CRESSON AREA 01/26-28/2001

A Dash-8 moves East through Cresson on the head of a TV train. This was shot Friday evening. Unfortunately it gets dark early in January. A West bound intermodal cruises by The Station Inn on Friday evening. We were please to find snow left over from the previous weekend's storm. Little did we know what was in store for us the next morning! This shot is a little fuzzy due to the lighting. A Grey Ghost as I call 'em hurries by The Inn on a stack train. I like this paint, maybe just because its different. I didn't do a good job with this shot either, but I have trouble tossing photos. Especially one with this primer livery. I am at the picnic shelter now. I always have to do a night shot. Check out the star on top of the sanding tower. I guess someone at NS has a good spirit. Snow greeted us on Saturday morning. We were glad to see it. It was one reason we decided to visit. Little did we know it would last all day. Looks like they have the helpers on the front here. East Bound load of coal rumbles by us during a break in the storm. We saw alot of coal this weekend. In October we saw very little. Helpers I know, these are only helpers on the Eastbound coal drag above. But, it shows some of the action. We saw five trains pass our spot in 10 minutes around 4:30 PM. Of course you can sit around for hours and see nothing too. The engine facility is busy as usual. You can see by the attitude of the flag that the wind is whipping pretty well. A Dash-8 on the head of a West bound empty coal train moves by the engine facility. The snow is quite heavy now. It is a job to keep the snow off of the camera and video equipment. A East bound Amtrak whips past the viewing plateform so fast that the blowing snow behind it obscures most of the train. The trains seem to keep the snow off the ballast due to the turbulence they generate. A string of helpers pushes this empty coal train through Cresson. Rt. 53 crosses the tracks just East of Cresson. These helpers push this loaded westbounder through the heavy snow. This is around 3 PM and it is DARK. Cresson received about 8" of snow that Saturday on top of the 3-4" that remained from the previous weekend's storm. Autoracks This Dash-8 leads a string of autoracks Eastbound under the Rt. 53 bridge. This spot is best for Westbounder. We are standing on the old highway bridge abutment. West Bound empty coal drag approaches the Rt. 53 bridge which is to may back. At this point I have had all the fun I can stand and call it a day. We head back to The Station Inn to warm up. I am pleased with the stills I got but the videos are even better. Sunday dawned as a beautiful Winter's day. Perfect for Winter train pictures. Unfortunately I made a mistake. I decided to head East for some different shots. Well, 10 miles down the mountain there was NO new snow. My second mistake was not turning around and going back. Oh, well, maybe next year.

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Last Update: 03/10/2001
Ed Houk