2017 Raifanning Recap Part II

I am not sure why it has taken so many months to get to putting together part two of my 2017 railfanning. To be fair, work kept me very busy during the first few months of the year, and in the past few months my wife and I have been on the hunt for a house. (The market is very poor for first-time home buyers like us given the low supply and high demand in the rust belt this year.) I've decided that before I venture into WV again next week on vacation, that I should post the remainder of 2017 before my memory of the journey blurs with this year.

First off, I did find a few engines tied down at the end of the Hampton Branch off Armistead Ave. in Hampton, VA. CSX often leaves engines here after delivering stone to a local aggregates facility rather than running light back to the yard in Newport News. This is also the location where the Circus Train would unload the elephant's, but their last stop here was in 2016 before the train made it's last journey home.

As as been hinted previously, I go into the heart of WV as often as I can. The country is beautiful, peaceful, and rich with history. My extended family rents a home near Davis in Canaan Valley every summer for a month, and we often made a weekend trip down to visit them when I was young given the close proximity to my home. We don't live as close anymore, and instead we are making it a longer trip this time. I'm sure I will find a few things to post from that upcoming adventure.

2017's regular trip into "Almost Heaven" included my first trip to Douglas Falls. I'm not sure this is it's official name, but it is what I have always heard the falls called in the WM community given the ROW followed this branch of the Blackwater River down the canyon. It is also situated just past the old mining community of Douglas. I assume this is the same drop off as the more well known Backwater Falls on the other side of the mountain. My wife and I drove south through Thomas to Douglas before turning off onto the old ROW and across the former railroad's bridge over Long Run  to a parking area just short of the falls. Four wheel drive with high clearances is advised for this drive due to many pot holes in the road. That said, the drive is definitely worth it. You can also stop and play in the little falls/rapids up stream of the larger falls. As you can, see a few poles along the ROW still stand above the bank of the river.

 For some reason, I failed to get any shots of the actual right of way. The bank is very unique, as railroad rails, ties and other contraptions still do their best to keep the path from falling down into the river. This is also the start of the private portion of the Blackwater Valley. As is common, Chessie turned the ROW over to the neighboring landowners, and so the private owner got the valley side of the ROW, while the Forrest Service received the upper side. The Forest Service has used this as unique ownership situation to keep the private owner from using the ROW to log the valley, but they have not been able to come to terms over acquiring the property to become part of the national forest. The trail is currently being maintained by volunteers with Friends of Blackwater, but the NFS still has it signed as seen below to fend off any liability on their part.

Venturing west on the old WM, we also drove over to Parsons, but not without stopping at Olson Fire Tower. If you are okay with heights, this is defiantly worth the short drive from Thomas or Parsons. It is up a short road from US 219. The view also covers the Blackwater Canyon valley to the east, and Parsons to the south. Below is my best shot looking East over the Blackwater Valley (and what feels like the rest of West Virginia).

The depot at Parson's looks a bit rough and the ROW behind it is not included in the Allegheny Highlands Trail. The interior of the depot was empty when I visited. On site, there is also what looks to be some sort of restored outbuilding of WM origins. If you are looking for a kit of this station, get in contact with Jim over at Medford Trains as he has done two versions of this unique station as a craftsman kit, along with numerous other WM prototype buildings.

This was the last I rail related exploring I did on this trip, but as fall came and my wedding neared, my fiancée ended up getting a job in Ohio. We met in PA to do some wedding preparation, and load up her stuff in a u-Haul. Her job paid for her to have movers unload in Ohio, so as she and her family headed west that Sunday morning, I headed east so I could be back at work the next morning. Well, sort of east.

My normal route back to Virginia took me via Cumberland, Paw-Paw, and Winchester. However, fall had not yet come to western PA or SE Virginia. Since my fiancée had left so early, I felt that I had more time on my hands for a more circuitous route to catch the fall colors. 

I headed south through Garrett County, MD to Oakland and caught a westbound empty hopper train by the depot (unfortunately, I was in the depot at the time it passed). The depot has two pieces of rolling stock on display acquired from the B&O museum as well as a restored CPL.

