I flew down to Chattanooga, TN to visit some friends and check out a college for next year.  While there, I was able to borrow a friend's car and spend a couple days watching trains in the area.  On Sunday February 12, 2006, I headed into Chattanooga around noon.  After driving around for a while I found the NS Debutts yard.  There were quite a few locomotives in the service area and around other parts of the yard.  Some of the units were: NS 8601, 2884, 2410, 5116, 7150, 2506, MRL 317, BNSF 4515, and six slugs (NS 946, 947, 958, 960, 961, 964).   As I was driving around the yard I found an eastbound coal train slowly crawling along the mainline next to the yard (BNSF 5872, 5873, 5602).  After shooting several pictures of it near the south end of the yard I headed up to the other end to get a few more.  I decided to try my new teleconverter out with a head on of the DPU.   Unfortunately anytime I use the 1.4x teleconverter I have to manually focus the camera but it came out crisp and clean at 560mm manual focus.

     Next up was a westbound manifest train that pulled into the yard (NS 2587, 6595).  A few minutes later a run through CSX stack train headed east on the mainline next to the yard (CSX 8700, UP 9348).  It got stopped near the north end of the yard next to another eastbound on the middle main track.   Then in the distance a headlight appeared for a westbound.  It turned out to be another empty coal train headed back to the Powder River Basin (BNSF 5763, 5608, 5680).   I headed towards the west side of town to find the CSX yard but ran into another eastbound.  It was a stack and TOFC train with UP 5514 and BNSF 4065 for power so I don't know if it was a NS or CSX train.  I finally found the CSX yard near Lookout, TN on the southwest side of town (CSX 4772, 715, 595, 2609, 4437).  I also found another eastbound train stopped on the main at Lookout.  It was a manifest train with some interesting power (HLCX 7199, 6236, IC 6128).  After that it was getting close to sundown so I headed back to my lodging for the night.

     The next morning dawned cold, cloudy and snowing but I was up and out by 8am.  I decided to follow the NS tracks down into Georgia and see if I could find some sun.  The first train I ran into was at Cohutta, GA at 8:40am.  It was a westbound hopper train and it was kicking up a little bit of snow on the way by (NS 8718, 8714, 8720).  I continued to follow the tracks and finally arrived at Dalton, GA.  It is here were the CSX and NS lines come together for a few miles.  This scenario creates quite a bottleneck at sometimes.  Around 10am a westbound CSX hopper train rolled through town (CSX 715, 4772).  A couple miles north of town I found an eastbound auto train waiting to head through town (NS 9871, UP 4311, 9285).  After getting several photos of the train I followed it down into Dalton.   By this time the sun was beginning to break through the clouds and I found a couple CSX and NS locomotives in the yard in town (NS 4621, 3194, CSX 2344, 6914).  After that I decided to head up to Tunnel Hill, GA on the CSX line and see if I could fine some trains. 

     I found there was a historical society in town and after checking it out I drove over to the short tunnel.  About an hour later I could hear a westbound approaching upgrade.  It came charging out of the tunnel and turned into the siding in town (CSX 765, 404, 8597).  On the scanner I heard this empty coal train talking to an approaching eastbound.  A couple minutes later the eastbound rolled through town (CSX 8162, 8824, UP 3289).  There was supposed to be another eastbound riding this manifest train's tail but it was almost 30 minutes before it arrived.  It was an eastbound auto train and it got stopped on the main for MOW crews to clear ahead (CSX 8709, HLCX 8170).  After getting a couple pictures I figured things were going to be pretty slow here so I headed back to the NS line.  After running into a traffic jam I finally arrived back to the railroad tracks.  I drove up to Waring, GA were the eastbound trains hold until they get a clear signal through town.   Stopped just short of the crossing was an eastbound BNSF coal train (BNSF 5051, 5811, 5603).  After taking several pictures I drove a little ways towards town to set up for a westbound.

     After a 10 minute wait I heard a horn in the distance and set up for the shot.  It was into the sun a little but I figured I could at least turn the shot into a B&W later.  As the engines came into the view my jaw started to drop.  After the first units appeared I stopped counting engines and starting shooting pictures.  As the train rolled by I realized there were 13 engines and only 7 cars with machinery (NS 8935, 3290, 8672, 9455, 2658, 6699, 2693, 9044, 2661, 2422, TFM 1435, LTEX 8971, NREX 8690).  I decided this train was worth chasing even though the light wasn't good.  I followed it up to Varnell, GA where it got stopped.   The crew was just about to die so they decided to stop there.  I drove into the little town of Varnell where I found an eastbound coal train waiting for a light (NS 9504, UP 4070 SP 6372(patched)).  After shooting a couple of pictures I followed this train back down to Dalton.  This time I found a couple of engines on a work train (NS 3240, GMTX 2623).  Next I found the two engines that I had seen in the yard earlier heading north with a fresh crew to take up to the over-powered train.

     After waiting around for awhile nothing else showed up so I decided that since it was almost 5pm I would start heading back to Chattanooga.  At Varnell I found another eastbound train stopped for a light again.   This time it was a long string of roalrailers in tow though (NS 9514, EMD 2825).   The over-powered train started back west with a new crew so I chased it up to Cohutta, GA.  But it got stopped there for a train.  A few minutes later the eastbound arrived with 2 engines and a long line of autoracks (NS 7539, 8984).  I couldn't see where the over-powered train was stopped and I couldn't find it anywhere so I decided to head west and see if I could catch up to it.  But a few miles later I ran into another eastbound.  This time it was a stack train with 2 UP units for power (UP 4429, 9840).  After getting a picture in the fading light I headed back to my friend's place.  It was a fun day with quite a bit of sun in the afternoon.