Showing posts with label Norfolk Southern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norfolk Southern. Show all posts

Monday, March 12, 2018

POTD - A Southern Stranger In the Snowstorm

We are less than a week away from St. Patrick's Day, when folks celebrate the world famous Scot by pretending they're Irish for the day. It's also the last holiday before the first day of spring, and springtime in the Rockies is famous for its weather! March is typically the snowiest month of the year for most locations in Colorado including Denver, when and where today's Photo of the Day was taken.

Photo of the Day: BUFFIE
BNSF crews on March 23, 2016, are finding just how hard it can be to find the points in the snow while cleaning the switches of ice. Failing to do so can result in a derailment and a headache for everyone involved, especially if the derailment is in a yard as busy as the one at the Engine Servicing Facility in Denver. The snow almost covers the unusual herald of Norfolk Southern 8345, a GE-8 diesel electric much more accustomed to sunnier climes like those of South Carolina.

I wish I could say I saw this photo first and beat everyone else to the punch in honoring it. Alas, no, it already received the coveted People's Choice Award from RailPictures.Net. Nevertheless, give honor to whom honor is due, and today's photographer, BUFFIE, is certainly worthy, considering he nearly lost a finger pressing the release to capture this stunning photo. Well, maybe he might have risked losing a finger. Frostbite can be very subtle. 😉 Regardless, considering the scene and the Norfolk Southern locomotive, the photo has a once-in-a-lifetime feel to it, and I'm glad he was there to capture the moment. ⚒

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

POTD: BNSF Hiring Pony Power

Norfolk Southern 2728, an SD70M-2, leads sister 6941, an SD60E downgrade from Palmer Lake, CO with a southbound BNSF manifest. BNSFs lack of power to match traffic levels has led to some unusual colors on point.
Photo: Joe Blackwell

Photographers love a power shortage when it means rare locomotives! Sunday's Photo of the Day contained one of Norfolk Southern's heritage units, and today's likewise features some pony power, but no heritage units unless you count Cascade green of Burlington Northern, which grows rarer by the year. Joe Blackwell, no stranger to POTD, captured the rare power near Monument in April this year as the BNSF manifest continued downgrade from Palmer Lake on the Pikes Peak Sub. He also has caught CSX power on point near the same location.◊

Sunday, May 25, 2014

POTD: Central of Georgia Sits In Center of Denver

Norfolk Southern Heritage unit 8101 sits in the lead of an eastbound manifest in the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood of Denver. While road traffic on the I-70 viaduct whistles by at 65 MPH, one could time the lowly manifest train with a sundial.
Photo: Kevin Morgan

Kevin Morgan of ColoradoRailfan.com reports the following on his site earlier this month:
BNSF is under powered, under manned, and over capacity.
That's likely why they're borrowing power from everyone they can to keep the freight moving! This enviable problem explains the presence of Norfolk Southern Heritage unit 8101, designed for Central of Georgia, and CSX 482, an AC powered unit with the lightning bolt under the cab. Yet the outlook for this train crew mid-shift is like the weather, overcast and flat. Half their shift has passed and they've moved all of 3 miles with their manifest freight. Who said heritage units are glamorous?◊