goes to Mingo Junction. According to Tom Habak of Railpictures.net there are some bridges out on the line to Rayland. Also, at Pittsburgh Junction the line to Rayland is blocked with some coal cars.
But when we were heading south on OH-7 we passed a short coal train with two GP35s heading north on the River Line so the train may have been waiting for that, if so they would have to wait a LONG time. Or maybe it was just a crew change but I doubt it.

[Cody J]

I think I know why the train was stopped.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
Hopefully that will work. It's the closest I can get to where we were at. If you go down to the tracks (near the bottom of the page) then go east the next grade crossing should be Township Highway 31 which is where we were. On the MAP it doesn't show the siding but you might be able to find the crossover between 31 and 65. It's near the crane car on SATELLITE. But on the other side of 65 (the west side) you should find a line coming off of the siding and going north. We're pretty sure that the train that our train was waiting for was coming off of that branch and was going to pass in front of it. Oh well. Now we know for next time. Oh. By the way the back roads of Harrison County, Ohio are less than desirable to travel during the winter especially when the temp is 32 degrees and the gravel roads are covered with ice and snow and the railfanning car is a Pontiac Grand Am which isn't very tall and is not good on back roads. Oh well, we made it through and alive and we got some decent pictures along the way.

[ebtbob]

Good Morning All,

       Hope you all had a great Christmas yesterday.   I know I did.

Anyway,  one of my favorite areas to railfan is Summerhill, Pa on the west slope of the NS mainline from Altoona to Pittsburgh.   Here is a shot of an eastbound train coming under one of the few remaining Pennsy style signal bridges left on that line.



Also,  I love to railfan on the East Broad Top Railroad in south central Pennsylvania.   Here is a pic of #15 as she approaches McMullen Summit bridge.



Another favorite spot is the "Iron Bridge" area on the west end of Enola Yard in Harrisburg,  Pa.   Here is 30T after crossing Rockville Bridge,  coming in off the Buffalo line.

[ebtbob]

Sorry the 30T shot did not come out.   Let me try again....

[pipefitter]

Great photos everyone. They're as good as the ones in the train magazines !

Robert