R.J. RED



Once on my Birthday my Old man gave me a bat . 
The first day I played with it, it flew away 
~Rodney Dangerfield

        This past summer during my time off I was able to bag a railroad that I always had wanted to but never had the time or the means to. That Railroad would be the R.J.Corman railroad. Now as close as the R.J.Corman comes to me is a town called Clinton Ohio at a small interlocking and interchange yard called Warwick. Sadly enough for most of us railfans they are a nocturnal move and very rarely do they ever move during the daylight, but for a rare moment in time I was able to catch them during the daytime.

       It began with me getting off from the train shop almost an hour early and I decide to make my way over to my buddy Dave's house where the plan was to chill out and watch the parade of Gevos on the New Castle sub from his yard. We caught wind of the Q015 having BNSF power and decided to drive in Railfan1 a few miles into town. As we set at the grade crossing we barely made it in time and I was unable to get a shot as it blew by at track speed. So As we set listening to the radio we heard the dispatcher talking about a Z-613 which would be our daylight move of our nocturnal visitor. We headed down there and decided to set and watch it come in only to set at the grade crossing for 45 minutes as the last two cars blocked the driveway to the industrial park where we had hope to set up. Finally after a CSX maintainer wanted through the crew crept the train the few car lengths needed to let us in. As we set and listened to them drop the cars off we found out they were heading back light power. Once they got permission from the CSX dispatch to come back onto their tracks we set up and I was able to get this shot.

The crew as they pass a former Conrail SD60I used by the local crew
Once they passed we decided to give chase for a bit since they only usually go about 25mph at the most. Once we headed a block east we met them again this time stopping to get a track warrant onto the mainline to head back East. I stopped the van and the people behind me ( I did not give any second thought to the traffic behind me) I jumped out and snagged this picture of them as they waited for their paperwork to proceed south.

This would be a epic sunny morning shot, but hey I will take it
As it would be they began moving again and we decided to give one last chase to a little country road a few miles away. We arrived with plenty of time to spare and got into position as they came by I decided to incorporate the farm into my shot, this almost was foiled by the conductor as he pulled just into the view of my lens. I got mad thinking he was another disrespectful foamer but was later informed he was a conductor following our train. Here is the shot I got with the farm in it.

Our rare visitors pass through one of the most picturesque scenes I have shot 

As they went on about their way we decided to do the same we went back to Dave's house and I decided to go home edit the pictures, eat and take a nap. With another fun catch in the books. I want to leave you with this food for thought. Like this little adventure sometimes opportunity presents itself most often time than not we fail to take it and then we wind up being disappointed and bitter because someone else got what we wanted. Now with this I am going to say look for the opportunities in your life and take them they may lead to somewhere and even if they don't  at least you had a fun ride, until next time take care.

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