It has been some time since I have updated my blog. During this time, I have been very busy with work and volunteering. Yes volunteering. I joined the Midwest Railway Historical Society (http://www.midwestrailway.org/). It is a small group of folks with a vision to restore an old B&O roundhouse in Cleveland, Ohio. If you happen to be in interested in looking at the equipment, learning about the past, come on out to to the open house on November 25, 2007.

I will post pictures of some of the equipment. The coolest thing that I personally like is GTW 4070. 4070 is an old USRA light Mikado steam locomotive. I hope to be part of the group helps to bring life back to this unit.

I hope to see you at the open house!

Well, there was a big time train derailment in Painesville, Ohio on CSX. No on is sure what caused this derailment. I'm pretty sure that they will get down to the root cause of this one soon.

Here is a link to a thread at Trainorders - http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,1509910

R.J.Corman is at the scene. I have seen these guys in action once. They will have there work this time removing the wrecked cars.

Norfolk Southern runs a coal train that comes from the Powder River Basin. This train starts somewhere on the BNSF. I'm guessing that it changes hands in Chicago. Somewhere a NS unit with cab signals gets added for the Cleveland Line. This line once belonged to the famous Pennsylvania Railroad. Some trains make there run over the Cleveland Line at track speed while others crawl. Amtrak's Capitol Limited glides along this line at a pretty good clip. There is a coal train that heads west that receives helpers on the rear end. I'm not sure where this train starts at.

Here is a picture of the coal train mentioned above. A trio of EMD SD70 series units (NS SD70M and BNSF SD70MAC) working hard to pull PRB coal upgrade near downtown Cleveland, Ohio.

I have posted questions about the GP39 at the following links:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,1498636
http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20158

In the April 1992 issue of Trains magazine, there is an article "Run 8 to Apex" by Kevin EuDaly. Apex was located on the Johns Creek subdivision in Kentucky. In Kevin's article, he briefly talks about the C&O locomotives assigned this coal hauling division. From his pictures, it looks like the C &O used GP7/9's, GP38's and GP39's to haul cool over the Johns Creek sub. The ride up to Apex hit 3% causing these units to run in the red zone in run 8 with wheels slipping and engines screaming off the mountains.

While out today taking pictures, I had a chance to find a GP39. It not too often that you find a GP39 on any Class 1 railroad today. EMD only produced 23 units; 20 ended up on the C&O. No long hauling coal in Kentucky, CSX 4298 (C&O 3918) is now configured as a remote control unit.
I wonder if this unit ever had to go over Apex........