First, this video is dedicated to Sylvia, my girlfriend’s mom, who passed away yesterday (8/24/24) due to medical complications. Sylvia was like another mom to me, we always got along, whenever we talked on the phone or in person, we always had a good laugh and a great conversation. She was an amazing woman with a soul that will be missed by many.
On the 23rd of August, I was told by my girlfriend that we were going to go up north on the next day (8/24) to spend time with her family, because her mom’s condition was only worsening. I realized that, with this situation, I would have only have one shot to shoot the last roadrailer I’ll ever see, that particular train being NS 255-24 (leaving Oakwood just after midnight on August 24th, 2024). Katie was well in the know that I was planning to shoot one of the last runs, or the last run of the RoadRailer, and I went to go see it and pull a late night in Romulus.
I got my bags packed before I left the house, got Chic fil a to go and sprinted south to Romulus.
0:00
I pulled up to Romulus, chowed down my dinner and after some waiting, NS 359 (Sterling Heights-Elkhart general manifest) came by. 8,425 feet of train on the drawbar led by a solo NS ES44DC.
4:27
The next train was a REAL surprise, in a good way and bad way. NS 189, we had no idea what the power was on the train until we heard the horn on the lead locomotive, which was a dead giveaway for it being the Penn Central heritage unit! The paint on the 1073 is chipping everywhere, but it does look historically accurate for being a Penn Central heritage unit!
Then came the not so good part, the end DPU, trailing a ton of smoke and the smell of burning brake shoes from it’s rear bogey. The moment I stopped recording, I called the train in and they came to a stop around MP 28. It was potentially a stuck handbrake but I don’t knoe for sure. This in turn caused a little bit of a traffic jam on the Wabash for trains.
7:39
While the 189 was stopped and the conductor was walking the train, another westbound showed up. I think this was B71 heading back to Milan engines light with an Admiral Cab NS SD40-2 running solo.
9:00
CSX didn’t want to not make an appearance, CSX steel train B523 was next. Two ES44AH’s for power on a nice sized train.
11:59
It was 2:45am and the three other railfans I was with were getting very antsy. 255 then pulled up to the diamond and stopped (which I did not record). 255 was waiting on a pair of eastbounds (120 and 358) to get onto the double track west of Romulus. These two were held up by the 189 mishap. They shut off all of their lights which gave us some minor anxiety, and we were praying they weren’t tying the train down.
NS 120 was next on the Wabash, running a 1x0x1 configured train with at least 10k feet in tow.
15:23
NS 358 was next, and it was the polar opposite of 120, 1x0x0 configured and with at most 20 cars.
16:38
Then came the moment we were all waiting for, NS 255 throttling up out of their stop at the diamond with a solo Dash 9 leader. I’m trying to shoot these old GE’s as much as I can, as these units will still soon disappearing for AC44C6M rebuild. Catching one solo on one of RoadRailer’s final runs was definitely a treat.
20:05
We had just packed our things up when one of the guys there yelled “headlight!”. One more train…sigh…it was 3:50am. I was cooked at this point but you just never know what it was gonna be in terms of power. It was NS 181, with a VERY shiny AC44C6M leader. These things look very slick in fresh paint or after being washed, no matter how common they are.
Next trip report will be chasing trains around the arches and chasing the Virginian. Stay tuned!