Not-the-Crescent

I saw it.  I really did.

I was working from home on a nice sunny Thursday about a month ago.  In the morning's email, there were several about a big mainline derailment on the Piedmont Division between Gainesville and the South Carolina boarder at Toccoa.  It looked like it was going to take more than a day to clean up.  It talked about holding certain trains and detouring others.

I wondered, "What are they going to do with the Crescent?"  The Crescent is Atlanta's only passenger train.  It runs every day from New York City to New Orleans, passing southbound through Atlanta each morning about 8:00 AM.  Usually, when this sort of thing happens, Amtrak calls out some buses to get people where they are going and then they cancel the return train the following day.  As I read on, it appeared they were going to detour the Amtrak train around the derailment. How? Via CSX's Abbeville subdivision, in part, which runs a mile from my house.  This was pretty exciting news!

Okay, for ME it was exciting... Ever hear of the Silver Comet?  Sure, the same as the "Silver Comet Trail".  This was a train that operated from the Northeast through Atlanta and on to Birmingham on the Seaboard Airline Railroad. The Atlanta to Birmingham portion of the railroad was converted to a bike trail over the past decade.  The Silver Comet was a fancy, streamlined train that operated from the late 1940s until the dawn of Amtrak in 1971.  It ran over the Abbeville subdivision, and as far as I know, was the last public passenger train to run on this route.

Picture of Silver Comet at Athens

Silver Comet in Atlanta

Schedule

So, reading on and doing a bit of digging, it looked like the southbound Crescent was going to wind up in Atlanta 4 to 5 hours late, roughly noon, so maybe by our area between 10 and 11 AM.  It was 9:30 AM.  Hmmm.

I fired up my ATCS monitor.  What is that?  Its some computer software that shows where the trains are and how the switches and signals are set on lines where the communication signals are sent using a standard, open source messaging scheme adopted by the railroads a couple of decades ago.  It is the only surviving piece of some development work into computer based train control undertaken in the 1980s.  The project was known as the Advanced Train Control System (ATCS).

The ATCS monitor uses radio data.  In this case, a fellow feed his radio scanner data for our area onto the internet to share.  Other people have modeled the "track line view" - similar to what a train dispatcher sees - for areas in the country that use ATCS radio messaging.

The ATCS monitor showed me the traffic between Atlanta and South Carolina.  A meet was set up for Gloster siding.  A train from Atlanta was lined up for the siding and the only southbound train for miles was lined up for the main track.  Had to be...  I gotta go see this!  Grabbed the camera and took off for the Arnold road crossing  near the house.

Got to the crossing and all was quiet.  I fire up my "log-me-in igntion" remote desktop application on my phone so I could see the ATCS display on my computer back at the house.  The train from Atlanta was between Tucker and Gloster.  It would be here shortly.  The train I thought could be the Crescent was still on the other side of Lawrenceville. Good. It will be here soon, too. The CSX freight train from Atlanta crawled into the siding.  I got a picture of it arriving and was all set to get a nice picture of the two trains meeting.

The "Not-the-Crescent"

But, wait?  The ATCS monitor shows the main track is occupied!  Did the Crescent slip in just before I got there and is it now hiding right around the curve?  I didn't think so, but, there it was plain as day on my ATCS monitor!  Uh, oh.  Jump in the car.  I'll zip over to the Gloster Road crossing and catch it there.  I zoom out toward Lawrenceville Highway.  Bad move.  Much traffic.  Long light.  What a dope.  The other way was shorter, anyway.  Head back to the Arnold road crossing to go around the other way.  Lights are flashing. Gates are coming down.  I'm still 500 yards away!  Darn.  Sure enough, it's the Crescent! All two locomotives, baggage car, two sleepers, diner, lounge and four coaches of it.  It glides by at a pretty slow speed.  Rats.  No picture.

Aha!  Maybe it will stop behind whatever is on the main track at Gloster Road.  If I hurry....

Turn around again.  Wait through the longest light ever.  Zip down Lawrenceville Highway, then down Huff Road....to wind up in a long line of traffic at the crossing....as I watch the markers of the Crescent recede into the distance.  Drat!  Foiled again!  Oh, well.  I head home...back to work!  As I go over the tracks, I see a signal maintainer's truck. He was obviously doing some testing that made it look like the track was occupied, when it wasn't.  Of all the luck. I had outsmarted myself.

Oh, well.  I saw it.  I really did.  And, that's not nothin'!

alpha and omega

One of the favorite things I got to do at Conrail, was keep the new locomotive specs.  I had to make sure the specs contained the proper description of the locomotive including options and additions needed for each model each year.  It also included communicating with the locomotive builders and some minor negotiating on details.  But, the best part of the job was getting to visit the builders, particularly when the first production sample was ready.

There were lots of changes in 1990 when Conrail started taking delivery of new, GE "wide cabs".  I went to Erie to witness some noise level testing in April of that year and got get a good look the first unit.

