Page 20 - September October 2000

REGISTRAR NEWS OCTOBER 2000
“Welcome to the following new members...”
TELEPHONE SCALE/S RAILROAD(S) Y/N*
01625 429696 N D&H/EL/NYC Y 01438 715314 N UP/BNSF Y
NAME
Heginbotham, G Lake, Christopher Oxlade, John Head, Nick Moore, D Cousins, Tony Guyatt, Terry
ADDRESS
142 CT King Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 6PR
The Barn House, Digswell Lane, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, AL6 0SP 159 Honeycrock Lane, Salford, Surrey, RH15JR
22 Norman Road, Belvedere, Kent, DV17 6JW
63 Pitsford Drive, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 4NY
9 Gaunt Way, Gleadless Valley, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S14 1GX 6 Conical Corner, Enfield, Middlesex, EN@ 6SL
- HO 0208 31104393 HO
01509 240929 O 0114 239 9757 N
- HO
01440 786973 HO - HO
01689 855074 N/O 01903 520747 N
UP/WP Y BNSF/UP/SP Y NYC/NKP Y - Y - Y
NP/GN Y PRR/PC/NYO&W N
RI/GN Y DRGW Y
Change of Address
Cutting, Roy Penn, C
Other Changes
White, Chris Carlisle, Ron
Meadowview, Lower Road, Hundon Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 8DZ 26 Sutton Park, Sutton Scotney, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 3JZ
41 Clareville Road, Orpington, Kent, BR5 1RU
40 Howard Road, Sompting, Lancing, West Sussex, BN15 0LP
ALL MEMBERS: PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU NOTIFY THE REGISTRAR OF ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER CHANGES, EVEN IF YOU HAVE ALSO ADVISED THE EDITOR. THE EDITOR DOES NOT SEND ADVICE OF CHANGES BACK TO THE REGISTRAR.
Send any changes to the REGION REGISTRAR:
Vernon Stone, Capilano, Moneyrow Green, Holyport, Maidenhead, Berks SL6 2NA.
(The full Region Directory is issued once a year, we suggest that members pencil in such changes as are announced periodically, to keep their current Directory up to date.
THE NEW DIRECTORY is issued with the December edition of Roundhouse.)
In this area, both Genesis and F40PH were used. Occasionally a two-engined train had one of each. The Genesis locos wore both the original colours and the newer “north east corridor” scheme, the passenger cars seem to have more liveries than there are cars, and often there is ordinary freight equipment or some road-railers on the rear. Mixed train daily rules again!
Ashland is another dyed-in-the-wool railroad town. The narrow street lining both sides of the tracks had eateries, small gift shops and so on. A locally famous hotel, the Henry Clay Inn, sits just behind the Amtrak station and you can railfan from its front porch - or you can eat in the Iron Horse Restaurant while watching trains go by the windows. If anyone said to me I could only visit one place on this trip, this is it. I can think of many worse places to live out my latter days!
As mentioned in my August editorial, the RF&P model railroad club rooms were practically alongside our Comfort Inn motel. This friendly bunch of guys were of course a good source of information. If I had been off guard, I’d have got suckered into running their trains all day!
From Ashland, our days out included the city of Richmond and its railroad viewing spots. Acca Yard is the place to see, but the best spot is not too easy to find - luckily (while standing in a less good spot) I was befriended by a local railfan who worked for the “Beeline” cab company, that ferries train crews around. He showed me a great place off North Hamilton Street, alongside the south throat of Acca, where you can be within inches of CSX property, no fences in the way, the junction of two southbound mainlines to your right, an engine ready track between them, and a clear view into the yard on the left.
A short drive away to Dabney Road brings you very close to the engine terminal, where on different visits I found between 14 and 24 engines present, by no means all CSX ones.
Another day we drove further south about 30 miles to Collier Yard, Petersburg. Though quieter, it is worth a brief visit, and NS crosses below the yard throat. (By the way, all the places mentioned here were legal railfanning - so long as you don’t go right up to the tracks and starting wandering along the ballast.)
Just before our holiday ended I drove from Ashland to Roanoke. Using the quiet US-360 west you come first to Crewe (yes, supposedly named for our LMS Mecca!) where Norfolk Southern do most of their marshalling on trains between Roanoke and the east. After nosing around Crewe for a while we headed on to Roanoke and the Virginia Museum of Transportation. Again, the exhibits outside are a little too close together to film easily, but it was good to see the #611 again. Though you can climb onto the tender fall plate, the cab itself has a Perspex sheet across it. I felt kind of sad seeing this. In 1985, prior to one of 611’s fan trips, I’d had the pleasure of sitting on the fireman’s seat for an
hour or so, with the loco stationary but at least alive, in steam. Now, though in very good external condition, it is cold and dead, and likely to remain so.
Other equipment varies from tatty to well kept. Another NKP 2-8-4 lives here, slowly rotting away, but there are some nice diesels including a C636. Another GG-1 is here, plus a Virginian “rectifier”. A high nose SD45 is resplendent in 1776 colours.
The whole museum yard is surrounded by high chain link fence, making filming the main line outside difficult, until, lo and behold, alongside an old hopper that was right up against the fence, about 4 ft. of chain link had gone missing! Several NS trains conveniently put in an appearance, but at that point it got so hot out of doors that I gave it best and retired to the air conditioning inside.
So our trip was nearly done. On the last day we took a slow drive back to DC but stopped for lunch at Fredricksburg. This turned out to be a good choice - a nice historic district (selling “antiques” - junk to you and me) ends in an elevated, but clearly visible section of CSX mainline, going through the Amtrak station and out along an embankment. This is of course the same ex RF&P line from DC down to Richmond. A pair of 6000 hp GE’s on a pig train was our last catch, prior to ambling back to Dulles airport.
Well, the weather had been kind (the rain almost absent - a few minutes on each of just two days), temperatures varied from about 70 to 95, everyone was friendly, the food was good, the gas is still cheap (though double last year!) and the trains seemed never-ending, both in individual length and in numbers seen. I suppose you could have a better vacation, but only if you don’t like American trains! ●
20 ROUNDHOUSE