First off, I saw NS 218 at Cheshire Road, but that wasn’t nearly as fun as what was to come later in the day!http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6872815875/
As many of you know, I flew over the CSX derailment in Greenwich, Ohio. My friend Lew was the pilot and we took off from Marion Municipal Airport. The main goal of the trip was originally to photograph the Marion Union Station and AC Tower for my upcoming Railpace Magazine article.
On take-off we were literally pacing Q377 on Mt. Victory Subdivision, which runs parallel to the runway. We beat it to the station, obviously, as we were traveling much, much faster.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6872816831/
On the way back to shoot Q377, I noticed the Central Soya switcher was hard at work moving grain hoppers at the grain elevator, so we circled around that once.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6872816325/
Then it was time to shoot Q377, which had three Union Pacific locomotives hauling the train.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6872384143/
In between Marion and Caledonia, we caught up to C799, which had a GP15-1 on each end of the short train.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6872817287/
We turned away from the Mt. Victory Sub just east of there and caught back up to it and Shelby. The next town we went by was Crestline, where we saw a CSX local switching out a grain elevator.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6872817807/
Then we made a bee-line straight up to Greenwich from there. Here are those photos, again.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6872385523/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6872384841/
Trains were stacked up between Greenwich and Willard, which is where we went to next.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6872386237/
Here’s a shot of the locomotive terminal in the yard.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6873039999/
And here’s a shot of both humps.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6873039347/
I was able to shoot UP, KCS, DME, and an ex CP, now DME all in one shot.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6872386847/
Then it was time to go back to Marion to land.
We were about 1,000 feet above ground throughout the trip in Lew’s 2007 Flight Design CTSW. Here are some shots of it and me in it!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6873040385/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47491339@N04/6873040711/
