A few things rival the comradery of railfans for the most part we all get along, but there are special moments this is such one.
It was the last Friday in August 2014
I was sitting in my usual spot before I go into work and the CSX was quieter than a church mouse on a Sunday night, that is until I heard on the radio the Z642 coming into summit street on the W&LE with the local stone train and being happy to hear a train I grab my bag and hop on my bike and scoot down the four blocks to the other set of tracks. That is when I bump into my good friend Fred. Now Fred is one of the good guys always Humble and willing to listen and offer wisdom to keep peace and to live a happy life. Now this morning really began to get good when I looked over to the West behold my eyes feasted on a pair of EMD SD40-2's still in the GM paint of Blue and White. One of the things that the inbound crew must do is pull the train into the siding then cut the power off and move it up the main and add it to the west end of the train for the Z642 crew to be able to make the shove up the connection to the CSX
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| Here they are running around the train |
While most railfans would be drooling over one of these leading we were spoiled enough to have two demonstrators or the blues brothers as we affectionately nicknamed our catch as they rolled past the turnout the conductor threw the switch to let him back into the train to put the consist back on the train
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| Throwing the Switch |
The morning was perfect weather wise it wasn't too hot yet and I had some peacefulness yet without the insanity that was to become the norm of my life. While now it seemed to be the perfect morning I mean can you imagine two demonstrator locomotives, one of my good friends, and a cup of coffee surrounded by beautiful sun, and the lovely mix of diesel fuel and creosote I thought it couldn't get any better but what was to come was seemingly even better.
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| Backing the locomotives on and the over all atmosphere |
What we hear next on the radio was our good friend and engineer Chuck, now chuck is a retired police officer that has the dream job on the local stone train and has a heart as big as the locomotive he operates. within minutes we see Chuck and his conductor Jeremy round the bend with a tiger striper (or a standard painted unit) Fred and I knew then this was a Foam kill, although the Blues brothers was still in the consist.
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| Chuck and Jeremy |
While they did the rinse and repeat of the inbound crew to put the tiger on the point and kill every foamer's dream of ever catching the blues brothers in action Fred and I knew we had Divine Favor when we had caught them without the 6351 even near
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| Jeremy and Chuck doing the rinse and repeat |
While now we had almost 9,000hp idling away four friends together, good coffee (for me anyway) and the best weather we could ever ask for it was the perfect morning for any railfan or the like and our catch prior made the morning seem of epic proportions.
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| Chuck Backing the foam killer on |
While now we knew what the consist would be there was still much to be done as the Tiger had to be connected to the Blues Brothers and the train had to be inspected and readied for it's trip to South Akron while Jeremy did his thing, Chuck made the Loco connections and inspected the two blue units he just tied onto.
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| Chuck And Jeremy (note the steam still coming up from the prior crews van) |
Once the train was ready Jeremy began his walk up the ROW with a End of train or EOT device Chuck Began to set the units up for multi-unit operation we knew they were meaning business of getting this bad boy on the move
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| Jeremy with the EOT or (end of train) Device | |
Now came the good part hearing three EMD SD40-2's struggle and talk (and yes Chuck can make them walk and talk like they are supposed too) while trying to overcome 50 loads weighing in close to 13 million pounds and close to 2,000 feet of train this put the icing on the cake for the morning. While I would have loved to have stayed and watched them push up the the hill I had to go to work but it could never had been a better morning while the last picture I could get was Jeremy tying the EOT on the end of the train I bidded Jeremy and Fred Farewell and wished them all a good and a safe day I headed into work and my morning became one for the record.
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| Jeremy Tying the EOT on |
While there hasn't been a morning as epic Fred and I spent the rest of the summer and fall chasing the CSX and Chuck and the rock train this made in my opinion and in my words one for the record. Thank you for reading.
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