Taken 03/22/2018 in Chester, SC, ex-SP 8257 SD40T-2 Tunnel Motor rests from its work with new owner Lancaster & Chester Railroad as their 6002. She's likely seen her last tunnel, but her horsepower will be put to good use on the L&C which is enjoying a surge in tonnage. The L&C dates its first operations from the 1870s and continues to operate a successful and expanding enterprise today, handling 14,000 cars annually.
Its line runs in open, rural country between Charlotte, NC and Columbia, SC as seen in red below. They recently acquired the long 31 Mile line running from the northwest to southeast from NS, doubling the L&C's size. The road interchanges with both NS and CSX. The L&C was owned by textile firm Springs Industries for much of its life, earning it it's name as The Springmaid Line. It remains independent and locally managed. As the textile industry fell away in the south, the L&C stepped up with rebuilt track, invitations to locate new industries on their lines and homespun service. They've found success in a big way, especially with large feed mills. Neatly, Atlas produced an N Scale L&C boxcar in 2008. Needless to say, I had to have one. [Photo from Trovestar and Atlas]
Got a tip that there was a unique J Train headed our way the other day. Turned out to be a long wait, but definitely worth it. First train of the day was a mixed freight led by BNSF, CSX, NS, and UP power. Heard a comment call them "Elephant style" since all four units are pointing forward. Following that, a short local led by Mr. Thumbnail down there. Next a boring coal train, then our special guest. Behind the single Dash 9 are two Research and Test cars (I'm told the second car is 106 years old!), followed by five fuselages. Definitely a train I'm now going to model. Enjoy!
Yes. That is known as "elephant style". (See: Old historical circus pictures, etc.) According to area railfan grapevine, this same fuselage train is now traversing Montana Rail Link.
Eastbound loaded oil cans roll past Minot Builder's Supply; a suicide awareness helpline sign stands near the ROW:
< a suicide awareness helpline sign stands near the ROW > I've never seen or heard of such a posting. Shocking. I hadn't realized that North Dakota ranks within the worst dozen states with high suicide rates, with Montana, Alaska and Wyoming the states with the highest tolls. In fact, I see that U.S. suicides exceed traffic fatalities by a significant amount. How very sad.
I took a minute the 3rd to get what I thought would be last snow pictures, but woke up to a couple more new inches this morning! Anyway, our roundhouse switcher is posing on the table, pointing at some of the original 1890 stalls. And a MAC sitting on a storage spur. Still waiting for a call that never came.
At first, I thought of moving so the sign was out of the composition, but it kinda hit me as special, so I kept it in there. The business nearby is not the primary target for the message--the railroad is.
Eastbound Amtrak 8 is scheduled to arrive in Minot past 9 PM, so it's exceptionally rare to see it in daylight. A derailment east of Wolf Point, Montana has #8 about 17 hours late. This just in, from a local rail... This is actually Amtrak 7, turned somewhere west of Minot, heading back east. After finishing station stop work, Amtrak (7? 8? I don't know?) Backed up and entered the interchange track on CP at Soo Tower.
Had it gone all the way through to Seattle as #7, it would have been turned there and become #8. Just because the trip was cut short does not make it still #7. It may indeed have originally been the equipment of #7. By turning it back east, it assumes the function of #8. This IS to all intents and purposes, to Amtrak and BNSF, therefore #8.
Beats me. First I've seen Amtrak on the CP Soo Tower interchange track, too. The Superliners have vestibule doors on the upper level, so it is essentially cut off from the train. I'm betting on it being deadheaded back to Chicago for maintenance at the Amtrak coach shops.
