On Friday after school I arranged to meet up with some of the local railfans.  I arrived in Ooltewah at the Jct. between the NS line to Atlanta, GA, and to Cleveland, TN.  I was greeted by Robert Duncun and several others (sorry I don't remember all of your names).  The first train took us by surprise at 1:30pm with three engines on an eastbound hopper.  It took the south line to GA, and we settled down to discuss the good photography locations and railroad operations.  At 2:30pm a westbound empty coal train rounded the corner coming up from GA.  We were prepared for this train which was train 731.  BNSF 9884 and 5766 led the train and another BNSF AC unit brought up the tail end.  I found out that the dispatchers usually fleeted three trains each way between Ooltewah, TN, and Cohutta, GA.  And sure enough twenty minutes later another eastbound arrived.  This train was a westbound manifest with some interesting lease power in the consist including an ex-SP tunnel motor.

     After another twenty minutes a horn sounded in the distance, and another westbound manifest train arrived.  This train came off the Cleveland line with and NS and two ex-UP SD50s.  After grabbing some more shots of the train we continued our discussion.  Over the scanner we heard of an eastbound heading our way, and at 3:30pm train 361 rounded the corner.  This was an eastbound manifest train heading down into GA with a colorful lashup of NS, ex-CR, and ex-UP units.  The sun came out just long enough for a good photo.  We heard another train hit the detector to the west, and a few minutes later NS 8851 rounded the corner leading train 175, an eastbound manifest train.  After another set of photos the conversation had barely started back up when a westbound loaded coal train rolled off the Cleveland line.   This was train 730 coming from the Appalachian coal fields and heading to a power plant in AL.  I tried a few different angles with this train, and I also enjoyed the little bit of sun.  The last train of the day arrived just before dark at 4:35pm.   It was an eastbound auto train #283 heading to Atlanta, GA.  With that the line fell silent, and we parted company.  It was great to meet some fellow railfans, and 8 trains in 3 hours was a nice bonus!

January 12, 2007