Trains on the Norfolk Southern Virginia Division - Spring 2016 Part 1

"Trains on the Norfolk Southern Virginia Division - Spring 2016 Part 1" includes video coverage from the Roanoke and Hagerstown Districts, otherwise known as the "H-Line". Although during this time the Virginia District was absorbed into the Pocahontas, I decided to keep the titles under the previous name (as we're no where near Bluefield!). The videos were shot on March 19 and 20, 2016. The locations in the video are shown on the map.


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0:40 - (Skip Intro)
0:55 - Map
1:10 - (Skip Intro and Map)

March 19, 2016
The H-Line sees very little through traffic, being a single track mainline with short passing sidings; however, it is worth a visit for the die hard railfan and train chaser due to it's great scenery and visible Norfolk & Western heritage. This meant our plan for the day was to chase a train south, and then back north, shooting as many CPL signals as possible, which went as planned.

We latched onto 201 at Stanley, rushing through at track speed.
1:10 - 201 - Rutherford, PA - Rossville, TN
NS D9-44CW 9789
NS D9-44CW 8899
NS D9-44CW 8921

2:00 - 201 splitting the CPL's at Lynnwood
2:55 - 201 splitting the CPL's at Waynetex
3:50 - 201 splitting the CPL's at Vesuvius
5:10 - 201 splitting the CPL's at Buena Vista
We also caught 201 at Lithia, but decided to redo that shot the next day.

We then intercepted a northbound 777 empty coal train at Troutville, which was following closely behind 16T. 16T did not have anything interesting for power, so we opted to chase 777, not realizing we'd still see 16T a few times as highway speeds are much greater than the twists and turns in the H-Line.
6:40 - 777 - Hyco Lake, NC - Bailey Mine, PA
NS SD70ACe 1168
NS ES44AC 8120

We then caught up to 16T at Natural Bridge, but for the purpose of this video, was left out. 777 was not far behind and of all rare events, there was an over-under-meet with a Loram Railgrinder on the CSX James River Subdivision.
8:05 - 777 at Natural Bridge Station
10:30 - 777 at Buena Vista
11:55 - So it's the first day of spring and it starts snowing, in Virginia no less? 777 splits the CPL's at Stuart's Draft
12:40 - 777 runs past the new siding at Island Ford.
13:45 - We ended our chase of 777 at Stanley

Before ending our day at Stanley with 777, we caught 16T at the train station in Luray.
15:30 - 16T - Birmingham, AL - Allentown, PA
NS D9-44CW 9535
NS D8-40CW 8359
NS D9-44CW 9777

March 20, 2016
The next morning looked a lot more like spring with trees in bloom at Lithia. 15T was first up with 201 closing in the gap behind them. Note the nice N&W boxcar 4th out.
17:00 - 15T - Allentown, PA - Birmingham, AL
NS D9-44CW 9059
NS D9-40C 8854
NS D9-44CW 9941

We relocated to the CPL's at Ellis Run for 201.
18:35 - 201 - Rutherford, PA - Rossville, TN
NS D9-44CW 9046
NS D8-40CW 8448
NS D9-44CW 9350

20:10 - 201 splits the CPL's at Cloverdale with some nice spring foliage.

Thanks for watching! Tune in for part two.