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Rail News from Central Virginia
Week of June 3, 1996

By Vic Stone

* News for Central VA*

Fellow fans,

It's getting hot - not only weather-wise, but also with CSX over the North
Mountain Sub.  It's also close to the special moves time, too.  Read on
...


** Special Moves Section **
1) Milwaukee 261 is still scheduled to depart Scranton on Thursday, June
13 for Buffalo via the D&H main to Binghamton and the CR Southern Tier
Line to Buffalo (all scheduled for that day).  Friday, June 14 has been
planned as the shuttle move from SK to B&P's Tift St. yard and CP-Draw.
This is also a buffer day in case of a delay in the run to Buffalo.

Sat, June 15 will see an excursion (confirmed by B&P RR, city of Orchard
Park), leaving Tift St. about 8 AM.  It is slated to stop at the Orchard
Park station for about half an hour and then continue south to Punxatawney
and later, New Castle.

Plans for Sunday are somewhat sketchy, but preliminary plans are to run
over CSX to Garrett, IN with a water stop in Willard that day.  The 261 is
supposed to be on BN property on Tuesday, June 18 in Chicago for the
Thursday AM run to Galesburg.

2) NRHS Excursion trip over Saluda -
Revised consists is 2 F40's, 8 heritage cars, 2 MARC cars, 2 VRE cars, 1
or more NCDOT cars.  Two NS engines with high-adhesion brakes will be
added at Asheville for the trip down the hill.  The E-unit has been
scrubbed for the trip.

The majority of Amtrak equipment is supposed to deadhead down on #79 on
Friday, June 21.  The NCDOT cars will come in on #73.  Plans for the
MARC/VRE cars are currently uncertain.

Departure time from Charlotte is 7 AM with a 3-hour layover at Asheville
starting at 1 PM.

Rumor mill has it that NS is very unhappy about having to run this trip.
This may well be the last excursion down this track in quite a long time.


Local news:

NS - The sag in traffic has rebounded somewhat this week.  Some freights
have been running on an altered schedule, particularly 155.  It has been
running south through C'ville about 11 PM (and assuming no additional,
extended stops between Hagerstown & here, this would put this train over
Sheperdstown Trestle in good light at this time of year).  342 is also
running more often than not in the morning (in the hours around dawn).

Two new road crossing signals and gates have been installed just north of
the Preston Ave. signal bridge here in town.  Ties have been dropped all
the way north as far as CR Tower in Alexandria with a work train working
the same day as the excursion was running for Manassas Railfest.  Work
trains have also been running around here as a supplement to the work of
the ballast cleaner a few weeks ago.

NS brought a widecab on 456 for display on the Canon Track for the
Railfest.  VRE also had an engine on display.  A 6-car excursion train
bracketed by engines on both ends comprised the Railfest excursion running
as a shuttle between Powell and Clifton (only stop for passengers was
Manassas).  No 4610 nor the NS Exhibit Car was present this year.


CSX - The empties are back.  Several sets have run each day for the past
few days.  One set went west yesterday (Wed) & met 50 on the Mountain.  A
grain train that got the signal ahead of #19 on Wed. ended up delaying
the Crescent by about 30 minutes due to one engine dying and the train
stalling as it pulled out of town.  Another set left the Doswell local
with no power on Tuesday when it borrowed engines to replace one of its
dead units.

Work continues at the siding in Crozet.  A ballast train was running east
last week to drop stone on the Piedmont side after the extensive drainage
work done east of Gordonsville.  The Cardinals have played host to domes
recently - including the ex-C&NW (now owned by NCDOT) full length dome,
Powder River, late of the UP excursion fleet.  It was headed west on #51
on Wednesday.  Also, domes from the Auto Train have been in/out on the
Cardinal as well.



That's it for this week.  Asta la vista.

- Vic Stone
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