I finally caught the IORY local in the daylight. Usually it comes through town between midnight and 2AM. My 3 year old and I rushed out to chase it after hearing it blow for the crossing in town to find it crawling through town when we got there. I drove around it to get a ahead and wait at the crossing. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seVOsJ4ovuI"]YouTube - IORY Indiana Ohio Loveland[/ame] Wish it was longer but I had to get to work and it still didn't acomplish what I am trying to do. The layout I am building is this same line set in the mid 40's but I am trying to put together a train to run on the layout that my son can relate too. I am trying to video complete trains to get a feel for the consists and road names. This one was an oddball. It consisted of 4 boxcars for the local lumber yard and the rest was grain hoppers. I see hoppers a lot around here but not a complete train of them usually. I guess it is harvest time and that could account for the covered hoppers.
A second video. I was lucky enough today to catch another train around 2pm. This time I was off work and could chase it to a better position to shoot. The video is close to the top of the grade from Loveland to Madiera on the IORY Midland Sub (Ex B&O main). [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS8rYFWYn10"]YouTube - IORY Madiera Ohio Railfan Take 2[/ame] This one is a bit longer because the train was at a crawl at the top of the hill.
Loveland is roughly adjacent to Mason. We are an exit or two east of I-71 and Loveland extends almost to I-71. Mason/Lakota Schools area is basically the other side of I-71 to around I-75 in general terms.
Skip, sounds like a small railfan in the background. I almost got ran over by an I&O train about ten years ago. What fond memories.
Another from Monday. This is more what I am used to seeing in a consist. Now to round up a bunch of SD40-2 parts to build these. Steve4Painting did a how to on these exact loco's, except in their original CP heritage. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwefK0-Fj1U"]YouTube - IORY 10-23-07[/ame]
I thought I would bring this up out of the basement. My son heard the train Saturday morning but by the time we got his shoes on and made it down the road to the tracks, the train was gone. There was quite a traffic snarl in town so I assumed it was a fairly long train and worth catching. It was a 50/50 shot as to which way it was heading, I guessed toward Cincinnati. I was wrong. Once I realized we were going the wrong way I decided to make a trip out of it. It was a beautiful day for a drive and I figured I could catch it by Blanchester. We fought the traffic and made it to Blanchester just in time to hear the horn blow for a crossing off in the distance. I decided to make one more try. We headed north and ended up in Midland City. As we crossed over the grade crossing at Midland City, I saw the ditchlights off in the distance so we drove around trying to find a good place to park. I finally came back to the grade crossing and pulled into a gravel driveway next to the tracks. This used to be the B&O main to DC. The line splits here and heads north to Washington Courthouse, OH where most of the traffic heads now. The original line to DC is now a stub end branch. There is also a small yard here. Here are a few shots, no video this time. Lead loco - IORY 4085 - ex CP SD40-2 The rest of the consists - NREX 5678, NYSW 4050, IORY 4034 Close up of 4050 Finaly 4034
This train was something I have never seen on the line, a unit train of grain. I have been seeing lot's of new TILX rolling stock, primarily covered hoppers and tank cars. By the sounds, they are mostly empties heading home and most look to be brand new. This train was close to 90% new cars. Who says modelers need to weather everything?
The GP40-3 paint job was the I&O's best. They were beautiful when first painted. I was going through my mechanical training and when we got to the engine house, the first engine painted like that was just coming out, a GP30. It was so shiny and clean. Really gave me a feeling of pride knowing I was going to operate them. And it was a fun ride while it lasted. Thanks for sharing the pictures!
We caught it again later that day heading back to Cincy. This time with the 4050 leading the 5678 and 4085 pulling a mixxed freight. I think I saw the cars setting on a siding just outside of Blanchester on our first trip out. This train had yet another thing that I had not seen before on this line, flats. There was a group of at least 20 empty CP 60'? flats tacked on the tail of this train. They looked like they had been carrying pipe loads because there was still wooden blocking with semicircular depressions on the cars with cut up tire treads mounted to them. The trains in Loveland are getting harder to catch. There was speed restriction due to a derailment last year has been lifted and by the time I hear them now, they are already in town. A 20' section of rail has been cut in to replace this failed joint. When the rail broke, the derailment tore up about 500 yards of ties, a grade crossing and finally stopped when a group of cars picked a point on passing siding around the bend. Fortunately the cars made it across a bridge before finally picking the points otherwise there may have been cars in the water.
We have one of those IORY GP40s in Sherman- the 4050 shows up now & then either for its 92-day inspection or in the power consist for the Royse City "Rock-it" (the rock train from Oklahoma to Royse City, TX). Major difference from how RailTex dealt with paint schemes to the dull RailGenerica colors.
I want to paint up the 4034 to round out my mix of I&O equipment. Forgive my ignorance but what identifiers make it stand out as a -3? I want to track down a loco to paint but need to know what body would be best to start with because a GP40-3 is not available.
Use a GP40-2....the -3 was just what they called them after an electrical upgrade. The bodies were the same.
Jerry, I have another question for you. I am in the process of creating a decal sheet to recreate the 4034 paint scheme. I can't find an overhead shot anywhere. Were you fortunate enough to be on top of one of the loco's painted in this scheme to know if the orange/white stripe stops on the side or continues over the roof?
