Documenting the Common: Norfolk Southern Double-stacks at CP485.

Norfolk Southern’s Water Level Route is among the busiest freight routes in the East.

It features a continual parade of trains; long freights led by common modern diesels.

Here a cookie-cutter General Electric Evolution-series works east with a double stack train, ducking under the South Shore line at CP485 near Burns Harbor, Indiana.

Isn’t this freight the modern day equivalent of a New York Central freight led by F7s; or a generation earlier by a common Central H-10 Mikado?

Freight trains are about freight and I’ll often make photos of the consist.

But does it matter that I exposed this image? Where does it fit in the BIG picture?

I was pleased when I made this view. Chris Guss and I had enough time to set up, but didn’t wait long. I recalled a photo made more than 20 years ago in this same territory; Mike Danneman and I spent a snowy February morning photographing Conrail. Those photos are looking better all the time.

The common deserves to be recorded.

 

Tracking the Light Posts Daily.

5 comments on “Documenting the Common: Norfolk Southern Double-stacks at CP485.

  1. Thanks Danny!

  2. Brian, your comment that “the common deserves to be recorded” is absolutely perfect for today’s railroad industry. It wasn’t too many years ago that many of us didn’t waste time shooting a matched set of SD40-2s or C30-7s because they were a dime a dozen. If we don’t document what is common today, we will regret our oversight when they are gone tomorrow. We can choose to shoot what is, or trust our memory to remember what was.

  3. Anonymous on said:

    Impressive.

    Michael Walsh (checking whether anonymity still applies to my original sign-in)

  4. Anonymous on said:

    Impressive.

    Michael Walsh (checking whether anonymity still applies from my second alert of this image)

  5. Anonymous on said:

    Impressive.

    Michael Walsh (checking whether anonymity still applies)

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