With one final weekend of freedom before Mrs. Fuzzums and the little ones returned from music camp in NC (Mrs. F is a violin teacher), I decided to blow this past Saturday in grand fashion by making a trip to Horseshoe Curve. The itch to get some footage of the Curve with my latest camera (Canon HV20) turned out to be a powerful one, as I wouldn't dare travel on such a schedule with the family in tow - up at 3:30, 6 hours drive up, spend the morning and afternoon there, 6 hours back to return home around 11pm. Yes I am a crazy man, but Horseshoe is always worth the trip.

Here then is the first clip from the journey - ES40DC 7526 and C40-9W 9387 lead an eastbound stack train past the people and the wildflowers at the Curve park:

Eastbound Stack Train at Horseshoe Curve, June 21 2008

I experimented a little this trip by shooting the footage using the HV20's 'PF24' mode (HD video at 24fps). It's a bit of a pain to edit vs. normal 1080i HDV, but I kinda like the effect of the lower framerate. Enjoy - more to come.

A couple of light engine moves; C40-9W 9393 and SD70 2518, followed shortly after by SD40-2s 3357 and 3350:

Charge Of The Light (Engine) Brigade

Not sure what the signals at the east end of the Curve were showing, but both pairs performed the same maneuver - creep up to the signal bridge, notch out fast (9393 and 2518 in particular; listen to them throttle out after the first horn blast), and then throttle back at the far end of the Curve. I found out later where they were headed, but that's for another clip.


Next was quite a surprise - Operation Lifesaver GP38-3 5826 and high-nose SD40 1621 lead NS business car coaches 28 and 29 eastbound:

Operation Lifesaver


C40-9Ws 9826 and 8985 led an interesting array of coal empties westward:

Westbound Coal Empties

In addition to conventional 3 and 4-bay hoppers, a few CR Bethgons, and (of course!) Top Gons, the consist included a handful of G113 'hybrid' Bethgons (steel/aluminum/stainless steel) and a single G83 'Aluminator'. Thanks to altoonafn for identifying the Aluminator for me; it was the first time I had seen one and I hadn't the foggiest idea what I was looking at.

Those are some great videos, NS has beautiful K5's, but I hate those new electronic bells they're putting on many units . I guess this would be a public park? Man, I wish there were a public park out here at Goldtree Curve, eh, actually not, it would ruin the landscape... Lots of people there on that coal video, good to see that there still some CR rolling stock left.

It was as busy as I've ever seen it that day crowd-wise; there were two busloads of Mennonites there, I had to admire them for hauling a couple of massive coolers up the stairs considering the weather. All I know is, whoever installed the 20oz drink machine right at the top of the stairs was a genius...

That first set of engines (in Light (Engine) Brigade) Whistles off an interesting set of signals. Three short (Starting reverse move - while moving forward!) then four short. (call for signals) I'm sure it was for the foamers...

That was kinda my thought, the whole notching out/horn thing was for show. The locomotive equivalent of a hot-rod burnout.

...Zero-to-Sixty in how many minutes?

Yeah, wouldn't be much of a drag race; I was thinking more of the showmanship.

On listening to the horns again, the last bit of the 9393 and 2518 sounds like he's just saluting the kids; they'll do that a lot - the more kids along the fence, the longer the series of short blasts will be. Here's one for reference I shot in '94, where the kids were strung out further and were egging him on by pumping their fists:

Single C40-8W on westbound RoadRailers at Horseshoe, August 4, 1994

On deck - what the 9393/2518 and 3357/3350 were hurrying west for.

A railfan's gotta eat - I relocated to Cresson for lunch, and promptly missed a 3-way meet while in the drive-thru. One of the trio's members was moving much slower than the others however, and that gave me just enough time to get set up on the observation deck and catch the head end going away:

Eastbound Loaded Coal at Cresson

9393 and 2518, the pair from earlier in the day, were on the point of a long string of PP&L hoppers crawling their way eastbound out of Cresson and through the crossover. Eventually another headlight appeared around the distant curve, peeking over the coal loads - it was 3350 and 3357 again, shoving hard on the rear. Passing the east end of the yard, the helpers notched out and the 3350 belched smoke as the pair tried to squeeze out a little more speed.

WOW, you had a great day! I enjoyed those very much.

Thanks...and that was just the first half.

The afternoon at Cresson continued with this westbound general merchandise led by ES40DC 7600 and SD70M-2 2707, with SD40-2 helpers 3344 and 3372 bringing up the rear. The observation deck scanner provided a nice bit of background audio:

High Heat and Low Emissions


The best hiding place for a BNSF C44-9W is NOT between two black NS units as seen on the next westbound, a stack train led by ES40DC 7541, BNSF C44-9W 4790, and SD70M-2 2679:

The Interloper

The 4790 displayed a large scorched area on its flank - turbo fire, or considering how it coincidentally left the 'BN' in 'BNSF' intact, the work of a disgruntled ex-Burlington Northern employee doing a little relettering? Hmm...

