Ashland, VA August 31, 2024: Early Morning Railfanning, And Too Early

#train #railfans #ashlands #virginia

I wasn’t expecting to be in Ashland but I am very glad I made the decision to come.

On what would be another visit to Ashland and just get a good exercise and watch trains coming through. I heard about a loaded coal that was coming through a couple hours after I arrived after midnight and got there around four in the morning. Which was a little too early for me but it was pretty daun out and the sun was hours rising up. I promised myself that I would get some simple Freights - Manifests and some morning station lights. CSX would deliver 4 trains a little then a couple hours, including 1-3 northbound and 1 southbound, 1 heritage unit, better than freight traffic getting jammed in Richmond. And special thanks for friends/groups for the HU on on-coming and in-coming trains.


0:00 - CSX I032
The early morning northbound intermodal would deliver a SD70MAC 4707 leading with ET44AH 3347 as the helper with some Tropicana refrigerator cars and some intermodal in - trailers, and containers.

3:29 - CSX M300
We would wait an hour and two later for another northbound that was waiting for a crew and work Acca - Richmond Yard. But a little bit later here would be coming through a little before sunrise was in the books with CM44AC 7214 and an ES44AH seven something.

5:53 - CSX C754
I’ve been hearing about this train for days, and it would be coming through Ashland on the day that I would be able to see on. A little after M300 cleared, I heard that C754 was getting closer and it was in the middle of sunrise and I would get a good shot of the train. But a few minutes went by and here he was with a consist of 3x2x0 with ES44AH 863, CM44AC 7260, and then ES40DC 5203. But he would need some helpers and they would be ES44AH 1853 the NYC unit that everyone would be talking about and the last helper would be CW44AC 452. Those two would be the two Mid-DPU.