It was a beautiful day on October 2, 2018, and Red Light Productions and I decided to make a trip out to the Shenandoah Valley for some action. The Buckingham Branch was shut down at Waynesboro due to bridge replacement work, and the James River Sub. was shut down for the most part due to a MOW curfew. This left us the option of going around and shooting the best of what we could find.
We started our morning in Staunton, where the Shenandoah Valley Railroad was working around the yard with their restored RS11. There was only one train to be found on the CSX side of things, and it was an empty hopper train running westbound on the James River Sub.. We rolled down to Natural Bridge Station to catch that before finding more trains to shoot.
Norfolk Southern was our next move, as we headed to Arcadia, where a late running 202 made an appearance at by far one of the most picturesque scenes in the valley. Not long after, we headed a bit further north to Glasgow where manifest 16T met intermodal train 201, featuring a Union Pacific pair sandwiching a Norfolk Southern motor.
The highlight of our trip, and one of the main reasons for the outing was manifest 15T, which made a mid afternoon appearance at Grottes. Leading the train was Ex Burlington Northern SD70AC #9551, now sporting the reporting marks of PRLX, on lease to Norfolk Southern at the time. Behind that was a former CSX D8-40CW, also on lease from GECX to NS.
After shooting him for a bit, we headed back east to Charlottesville, where we were able to grab train 211, featuring a BNSF locomotive on point, making for our fourth Class 1 railroad of the day leading a train.
We knew the Buckingham Branch was shut down, but much to our surprise, we saw a light on ATCS for a westbound at Charlottesville. After arriving at Ivy, a few miles to the west, we were extremely shocked to hear a trio of Buckinham Branch GP locomotives pulling a lengthy cut of VAPX hoppers out of storage, and setting them in the sidings at Ivy and Crozet, waiting for the line to open up before continuing west to Clifton Forge.
After all was said and done, we managed to shoot a train on every line in the valley: the James River Sub., Mountain Sub., NS Roanoke District, NS Washington District, and the Shenandoah Valley railroad. It was most definitely an unexpected, but overall fun day of shooting in the valley, and I hope to do it again sometime soon!
Hope Everyone Enjoys!
21 сен 2024
