OCS Business Trains
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The Office Car Special of CSX, with the two Engines painted in erstwhile B & O scheme crossing Ashley River at Charleston, SC.
This morning CSX's OCS ran up the RF&P toward Cumberland and points west. With a 6AM departure out of Acca, we had daylight to work with by the time they reached the DC area. Symbolled P00115, the train is seen here rounding the curve at L'Enfant Plaza in Southwest DC. I've shot this one a few times, but this is the first time I have seen it in CSX's latest and greatest office car scheme.
Before getting in the clear at River for the NRFF, Andy was radioing the headend to find out where the meet with NRFF would take place. The conductor told him at River which Andy's reply was "I've yet to cross this new bridge at speed"
CSX's OCS made another appearance on the RF&P today, and although the weather was abysmal I couldn't pass up an opportunity to shoot them passing my office today. They departed from Washington Union Station in the morning for a quick trip to Richmond and return. Even on a day like this, the consist is truly eye catching!
CSX Office car special P001-23 enters Candy Fork Tunnel at McClure, Va on the former Clinchfield Railroad.
P001-23 passes the classic Clinchfield location of the Toe River Free Will Baptist Church at Huntdale, NC on a cold January evening on it's return trip to Jacksonville, FL.
Union Pacific SD70M No. 4404 powers this 12-car Council Bluffs to West Colton OCS train west around the big curve in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, on April 9, 2021.
A Reading & Northern OCS move heads south near Haucks Junction. With the RBMN's F units occupied by Lehigh Gorge Scenic excursions, a pair of GP38-2s provide the power for this day's special.
Video: youtu.be/qjrKbxomuNE
Canadian Pacific's Officers Special rolls through the small town of Dresbach, MN on a beautiful fall morning. The combination of fall colors, morning light, and the classy train all made for a wonderful scene. Video will be up shortly!
Looking back to another favorite from 2018 that predates my Flickr days. Here is the caption I wrote at the time on FB:
This is the shot immediately following the one seen in this post:
And in a first for this page I am posting the photos of these FP9s live from inside the cab of an FL9...the same one seen in the post immediately before this one!
Somehow that seemed apropos!
Pan Am Railways OCS
Hoosac Tunnel
Florida, Massachusetts
Friday December 14, 2018
Operating as CSX P90107, the Office Car Special passes the US Capitol dome in DC on its way south toward Richmond.
A Conrail Office Car Special rolls west on the Amtrak Harrisburg Line, passing SEPTA’s former PRR gingerbread station at Strafford, Pennsylvania. E-units were quite unusual on this line, as the electric/diesel power change at Harrisburg lasted well into the F40 era.
Pan Am's OCS ducks under the signal bridge at CPF LO on its way to Ayer where it will tie down for the night at the old Ford yard.
Late in the day of October 9, 2018, an eastbound BNSF Office Car Special (OCS) arrives at Essex, Montana. At Essex yard across from the Izaak Walton Inn, the motive power will run around the passenger train and head back westbound that evening.
It's the first trip for the "enhanced" special duty engines to polish Great Lakes Division rails in their new role as captive power on the OCS.
Westbound deadhead moves for the Office Car Special from Toledo to Chicago normally are nocturnal. Not a good thing due to the line being busier overnight.
This run was an exception. With nothing in our way between Toledo and Elkhart, we just covered 145 miles in 110 minutes. With bulletin and timetable speed restrictions included, our average speed was 75.8 mph!
The dispatcher has decided to give us a quick timeout at CP 423. While an eastbound is fueling at the mainline fuel pad on track two, he has routed train 20Q to run around it on track one.
With no tripod or even a pole to lean on, I get down and prepare for a shot. At the very least, I can give the passing train a good roll by inspection.
Turns out that a former student engineer that I trained is at the throttle of the Q. He is a great guy and is quick witted, hence a few snarky comments about my presence on the varnish comes over the radio.
However, we will not average high speed to Chicago. Sounds like we caught traffic and we will most likely follow the leader.
That 75.8 average was awesome though!
Been seeing quite a few shots of the NS F's the last couple of days so thought I would join in with this being an F Unit Friday. May 24, 2018 had all the makings of a great railfanning day. Good train, good weather, good friends, good scenery, and just enough high speed driving to know the train was getting somewhere. One of my best days with the NS OCS. Good Times. Here they're screaming around the curve at Mapleton where many fans got the shot.
After meeting PORU (Portland to Rumford) at Leeds JCT, Panam's OCS heads west over the Androscoggin River from Lewiston into Auburn. This was one of several runs they made this fall and likely one of the last runs as the Panam OCS with rumors circulating of the railroads sale.
Earlier in the chase NS 951 passes through Waco, GA. One F unit was missing for some reason or the other.
