I finally catch a break
After years of Lehigh Valley heritage ES44AC #8104 eluding me in the middle of the night, passing in trail, or parked under cloudy skies, I finally caught up to the most elusive (for me) unit on the roster. Here, she blasts through Carpenter, IL on the nose of 31N, bound for Terminal Railroad's Madison yard in Venice, IL, with a setout for the Alton & Southern at Mitchell.
A lucky day in which I headed north after lunch not knowing if this unit would come south out of Decatur to St. Louis, or head west to Kansas City. I made it to Raymond where I thought I'd get word one way or the other, just in time to hear the detector south of Raymond go off. Just in case, I commenced a spirited chase back south to get a look at the power and finally caught up with the head end just north of Staunton. The rest is history.
As it turns out, this train didn't pull on to the A&S for another 7 hours or so, well after the sun had sunk behind the trees, so this would be my only decent shot. I won this round, but just barely.
I finally catch a break
After years of Lehigh Valley heritage ES44AC #8104 eluding me in the middle of the night, passing in trail, or parked under cloudy skies, I finally caught up to the most elusive (for me) unit on the roster. Here, she blasts through Carpenter, IL on the nose of 31N, bound for Terminal Railroad's Madison yard in Venice, IL, with a setout for the Alton & Southern at Mitchell.
A lucky day in which I headed north after lunch not knowing if this unit would come south out of Decatur to St. Louis, or head west to Kansas City. I made it to Raymond where I thought I'd get word one way or the other, just in time to hear the detector south of Raymond go off. Just in case, I commenced a spirited chase back south to get a look at the power and finally caught up with the head end just north of Staunton. The rest is history.
As it turns out, this train didn't pull on to the A&S for another 7 hours or so, well after the sun had sunk behind the trees, so this would be my only decent shot. I won this round, but just barely.