View allAll Photos Tagged YN2
Business is good on the Clinchfield today as CSXT 121 South grinds toward the summit at Altapass with a loaded grain train for Case Farms in Shelby. Their G765-22 is meeting empty coal train E313-27 from Brice here at N.E. Toe River as veteran engineer J. Barr throws up a wave.
C601 makes the turn at Heidrick divirging off of the CV main onto the C&M Branch with empties for the Resource mine in Bluehole, Ky.
CSX l411, the Worthville Turn, departs the Cincinnati area bound for Worthville and the Carrollton Branch with a pair of YN2 C40-8W's leading.
E789 flies out of the west Kingwood portal in West End, nearing the end of its journey to Grafton. Once it gets to Grafton it will take the lead into Leer Mine for loading. Was nice to get a YN2 on this trackage.
CSX AC44CW no.s 465 and 487 are seen alone descending down the Hell Gate Bridge approach, crossing the Astoria Line at Astoria-Ditmars Blvd station. The two locomotives, both sporting the outdated YN2 "Bright Future" paint scheme, were heading to pick up a cut of cars from the New York & Atlantic at Fresh Pond Yard, and returned the other way around an hour and a half later.
L200 races the rapidly approaching shadows on the rails at South Allen on the Clinchfield. Today's L200 is led by veteran YN2 CW44AC 431.
The post-Christmas edition of L738 on December 26th, 2025 ran in crystal clear T-Shirt weather, seen here on its home stretch into Rice Yard. The 65 mile trip took six hours today, courtesy of a customer switch move and eight siding meets along the way. Traffic on the single track Fitzgerald Subdivision averages about 40 trains per day (per railfan forums), often lengthening the otherwise 1 ½ hour journey at 50 mph track speed for these relatively low priority trains. At Jamestown, the delay allowed for low afternoon lighting on the newly 'anointed' railfan favorite power.
Haze envelopes the Miami River Valley while action above downtown Dayton commences. Here, a pair of CSX GE's in the YN2 scheme lead a Cincinnati bound manifest past The Armory
GP40-2 number 4419 is one of the last examples of a CSX standard cab in YN2 paint, and when I heard it was in Winchester as local power, I jumped on the chance to shoot it. After a failed attempt where it trailed, a second attempt at getting the 4419 leading on the Patio to Corbin local found me getting what I came for. Going track speed down the L&N CC Mainline, they emerge from the tunnel at Sinks as they near London and Corbin.
The last SD60M in YN2 paint rolls through Andrews, SC, with a high and wide load in tow. The train is W984-20, bound for Charleston, SC, via the SH line.
Framed with an original Clinchfield whistlepost, CSXT 404 south grinds up the nearly 1% grade through Penland, Nc, negotiating tight curves along the Toe River with M653-30. They’ll keep stair stepping their way up toward the summit at Altapass and a meet with M652-31.
CSX 2756, GP38-2 in YN2 paint, throttles up towards Moncrief after sitting for a good hour, waiting for his space in the yard.
In a classic Clinchfield scene, veteran CW44AC # 15 leads M693-17 south by Toe River Freewill Baptist in Huntdale, Nc.
An older YN2 GE leads Q693 across the Boones Creek trestle just north of Johnson City, TN, on the former Clinchfield.
With it being pretty uncommon nowadays to get a full set of just YN2s it was neat to see Q647 meeting Q646 at Pelham,AL with all YN2
After getting a new crew here at Manchester, GA, CSX Q601 heads west onto the CSX Lineville Subdivision behind a recently rebuilt SD70AC and a CW44AC still wearing YN2 colors.
CSX M706 rolls north through Nokomis, Alabama, under a fiery sunset with an unreal leader in the year 2020. CSX 2756 in YN2 was a crazy treat in the year 2020...
CSX 4732 leads M369, a new symbol since the Howard St. tunnel project, through downtown Ashland. The full power was a MAC leader, a YN2 AC44, a GEVO, another YN2 AC44, and a CM44 rebuild, pretty good for 2025.
CSX CW44AC 461 sits quietly in the yard in Augusta, GA while still wearing its original YN2 paint scheme.
In a scene that may well have been seen in any one of four decades, 2025 almost seems the least likely. Just one caveat: rust and peeling paint is the immediately obvious sign we're not in 1995 anymore. The recently released C40-8Ws were roaming the rails in shiny YN2 "Bright Future" paint, on CSX's hottest intermodals and heavy freights at that time. CSX 7767 and 7836 were delivered as such in 1992, trailing unit 9004 in 1994, and have escaped repainting through three waves of new liveries over the next thirty-some years: YN3, YN3b, and YN3C (as far as those can be distinguished). Althoug 94 such examples remain on the CSX roster, I suspect the operational number must be less than 15-20, having seen massive deadlines of these units in hubs like Waycross, GA.
For this occasion in particular, three units found their way onto L738-14 on December 14th, 2025, not entirely by chance. The locals out of Oglethorpe, Cordele, and Fitzgerald, GA, have sourced power from a localized pool of Dash 8s for several months now, all of which happen to be in YN2 paint. I haven't quite figured out how predictable each local's to-do list and locations-to-be are, but they seem to make runs between aforementioned yards, limited northward by Brownsand and southward by Waycross. One or two days before, the Cordele local's unit needed replaced due to mechanical issues, so Sunday's L738 bringing an extra unit up out of Waycross was relatively predictable. The resulting throwback lashup surely was a sight to see, with all units elephant style to boot! Here the train rushes through Douglas, GA, the day's last sunny scene as they would then sit in a siding west of town until dusk.