SD70 2565 and C40-9 8813 lead westbound trailers past Cresson:

Puttin' On My Top Hat

As the train approaches, the signal for the near main blinks to green...

Excellent videos there. Keep it up.

Not so crazy wanting to go to Horseshoe, but having the family in tow, now that's another matter!

Cheers!
Marc

Yeah...gonna have to take them again eventually, just not on such a whirlwind schedule. My 18-month-old gets downright nasty if he can't rock to sleep in front of the computer with some 'choo-choo movies' going, and the 6-year-old has accompanied me several times up to Ashland to watch CSX and Amtrak's Saturday afternoon traffic - you should see her coal/corn/soybean/wheat/oat/flattened currency collection. At Horseshoe, they'll go to the park once and then spend the rest of the time there hanging around the hotel pool while I run around solo, so everybody winds up happy.

Helpers? We don' need no steenking helpers!

7-unit eastbound general merchandise

...okay, so only the first 3 units were working in the power move on the point of this eastbound, but still an impressive sight in any case. Operation Lifesaver C40-9W 9255, C40-9W 9705, C40-9W 8944, SD40-2 3362, C40-9W 9225, SD70 2540, and C40-8W 8431.


SD70M 2607 and C40-8W 8381 lead auto parts and autoracks westward. From the look of the paint on the 8381 here you'd think it had just come out of the paint shop earlier that morning.:

Parts And Their Sums


SD40-2s 3340 and 3346 run light westbound and pass eastbound pair 3372 and 3344 in the distance. 3346 and 3344 are still wearing their HelperLink equipment:

Tag Team Helpers


C40-9Ws 9749 and 9377 lead a westbound mix of trailers and single-level containers:

More Westbound Trailers


Matched set of SD70M-2s leads eastbound doublestacks:

SD70M-2s on eastbound stack train


After the eastbound stack train passed there was finally a break in the action, so I packed up and headed west a few miles further down the road to Cassandra. At this point an iron truss footbridge crosses the tracks; to the east the tracks head straight through a deep rock cut, and to the west through a sweeping curve. The spot's a little bit hard to find if you're not paying attention, but worth a look.

The view to the east is such that you have quite a while after a train is sighted before it passes under the bridge. I cut out about 2 minutes worth of the approach of this westbound:

Autoparts and autoracks through Cassandra

C40-9W 9978 and (I think) C40-9 8837 are on the point. That covered hopper on the head end must have been important to get tacked on a hot auto train like that.

my heart yearns for Horseshoe Curve. The sound of mountain railroading... The distant rumble of multiple locomotives in full throttle. After a some time a headlight appears in the distance as a string of diesel locomotives pop around a curve. The rails sing with the approach of the coming train. The roar as multiple locomotive scream at the top of their lungs on their knees begging for every pound of tractive effort, as a mile long string of various cars bearing names from all over North America come thundering by with the ground shaking flat spots, and squealing and moaning flanges as the rails protest their beating....... Then the roar of several locomotives as they push on the back end of the train. (my wanting-to-go-railfanning poet is coming out in me ) Both times I could have made it to this place, the trip has been canceled, and I want need to get up there. Those are awesome movies man.



yes while the K5LA sounds nice, there isn't anything better (IMHO) than Conrail's infamous S-3LR (and RS-3LR) echoing is throaty voice through the Allegheny Mountains.

And now, a public service announcement from our poster...

Hi kids, Mr. Fuzzums here reminding you that when you go railfanning, don't be a doofus like me - check the power switch on your microphone BEFORE you start recording, NOT after. Oh yeah, and wait 30 minutes before going back in the pool after eating. And sit up straight, too.

Don't Be A Dork And Let This Happen To You

After correcting the (ahem) audio deficiency during the passage of the last train, naturally I had to redeem myself. Two SD70s, one M-2 and the other plain vanilla, lead a solid autorack train west. As the autoracks roll under the bridge, the by-now-familiar helper pair 3357 and 3350 head east for another assignment:

Autoracks...Again


The last two shots of the day were a bit anticlimactic - it's a cruel thing to be waiting and hear the sound of fast-approaching diesels, only to have it be light helpers. Cruel, I tell you:

The (Anti)Climax


It was around 5:30 and I had a long drive home, so I reluctantly called it a day. Two things I vowed to do on the next trip there - shoot from the outside of the curve at Cassandra, and (ouch) wear sunscreen (yikes).

Since discovering Vimeo I've started going back through my footage from this trip and redoing the clips in 720p HD. I've created an album to group the clips together here:

Horseshoe Curve, June 21 2008

Vimeo allows 500MB of uploading per week and some of the clips aren't exactly small, even as MPEG-4, so I'll only be able to post 2-3 clips/week. The quality bump vs. YouTube is worth it though.