Indeed I thought remembering ditchlights have been mandatory in Canada since the Sixties. But I may be wrong. Dom
Spartanburg, SC on 02/22/1987 found U23-B 3916 and friends including GP-30 2537 under overcast skies. Check out that airhorn package!
The SOU had beautiful horns. At 2:30 my old Saluda video has a nice horn blast that so typifies my recollection of SOU horns. I shot this with my Dad's Betacam.
Amtrak, at least a few years ago,. kept up the tradition of 5 chimes on many of their locomotives. My daughter being very musical would always comment on the pleasing notes of the passenger trains when I took her train chasing. Years later, I was taking the Sunset Limited to Los Angeles and came through San Antonio in the middle of the night. For some reason, she was awake in her dorm at Trinity University in San Antonio when she heard my train blowing the crossings through town. When I talked to her on the phone a few days later she said that she knew right when I was in town.
Pelzer, SC was once a textile mill town and must have employed many people. The P&N built some fine looking depots, many of similar design as this one in Belton, SC.
My family went for a walk today on a segment of the Palmetto Trail in South Carolina that's upon a former SOU branch that once extended 80 Miles. I took the below photo of the line's 1,100 FT long Broad River bridge in 1992. The rails were taken up a few years later when NS and CSX worked out a trackage rights agreement that allowed NS to abandon much of the line, yet serve its few remaining customers. The line connected with NS's Columbia, SC <=> Spartanburg, SC main at a point near this bridge called Alston. Today's hike of perhaps four miles was neat. It's a nicely maintained trail and you can't help but imagine a 2-8-0 chuffing through the woods, working on the light grades with cars in tow. The line was built in the 1850s and NS's bridges were left intact, complete with their original stone masonry piers. The Broad River bridge here was constructed in 1903, replacing an old structure. We're looking forward to seeing more of the Trail.
Setting sun illuminating a train while late afternoon showers provide the backdrop in Rosenberg. November 2009.
I don’t think I posted this in here yet, but back in February, I was able to catch the Amtrak Avelia Liberty on the BNSF Chicago subdivision (The Racetrack) on its way to testing in Pueblo. I got a video of the entire train going by, but this is just a screenshot from it.
