1996 NS C44-9W #8939
Now today was a lot more interesting, even despite the rain. The first photographed one of the day was 31M, which, like yesterday, had an old-livery Dash 9 as the sole leader.
2000 NS C44-9W #9423
Next was this local on the Shoreline Sub, led by a GP9R that was rebuilt from a former high-hood GP9, originally intended for passenger service, in 1991.
- *1956 GTW GP9R #4616 (ex-GP9 #1780, later #4905, CN.ca livery, repainted from GT Blue 2007)
*Seven autoracks
*Covered hopper
*Six NS 60' boxcars
(total: 14 cars)
A while later, while it was raining hard, we headed to Pennsylvania Road. Our first train there was a mirror of our last train at Oak Street, led by #4616 running long-hood forward.
The next train to show up was Trenton 5, returning to River Rouge Yard.
- *1979 CSX GP38-2 #2700 (YN3A, ex-Seaboard Coast Line #6049, later Seaboard System same number)
*Railbox boxcar (from Materials Processing)
*NS boxcar (from Materials Processing)
*Wisconsin Central boxcar (from Materials Processing)
*Flatcar
*Two tanker cars (from Jones Chemicals)
(total: 6 cars)
The rain cleared up not long afterwards. After a while, 39E, the reason I went out today, finally showed up. The consist was something truly unique and it was significant in that it was my very first sighting of an NS heritage unit (NKP #765 doesn't count).
- *2001 NS C44-9W #9682
*2012 NS ES44AC #8098 (Conrail Heritage Unit)
The date: April 2nd, 2015. Exactly 39 years and a day ago, the US government created Conrail to take control of multiple bankrupt railroads, most notably Penn Central and Erie Lackawanna. By 1987, when it was privatized, Conrail began turning profits. In the late 1990's, in a reversal of the merger of the PRR and the NYC, half of Conrail went to NS and the other half went to CSX. And now, today, the Conrail heritage unit, which was the first of 20 engines in NS' 30th Anniversary Heritage Fleet when it was released from Altoona in March 2012, appropriately enough, makes an appearance on the Detroit Line, which was historically Conrail's main route into Detroit from the East Coast, the portion north of Gibraltar still part of Conrail Shared Assets, which was formed in 1999 to operate former Conrail rails in Metro Detroit and New Jersey.
The past two days certainly provided me with variety, so much so that this had to belong in a separate thread.