Jeff_W

There were quite a few railcams in the path of today's solar eclipse, hope everyone caught a glimpse of it somewhere along the way. I was close enough that it got a little dark where I live, but with solid cloud cover one couldn't see anything here.

Saw this just now, this is CSX's Track Geometry Train. It uses laser scanners to check the rails for any defects. I photographed it about two years ago in my neck of the woods. CSX W003-01, Glendale,KY 12/2/2022 by Jeff Wagoner, on Flickr You can see the lights underneath one of the passenger cars.

The numberboards are often little tiny bits that you (sometimes) have to add to the locomotive. I'm not sure if anyone other than Kato makes them, but I could easily be wrong. They're probably the only thing that's kept me from being tempted to renumber Kato engines. I have bought one custom number that was originally un-numbered, but can't think of what they did for the numberboards off the top of my head. As for fonts, I think the BNSF one is mentioned here: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,253680 Union Pacific uses one called "City Of" I think? As seen here: http://www.railfonts.com/cgi-bin/font_shop/fontshop.cgi?ACTION=enter&thispage=page10.html

Wonder if that QSNL loco is headed to Paducah eventually, I shot an NS train last April that had a few bound for VMV via interchange with the P&L in Louisville. As far as I know these units are still sitting down there. WCOR 307, Harrodsburg,KY 4/11/2023 by Jeff Wagoner, on Flickr WCOR 309, Harrodsburg,KY 4/11/2023 by Jeff Wagoner, on Flickr

CSX L411-19 just south of Sanders, Kentucky on CSX's LCL Subdivision back in February. This was one of the spots on the LCL I wanted to try with a drone. L411 is a local job, or turn, as it leaves Worthville, Kentucky early most mornings and runs to Queensgate Yard in Cincinnati about 60 miles to the north, before returning south late mornings/early afternoons. The power for the job has been a trio of EMD SD40 variants, as of late it's been this trio of two SD40-2s and one SD40-3. If you watch the Covington,KY camera on Virtual Railfan/YouTube, you'll see this train go by most mornings between 7-9am local time, and as of this post, still with the same power. CSX L411-19, Sanders,KY 2/19/2024 by Jeff Wagoner, on Flickr

I have the Daylight in N scale (by Kato), though I haven't picked up any of the articulated cars they've run yet. Very gorgeous train.

Some of my own photos: R.J. Corman train Z546 traversing the street running in Shelbyville, Kentucky. This line comes off the "Old Road" (Louisville-Frankfort-Lexington-Winchester,KY, ex C&O/L&N) and serves a couple industries in Shelbyville. At one time it ran south to Bloomfield, Kentucky, but the rails were pulled in the early 1950s. RJC Local, Shelbyville,KY 8/22/2022 by Jeff Wagoner, on Flickr Living an hour or so from La Grange, I've been there numerous times over the years. CSX Q510-12, La Grange,KY 4/12/2017 by Jeff Wagoner, on Flickr CSX Q575-15, La Grange,KY 4/15/2021 by Jeff Wagoner, on Flickr CSX Q226-15, La Grange,KY 3/15/2013 by Jeff Wagoner, on Flickr "Close, but not quite" R.J. Corman's aluminum ingot train heads east through the state capital, Frankfort. This isn't quite street running as the track isn't paved over and cars/pedestrians can only cross over at certain points, it still has a bit of street running feel to it. RJC Z544-28, Frankfort,KY 4/28/2022 by Jeff Wagoner, on Flickr

I'll share a few photos I've taken of locals and yard jobs. They're almost interchangeable. A "local" will travel further than a yard job, often to another city or yard 50-100 miles out. Yard jobs will stay close to a yard, switching nearby industries. CSX changed the symbols for the locals about two years ago, Louisville Division (my local area) went from using a J prefix (J765, J768,etc.) to L for "local", which makes sense. Yard jobs have always had a Y prefix, but the first digit indicates which shift (first, second,third), Y128 would be a first shift job. They always have a date behind the symbol which indicates the day of origin, if you feel up to adding train symbols to your operations. CSX Y125, Louisville,KY 9/26/2019 by Jeff Wagoner, on Flickr CSX J755-20, Doe Run, Brandenburg,KY 10/22/2019 by Jeff Wagoner, on Flickr Looking forward to seeing your progress!

It appears the stack is capped on that unit, and with the numberboards gone I'd say it's bound for long term storage or more than likely, the scrapper. I regrettably only ever photographed one BC Rail "barn" over the years, back in 2018. NS 147, Kings Mountain,KY 4/5/2018 by Jeff Wagoner, on Flickr

It looks like you have an excellent looking layout going. Reminds me of the numerous CSX locals and yard jobs I have photographed over the years.