| I needed to make a quick stop at home to grab something before continuing north. Things on the NCD had quieted down some as most traffic had been sidelined to wait on the OCS. However, there was a very late NS 28C in the siding at Montpelier. We decided to forgo that and continue north, until we heard NS 64D key up dispatch and tell him they were ready to pull a 100 car train out of the ethanol plant in Bluffton. I almost decided to let that go as well, since they would have to wait on NS 28C to come north before they could get out onto the main, but I had TJ look at the power for us anyway. Sure enough, NS 8104, the Lehigh Valley Heritage Unit, was the leader. TJ adores the heritage locomotives and Ill be honest, getting the OCS and a heritage unit on nearly back to back trains was almost too hard to pass up. A line of strong thunderstorms had developed to the north as well, so sitting at home and waiting for the storms to pass while the trains played catch-up was more in our favor anyway. We spent time at my house until NS 28C got close and drove down to the Lafever Street crossing for it. A sole NS Dash 9 and a pair of BNSF GEs were on the front of todays train. Since TJ works for NS, he has a number of coworkers he knows on most of the trains that run the NCD, and he managed to get a hornshow for us out of the Muncie based recrew on this train. The conductor seemed quite confused to see him so far north Muncie watching trains! |