I then headed down into WV to Thomas in search of a 2 Truck Heisler and 0-4-0 I had heard was stored in town. I had seen the 0-4-0 stored in town previously, after it was moved from a location along WV Rt. 32. The 0-4-0 once served one of the mines along the WM's Francis Branch near Davis. When I last saw that engine a few years back it was sitting outside a small brick warehouse that seemed to be being used by a refuse company to store/repair dumpsters. Sadly, I was not able to get good photos of the Heisler through the windows of the building, as it was covered in a plastic sheeting. The 0-4-0 was nowhere to be seen, but could have been in another part of the building. I did not want to go very far onto the property given it was private. For what it is worth here are my pictures. Hopefully this unit will some day see the light of day again.

For better picutres, please see this website (ignore the location information, as it is definately located in Thomas and not Davis): http://www.steamlocomotive.com

I did take in the fall colors next, but they are not particularly railroad related. Here is a sample from Blackwater Falls State Park, Canaan Valley, and Senica Rocks.

One last look over WV before descending down into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

With a wedding and move over the next month, there was not much time for railfanning. However, on my wife and my honeymoon, we did use the NYC subway a lot and I managed to capture a MOW train as we were heading to our hotel one night. The pictures are not the greatest, but I thought it was unique enough for inclusion. Also, the mosaic tiling in the NYC subway is a work of art in itself. If you are ever in the Big Apple, I would suggest leaving time in your trip to enjoy the moment art and craftsmanship in the Subway. It also has one of the oldest working signaling systems in the country, which should also pique any rail-fans interest. Also, Grand Central is still grand, despite the cloudy day of our visit to this old terminal. Unfortunately, you cannot go down to track level without a ticket. 

 

And over in NJ.... A view of the old CNJ Terminal from the top of One World Trade Center.

Well, that concludes my journey in 2017 of getting engaged, moving, getting married and (from a model railroading perspective) starting over at new club. Below is a picture of our first visit to the CV&WS at the Olmstead Falls, OH Depot during their Christmas Open House. If you happen to be in the Cleveland area on a weekend in December, I would highly suggest stopping by.

 

 Now onto 2018! Oh wait, we are already half way through....

A Suprise Catch

My wife and are are settling on a home this week and I will finally have a place to start building the New Line. During our search over the past three months, we happened by a small NS yard in west Cleveland where a MOW train has been stored for at least the last month. Something about me is that I am not a big chaser of trains. I like to photograph unique equipment, but don't often sit listening to a radio in hope that a train will be approaching.

Back to this day in late May. After looking at a house in the area, my wife had to head to an appointment, so I went back to grab a few snapshots of the unique "mobile-homes" on flat cars. Most of the cars looked like they had Conrail heritage. I was hoping for a better angle of the generator car and the one actual passenger car, but I did not feel comfortable venturing out onto the right of way or further the other private property along the fence line. An NS westbound freight made a cameo while I was photographing below the W 150th St. Bridge. Note: The light rail line in the foreground is the Cleveland RTA's Red Line.

Then I noticed that the freight had stopped just below the bridge. Sure enough, I started to hear another horn coming from the east. This one sounded different though. Then the headlights came into focus and sure enough, some tuxedo clad F-units pulling the NS executive train were high-balling toward Berea. Please ignore the dead bush in the foreground. I should have had the presence of mind to push it out of the way, but they were going pretty fast once I sighted them.

I left feeling like I had had a very successful trip, but then I thought I would stop by the Berea Depot to see what traffic might be there. However, as I headed down the Berea freeway past the Cleveland airport which parallels the NS mainline, the Executive train was crawling past two freights. I then did my best to make time to the depot to catch the train again. When I got there, I found out that this move must have been well known, as there were at least 5 others set up to photograph along the ROW. However, the Executive train must have gotten cleared to return to track speed, because it sped past right as I was jumping out of the car.

The Berea area, specifically by the Berea Depot Restaurant is certainly a great spot for any railfan, as it is not long before a CSX or NS train will happen by. I would definitely recommend it to anyone passing through the Cleveland area (the restaurant in the depot is excellent as well).