I love modern locos and all, but getting a reprieve from D9-40CW's has been a welcome sight. Yesterday I got a look at this consist which was comprised of five GP50's and one D8-32B. Today we had this beauty. The down side is I didn't have time to get into position for a nice photo, but it was great to see all the color. It had NS on the both ends, in the middle was a NREX(ex-SF), Montana Rail Link, and a UP(ex-SP).
This morning while on my home from work I saw a complete CR locomotive consist on NS..That is the first time I seen that in a long time..Of course both units was wide cab GEs.
NS running a lot of MRL power lately? I saw an ex-"Susie-Q" SD45 lettered for MRL as #359 sandwitched between D9-40CWs' 9023 & 9388 coming in off the Monongahela Sub with a Coal train.
I was down at the New River near Radford yesterday when I saw a few unexpected things roll by. First a short train went by on the far side of the river, I am not really familiar with the traffic patterns or anything in the area yet, so it may have been a local of some sort. The interesting thing about this train was that it had an old Norfolk and Western steel caboose on the end. This struck me as odd, but for all I know it is common here. Then later on the side of the river I was on a coal drag went by led by 5 diesels, the last of which was from the Wisconsin Central. I still wish I had my camera with me to get a shot of that caboose though.
Hey Tommy, Welcome to Trainboard! That caboose might be used as a "pushing platform". Basically, all it is there for is so the local can make a long-distance reverse moves without a locomotive on the new rear of the train. For example, there is an old Chessie caboose here used when CSX pushes loaded hoppers from a plastics plant at the end of a 2-mile logn spur. There are numerous marked and unmarked grade crossings and no locomotive on the front end, so the cab is used so the brakeman/conductor can flag crossings and see what is ahead of the train. BTW...I think the cab has ditch lights and an old air horn that uses the air from the brakes to operate.
Thanks for the info, I knew there had to be some reason for the caboose, but I had no idea what it could be. Hopefully I will get a picture of it if it ever pops up again when I am down there.
NS still uses cabeese on some of the mine runs. The picture below was taken in the last year or 2. They are used on long backup moves usually on mine runs.