C40-8W number 6050.  Here it is sitting on the East Erie Commercial  prior to delivery.  About the only thing missing here is the white sill stripe on the anticlimber.  It'll get that before final delivery.  

Fast forward.  Conrail took delivery on 180 of these beasts plus another handful lettered for LMS - a leasing company that Conrail was part owner of.  Then came the aborted merger with CSX and the ripping apart by CSX and NS.  NS got their 60% and slowly, the blue was painted into black. Only a few remained in blue at the start of 2012.  The end was near.

But, then NS announce their heritage locomotive project.  Twenty locomotives to be painted in NS's heritage road paint schemes.  The Conrail unit was to be the first - at Junaita Locomotive Shop where a good number of the 180+ had been painted - a GE wide cab.

So,  here it is.  The very last GE "wide cab" locomotive to get painted in a Conrail Scheme seen here in July 2012. 

At NC Transportation Museum

Colorful Locomotives and a Birthday Party, Part 2

"This is better than any fireworks I've ever seen"  -Wick Moorman 7/3/2012

I was there.  He was right.

It was sunny and hot.  Mid 90's.  It was humid. Dew point in upper 60s.  It was crowded.  Several thousand.  People were cowering in whatever shade they could find.  They were lined up at the drinking fountains refilling water bottles.  They were passing out right and left and being hauled out by the very busy EMTs.  But, those are just details....

It was terrific!

NS and the museum folk put on quite a show.  First up, they took each locomotive for a spin on the turntable, sort of like models on a runway.  People were lined up 3 and 4 deep around the rim of the turntable.  There was a viewing platform and some bleachers available, but most people opted for an up-front view.

The crowd at the pit Tuesday morning.

Making sure the wheels stay where they are supposed to...

Lackawanna gets her turn

Erie going for a spin

All lined up for the speeches to begin

Brainy, Wick and North Carolina Dept of Cultural Resources Secretary Linda A. Carlisle....and half of Jim Wrinn of Trains Magazine

The lighting wasn't great for pictures at the turntable, but there was narration describing some of history, effort and nuances of each railroad and it's paint scheme.

New York Central freight black lightning stripes

Lehigh Valley with chevron striping on the nose

Sun-lit noses and sweaty railfans

My sentimental favorite heritage unit rolling toward the turntable.

The long hood end of the N&W unit.  In a "what-if" world, would this have been the F end?

Following the speeches, they started a parade to the south in an area the named "Heritage Hill".  They did their best to keep the locomotives aimed the right way relative to the sun.

First came the Southern family.

Southern "Cresecent" green

Sharp looking Central of Georgia

The obscure, original Norfolk Southern

The even more obscure Interstate

Southern traditional black on Savannah and Atlanta

The museum had spotted some of their collection in the area making for some interesting comparison shots.

Southern E8

Norfolk Southern Baldwin AS616

Southern FP7

Southern GP30

Heritage unit with E8

Wabash Heritage next to Norfolk Southern Baldwin

After the sun swung around a bit, they continued with the N&W family.

N&W in "C&O merger" blue

The New York, Chicago and St. Louis...

known as the "Nickel Plate"

Virginian in the Trainmaster scheme

Very sharp looking Wabash

The "you can't miss it" Illinois Terminal.  Where's the trolley pole go?

Red shadows on capital letters!

All lined up

And, finally after the sun move around a bit more, the Conrail Family.

Classic Conrail paint scheme

PRR 5 strip Tuscan Red with BP-20 inspired keystones

Keystone in circle logo

PC wearing the somewhat controversial Brunswick Green paint

Erie passenger scheme

Sharp looking Lackawanna paint

CNJ

Reading with the "Bee Line" slogan

Lehigh Valley in Cornell Red

Monongahela in "Super 7" gray scheme

There was a lot of opportunity to get up close to the locomotives...although if you got TOO close or stayed TOO long, you'd get hoots and hollers from guys trying to take pictures!

1968 revisited?

Looks like it could be Erie in 1990!

Rolling off the turntable, headed for Heritage Hill.

Conrail with some predecessors

NYC and PRR - too close for comfort?

Erie - Lackawanna

Could be Bethlehem?

The Anthracite Roads

There was plenty of other stuff to look at, too.The museum's regular collection was on display in the roundhouse.  There were tables with cool stuff for sale.  I bought a Conrail T shirt.  NS was giving away a free book, "Eat Steel.  Spit Rivets."  The railroad historical societies all had booths and Amtrak showed up with some equipment you could tour including a diner, sleeper and dome car.

One of Amtrak's five heritage locomotives

The only Viewliner Diner

After nine sweaty hours, two liters of water and a quart of Gatorade, I had seen and done enough.  It was time to call it a day.  What next?  Maybe I'll try to catch one of these heritage locomotives out on the road, doing some real work.

But, for now, I think I'll stay inside and enjoy these pictures in the cool for a while!