Trains on November 14, 2008

The first photo is of the Pottstown station I shot right around Midnight on the 14th, so I wanted to share it. Who would have known the tragedy that would take place hours later in such a great spot?

Tragedy in the morning at Hanover Street

My morning started at Hanover Street in Pottstown at the station. I received word that a woman had been struck by a train at Hanover Street. In my never ednding search for a marked Norfolk Southern Police car I headed out. All I managed were a few shots of 21E which the person was struck by. Feel bad for the crew. They really sounded shaken up when I heard them on the radio and it had been a couple of hours since the incident occurred. I did manage a couple shots if NS investigators inspecting the scene and doing measurements.

Brad and I expected there to be a bit of a backlog since the line was shut down for over 2 hours. It wasn't to be. Only saw 3 or 4 more trains while we were there.

34M is pictured (9245 leading) and acknowledged by the NSPD still on scene when they came through. 14G headed east led with NS 7556 and then 503 a coal train came west by us.

Then we packed up for the day. I ended up doing a little bit more (continued below)

I needed to visit Cabela's today. Along the way Brooke and I saw a train in Blandon. She enjoyed it since she got a definite hello blast of the air horns from the crew. After Blandon we stopped in Port Clinton at the Reading and Blue Mountain yard. This is their home office as well. I was introduced to this place on  Red Knights ride by my buddy Stan. He told me that it was a railfan friendly railroad. I found that to be the case today. In our 10 or 15 minutes there we caught a rather trivial engine move but I found it to be very interesting. They needed to move one engine from the engine house and put it on another track at the shop. We watched the crew pull up the engine to be moved, pull it out, throw a couple of hand switches and put the engine in a new parking spot. Also saw the crew put blue flags out and use the hand brakes. Definitely a quick but unique expereince. I hope to make more visits back there sometime. Their web site is http://www.rbmnrr.com/