CSX P90404 rolls north up the Trenton Sub, passing the small yard at Manville. I've always thought these F40s wore the YN3 paint scheme well. This is the only time I've ever shot them.
On Sunday afternoon, UP 5898 and 1616 zip through Tolland, Colorado, with an 18-car OCS headed to Rifle, Colorado, and then west into Utah. The turbo on the Abe Lincoln 1616 was malfunctioning, causing it to flood the fall scene with black smoke. September 21, 2025, at 5:39 p.m.
Just out of Waterville Yard Pan Am's OCS, a deadhead move, is about to cross Rice Rips Road in Oakland, Maine. They are passing the distant signal to CPF 119.
The highlight for the week, if not the decade, was a Union Pacific OCS that originated in Council Bluffs, Iowa, which journed first to Rifle, Colorado, and then on to Ogden, with a fantastic sidetrip down the Cane Creek Subdivision to Potash, Utah. The train laid over two days at Rifle, which is located about 26 miles west of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. At 10 a.m. on September 24, the special left Rifle and headed west through Grand Junction. At 11:39, the 18-car OCS is approaching the I-70 overpass at Mack, Colorado, 19 miles west of Grand Junction on the Green River Subdivision. Power for the train was UP AC44CWCTE 5898 and SD70M 1616, the Abraham Lincoln unit.
CSX OCS P002 heads north through Dania Beach in South Florida after making a quick turnaround in Miami (CSX Hialeah Yard).
Pan Am’s OCS led by a freshly painted C40-8 #7542 is seen rolling east through Charlemont on its way to Ayer where it would layover overnight. Merry Christmas Everyone!
On Friday morning, I had a good time getting out along Canadian Pacific's Kansas City Sub to photograph their southbound business train.
While mid-day summer sun isn't ideal, and this consist that they cobbled together is something just short of tragic, it was the first time that I've had the ability to photograph any of CP's business trains, and possibly the last time.
Here, the train is headed south at Lawson, MO on the CP side of the joint/split UP-CP trackage through the area. They were running down M2, which is the CP main and pulling uphill towards Excelsior Springs.
Once in the yard, the train would be combined with KCS' business train for a Monday morning trip to Laredo, TX on the KCS.
Video of this can be seen here: youtu.be/OjKkRRpOAkY
PAR 1 and PAR 2 (née-CN FP9s) lead Pan Am Railway's Office Car Special east through Orange, MA. With Pan Am Railways is up for sale, this very well could have been the last run of the OCS.
A predawn drive through Atlanta yielded two shots of this fast moving OCS before work. I was initially planning on just getting one shot but its hard to break away from something this nice!
On August 10 and 11, BNSF Railway's office car special made a trip from Seattle to East Glacier Park, Mont., with an overnight in Whitefish. On the morning of the 11th, the train is seen coasting down the east slope of Marias Pass.
Royal Canadian Pacific EMD F9A CP 1401 leads the CP Executive train along Lake Champlain at Port Henry, NY.
Pan Am's pint sized OCS is about to roll up to the switch known as Poland, the west end of the siding at Rumford Junction. They just ducked under I-95, and will parallel US 202 for quite a while longer. With the dome car finally roadworthy, they've been taking it out for most of their trips this year, but it sure would be nice if they could paint it to match the rest of the train.
Even though it's been a dreary dismal Monday, the opportunity to watch the NS OCS go by was enough to get me out to Home Depot to pick up lumber. Timely internet updates allowed my meet to work pretty well. Here it is about to go under I271 near the old Motor Yard. June 17, 2019
2014 Remember all the talk about Amtrak to Rockford and beyond? It was all the talk back then, never happened but they did run a OCS to Belvidere, Illinois. Here it arrives and will wye and head back to Chicago.
A cleanish, yet prototypical looking Penn Central heritage unit leads NS 951 over the Great Miami River in Hamilton, OH bound for their next stop at Gest St. yard in Cincinnati.
*insert totally original PSR joke*
Pan Am Railways OCS is seen rolling east through Fitchburg on its way back to Maine led by C40-8 #7542 back on November 17, 2021.
An F40PH of the CSX Office Train fleet pulls three cars past the old seaboard signals at NE Whitehouse, only a few miles from their destination by West Jax Yard.
Back after making a round trip down to Flint the LSRC's OCS poses in front of their office building in Saginaw. The DC chapter of NRHS car Dover Harbor recently completed a 10 year Amtrak inspection and tagged along with the LSRC passenger set for several 'break in runs' after completing the work at Lake State's facility in Saginaw. Saginaw, MI 5/20/2022
Was the NS executive train neat or what? I wish I would have had time to follow it all around the system but did catch it a few times passing through Ohio. This was a deadhead move to the Kentucky Derby in 2008. They went across the Ft Wayne line and then south at Bucyrus. I was here at Mansfield with all the usual suspects. Happy F Unit friday.