Hello From Behind Norfolk and Western J611!

This comment was posted to reddit on Jun 06, 2015 at 7:53 pm and was deleted within 7 hour(s) and 59 minutes.

Hello From Behind Norfolk and Western J611!

My day started out at Gainesville, with poor light I didn't have much to work with, but did what I could: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyzdude/18351271769/in/photostream/

From there I jumped back on I-66 and skipped ahead through The Plains to Belvoir. The space was already crowded, and the NS Safety Vest grabbed one guy who walked well away from the crowd and toward the tracks. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyzdude/18351268279/in/photostream/

It wasn't made clear from what I heard on the radio, but the train stopped at US-55 in Marshall and held for a short period before crossing. Traffic was abysmal on 55 by this point, so I elected to forgo Delaplane and carry on west, to the old station area in Linden, where the defect detector is at 42.9. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyzdude/18349684948/in/photostream/

I hit the road again, but the speed limits on the road were too low (combined with out-of-towners moving much slower than the limit) and the limits on the rail too high, he beat me to Front Royal. I turned around and grabbed gas at Linden before heading back to the old station area to wait for a much better East-bound shot. It paid off, in my opinion! https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyzdude/17914748604/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyzdude/17916752403/in/photostream/

I went to The Plains, and down VA-245 a little. I had seen a crowd of people earlier, and while it was a good wide shot, it was much better with the train coming towards than away. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyzdude/18349664808/in/photostream/

My last successful "planned" shot (all of this was ad-hoc planning based on road traffic and train speed) was at Bust Head Road at Broad Run. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyzdude/17914731514/in/photostream/

Unsurprisingly, by the time the stream of road traffic reached the Thoroughfare crossing, the train was on top of us and triggered the crossing. Making the best.. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyzdude/18537460055/in/photostream/

Between traffic and poor decisions on my part, she got away from me through Haymarket. With the Manassas Heritage Railway Festival in full swing, however, there was lots of action down town by the time I arrived. NS 16 (Amtrak Regional) came through ahead of the J berthing at the platform, and then VRE had a train running back and forth to somewhere around Clifton and return.

It was awesome to see so many people enamored by the locomotive and train, railfans and non-railfans alike. It was also positive to see such responsible behavior from the vast majority. Outside of Manassas, the folks I saw were largely well behaved and remained within the social and legislated rules of railfanning. More organized photo lines would have been appreciated, but I would have probably stood behind them and taken a photo of the line taking their photos of the train anyway. However, the crowds through Manassas were fairly abhor-able in terms of behavior, and the officer I had spoken to had been called away from her lunch break due to multiple reports of people on the tracks.

The police officers were very accommodating to requests for photos. "Can I come out and take a photo" was heard multiple times, to which the reply was given "Yes, you have thirty seconds and then I need you back off the tracks" -- tempted as I was, I didn't make the request myself.

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Finally, my thanks to the member of the steam crew for taking photos inside the cab of the J, it is truly appreciated. I've met Mr. B several times, it's unfortunate that he's no longer RFE in Manassas and was pleasantly surprised to hear his name called over the radio. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyzdude/18537406285/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyzdude/18349604378/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyzdude/18537402255/in/photostream/

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Hello From Behind Norfolk and Western J611!

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