[4K] Ashland VA 12.30.23: When The Lights Go Down, Part 2
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- Опубликовано: 5 июл 2024
- With 2024 almost upon us, I spent New Year's Eve Eve paying one more visit to Ashland before the Christmas lights came down after the calendar change. The railfan grapevine was buzzing all afternoon with news of northbound manifest M422 having a few surprises on the head end, but as darkness fell with the train still cooling its wheels in Richmond, it was anyone's guess when - or if - we would see it pass that evening.
0:00 - Amtrak 90, Palmetto/Northeast Regional 195
It was a toss-up on which way to face as a headlight appeared at both ends of town a few minutes before 5. ALC-42 310 and the northbound Palmetto were first past the station, followed quickly by the arrival of Northeast Regional 195 with P42 71 on point.
2:28 - Amtrak 91, Silver Star
With our hyper-focus on news of M422's progress (or lack thereof) in our direction, I overlooked any mention of what else might show up. Thus I was caught completely unaware when the southbound Silver Star rolled by with 'Day One' heritage ALC-42 301 tucked in behind P42 132.
3:02 - CSX L134
The Fredericksburg local returned from its day's work with GP40-2 6156 leading 12 boxcars.
4:04 - CSX E750
M422 was reportedly waiting on an empty coal train to depart first, so we were encouraged when E750 appeared, 200 hoppers in tow behind ET44AH 3398, ES44AHs 861 and 859, CM44AC 7231, and ES44AHs 3150 and 3052.
8:03 - Amtrak Northeast Regional 124
While M422 continued to wait in Richmond, Amtrak continued to ply its trade in Ashland. Northeast Regional 124 was next to arrive, led by P42 194.
10:03 - Amtrak 53, Auto Train
P42s 831 and 830 whisked another load of vacationers and their vehicles on towards Florida. The word from Richmond now said that M422's power had to cut away to pick up another locomotive.
12:28 - Amtrak Northeast Regional 99
M422 was now waiting for a signal maintainer to complete work ahead and give them the all-clear. Northeast Regional 99 conducted its business in Ashland in the meantime, led by P42 5.
14:47 - CSX M422
I'd say it was worth the wait. In my last railfanning catch for 2023, the long-awaited M422 finally made its appearance. The already impressive lashup of ES44AH 3057, ET44AH 3405, CN ES44AC 2894, GECX ET44AC 2029, and CN ET44AH 3006 had indeed been fleshed out with one more locomotive, Belvedere & Delaware River SW900 909.
#train #trainspotting #railfanning #railroad #virginia #travel 
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Nice to see parts of Ashland we cant see due to fixed cams on VRF site.
On the VRF Railcam every morning ! Thanks for Posting !
You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it! The morning angles around the station are nice.
I was out picking up grocery and pharmacy orders that day and since it was quite cold outside I decided to watch trains for a while. I heard 195 clear the Glen Allen defect detector while at Kroger, gave it up as missed, and continued to CVS. The first thing I saw was M422's power consist, noting the 2 CN units, pulling to the north end of track 1 Advance, switching to track 2, and then backing down to the consist at NA, while waiting in line at the CVS drive-thru. I then went to my usual location at the Hermitage Rd. grade crossing just north of the Amtrak station. Strangely, 195 had not passed, and all the southbound signals at GN were red. I heard the E750 and M422 crews talking to the dispatchers and ACCA yardmaster, so I knew we had 3 northbounds in addition to 195 and 91, but was puzzled by the sea of red down by the station.
There was a huge delay at RVR that, with hindsight, must have been a signal problem because they weren't using track 3 between NA and GN. I never saw or heard any maintenance personnel on the scanner, and the dispatchers never mentioned there was a problem, which is unusual. I also heard the Amtrak crews make some comments that indicated they had not been informed of the nature of the delay, or which trains they were holding for. I thought it was because of an inexperienced holiday relief dispatcher on the FB desk. I've witnessed that phenomenon on a couple of other occasions.
As it was, they ran the E750, an estimated 10,000 feet long, up track 4 through the Amtrak station, while trains 195 and 91 passed me at restricted speed and stopped at the GN signal on track 4, with 91's baggage car fouling the track 3 turnout. The coal train crossed over to track 2 at GN and proceeded north. Then 124 came north on 4, worked the station, and followed the same routing after departing Richmond. Meanwhile, L134 was stopped on track 3 at Lakeside waiting for the congestion to clear. After a significant delay, 195 arrived and departed RVR, while 91 pulled in just behind 195, and L134 was brought down track 4 and stopped at GN. I checked the transitdocs.com map after 91 departed; it was nearly on time at Fredericksburg, but almost an hour late once it got out of town. Same for 195.
M422 apparently had to double the train on another track in the yard; it pulled north to the north Lakeside signal, stopped, and then backed partway down, blocking the crossing (and my view of 53) for quite a while. I wanted to get a 2nd look at that switcher because I had not seen it from my earlier vantage point at CVS; coincidentally, the Belvedere and Delaware River RR was featured in an article in the "Shortlines" special issue from Kalmbach Publishing, which I had finished reading only days before. Unfortunately, M22 didn't reverse far enough to bring the switcher back into view. I was there longer than planned and started to worry about the frozen items I purchased, so I called it a day at that point.
The moral is, don't pass up chances to get trackside because you never know what might happen. What was a normal sequence of events in Ashland turned into a total cluster-foxtrot in Richmond.
I used to hear advice from railfan photogs to always carry a camera. That used to mean stashing one in your car, but nowadays technology allows us to carry a perfectly capable cam on our smartphones.
A nice looking station.
May we all look as good at 100 years old.