August 16, 2017 – BNSF 7608 and 7643 were a great surprise when I found them leading CSX Q028-16 as it popped out underneath the old coaling tower as it headed north on CSX’s CE&D Subdivision at Sullivan, Indiana!
Good friend and fellow railfan Ryan Scott and I headed up to this spot late in the afternoon hoping to catch some traffic under this tower that was built in 1941 to service steam locomotives with coal during their runs. Another friend, Ryan Collins had posted a picture from here earlier in the week and I knew I wanted to catch a few photos from here so I made the two hour trip north and picked up Ryan along the way.
When we got there we were listening to the scanner and became concerned that we wouldn’t get much before it got dark because Q645 had broken a knuckle and went into emergency a bit further to the north and they didn’t have one on their engine. Plus Q101 was behind them and we knew 28 was heading toward them.
Both the southbounds were in a siding and Q028 had a knuckle on their train so they pulled on up to where the conductor on 645 was waiting and dropped off the knuckle. Of course they had to replace the knuckle and make sure all the cars on their 10,000+ foot train were still upright before 28 could continue past them.
I thought sure we weren’t going to catch any southbounds before we lost all of our light at the coaling tower, but we were fortunate that the railfan God shined upon us and we caught both of them before it got too dark! I’ll post the other two photos over the next few days!
We also were fortunate enough to catch some Indiana Railroad action while we were waiting as well! Those will be coming over the next few days as well! A totally great afternoon/evening trackside!!!