CSX C40-8W 7797 and C40-8 7612 were screaming eastbound on the former B&O at Wellsboro in 2000.
Fall colors were just starting to turn along the Garrett Subdivision and a pair of clean YN2 GEs were looking pretty decent in the early morning light.
Nearing the crest of the summit, CSXT 115 South grinds up the 0.5% grade through Unicoi, Tennessee with loaded SCWX coal train U371-26 from Balkan for Pennyroyal, SC.
January 30, 2015.
Northbound ethanol empties for the Iowa Interstate hustle down Duff Mountain at Habersham behind a YN2 CW44AC.
A temporarily reactivated YN2 CW40-9 leads a work train south on the former Clinchfield as it passes Dante, VA.
Empty hopper W207 heads west past the beautiful station in Prince,WV using the drone for a little elevation.
CSX GE Dash 8-40CW leads a mix of locomotives on a general marchandise train through the small village of Mineral Springs, North Caolina on the former Seaboard Airline Atlanta to Hamlet main line in March 2005.
YN2 GEs are not as common as they once were, so whenever one is in the area, I'll now make an attempt to see it. Here's D706 heading east from GR behind a CW44AH/ES44AH duo.
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A pair of YN2 GE's lead intermodal train Q134 past the farms just outside Verona, Kentucky on a gorgeous September morning.
CSX CW44AC 539 and CSX SD70MACe 4539 face each other head to head in the consist of Q647.
Q647 was sitting at Woodland waiting for two northbounds so it was the perfect time to get some exposures. This was easily the best consist of the day consisting of CSX 533 (YN3), CSX (YN2) 539 and CSX 4539 (YN3b).
YN2 power was quite a bit more prevalent back in 2014, when this scene was captured at the foot of Sand Patch Grade in Hyndman. Here, CSX Q64028 overtakes Q35528 on its way up to the top of the hill.
CSX Q36809 claws up the grade at the S-curves between Glade City and Keystone in summer 2010. With the YN2 power and classic old auto parts cars, this has always been one of my favorite pictures from this piece of railroad.
The only reason I even frove to Worcester after work in the morning was in hopes of seeing the W024 with the SD40-2 leader I posted previously. I got hopeful upon arrival when I found it still in town at CP45, but with an inbound M426 parked next to it I wasn't sure which if either would move. So I waited it out to see what the morning had in store for the L048 crew, but alas when I saw them board the big manifest I knew I was out of luck.
Oh well, at least this wasn't a half bad consolation prize seen from the normal spot atop the Union Station parking garage. L048 first had to make a big 80 car set off to the Providence and Worcester before taking the balance of the Selkirk to Waterville manifest up to Barbers to hand off to their ex Pan Am colleagues for furtherance east. A nice YN2 painted AC400CW leads the train trailed by a relatively uncommon four year old EMD SD70AH-T4.
Seen standing above the lead unit is the former New Haven tower SSM334 dating from the 1911 grade separation project and track configuration when Union Station was built. To the left on Temple Street is St. John's Catholic Church, established in 1834, it is the oldest established Catholic religious institution in the city, and the oldest Catholic parish in New England outside of Boston. This 1845 brick church building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Worcester, Massachusetts
Wednesday April 19, 2023
On a Sunday afternoon in Rochester, a pair of CSX YN2 AC4400CWs are leading intermodal train Q161-18 (South Kearny, NJ - Bedford Park, IL).
Northbound CSX L200 swings through the S-Curve and US&S P-5's at the south end of Delano siding with a YN2 CW44 doing the honors. After seeing they were called for 2330 out of Kingsport the night before, I didn't have high hopes for this guy making anything on the Clinchfield in daylight, but a text right as I woke up informing me they were at Miller Yard was enough for me to bolt out of the door of the hotel and at least try, and the gamble paid off.
CSX L422 passes the CPLs at WE Medora on a beautiful summer morning. CSXT 4419 is one of the last remaining active 4 axle locomotives in CSX's YN2 paint scheme and was assigned to this local for a bit. We made the drive from Windsor overnight to shoot the early morning train east out of Mitchell over this once busy mainline between Cincinnati and St Louis. The CPLs west of Seymour have replacements installed at newly spaced blocks away from most of the current CPL locations minus a few here and there.
Train: CSX L422 with CSXT 4419 (GP40-2) and CSXT 2788 (GP38-2).
CSXT Indiana Subdivision
Medora, IN
It's a frigid February day in the Hudson Valley, as a pair of CSX AC4400CWs wearing the YN2 bright future scheme, lead train Q433 over Doodletown Bight Trestle in Stony Point, NY.
Q327 accelerates after meeting X500 and G964 at Fox. Rusty YN2 SD40-2s are now sadly just a thing of the past!
Interested in purchasing a high-quality digital download of this photo, suitable for printing and framing? Let me know and I will add it to my Etsy Shop, MittenRailandMarine! Follow this link to see what images are currently listed for sale: www.etsy.com/shop/MittenRailandMarine
If you are interested in specific locomotives, trains, or freighters, please contact me. I have been photographing trains and ships for over 15 years and have accumulated an extensive library!
The early years of CSX were rough ones if you were looking for decent looking locomotives. Chances were better than even that you would get a rainbow consist of units, poorly patched and in well worn paint. This eastbound coal drag on CSX's Rivanna Subdivision on Nov. 21, 1987 would be a fair example. All was not lost. In my mind, CSX more than redeemed itself with YN2. I enjoyed shooting that for years, and wish we still had it.