The Feb. 5th, 2025 edition of the westbound Cardinal had a Siemens ALC-42 locomotive #354, which experienced air brake problems between Russell, Ky., and Cincinnati, Ohio. Two standard cab GPs pulled the train into Maysville, Ky., where the train remained for several hours while a road engine CSXT #4722 was dropped by L181-04. EMD SD70MAC #4722 took lead and brought the train into Cincinnati Union Terminal (CUT) nearly 11 hours late. It was also terminated at CUT.
From there, passengers were bussed to Chicago according to Amtrak. The train set was later towed to Indianapolis, where Amtrak’s Beech Grove facility is located. However, Beech Grove is unable to perform certain repairs on the newer engines as they require a Siemens technician.
The Cardinal has two trainsets – one in each direction. Generally, they are turned at their destination for a return trip. Since the westbound trainset was in Indy and in need of motive power as #354 had not been repaired, a 33-year-old GE Dash 8-32BWH, AMTK #519, was pulled from the power pool to lead the eastbound Cardinal on Friday, Feb. 8. Passengers from Chicago were bussed to Indianapolis, where the train would originate for this run.
It is a rare occurrence for a Dash 8-32BWH to lead this long-distance train, or any long-distance trains for that matter. News spread quickly across social media for rail fans along the Cardinal’s route that #519 would be taking lead for the run to Washington, D.C.
News came late, however, so I had to quickly devise a plan upon returning home late the evening prior. The plan? Catch it at Huntington, W.Va., Hurricane, W.Va., skip Charleston, catch up with it at again Hinton, W.Va. White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. was added to my itinerary but was considered for being skipped depending on the travel time from Hinton as it was going to close, very close. The final location was to be Clifton Forge, Va. (CLF), where I would catch it on the A Street overpass at the east end of the yard.
But like all good plans, it didn’t exactly work out as I had intended. Having woken up about 15-20 minutes later than I wanted to the morning of, an analysis of the perspective locations and comparing my clock to that of the train’s schedule revealed that Huntington was no longer viable. Onward I went toward Hurricane, where I had made good headway. With the gap between me and the train, I decided to grab a quick breakfast from the local McDonald’s.
I’ve lived in Hurricane before, but it had already escaped me how congested morning traffic is in that small town. The terrible layout of the road system does little to help the congestion. My plan at Hurricane was to shoot it from the overpass between Main Street and Putnam Avenue. With it being a business day, parking was difficult to locate, and the gap between the train and Hurricane was quickly closing. So much so, I didn’t eat my breakfast until some 30 or 40 minutes later. I made a hasty, but still slow, retreat from Hurricane and headed for Charleston station.
The train on my tail, I made it to the station in Charleston with about 10 minutes or less to spare. A combination of several unknown factors hindered my efforts at a nice composition here. I didn’t know where the train was going to stop on the platform – which is about twice as long as the train itself (and renovated a few years ago). I didn’t know exactly how much time I had left before the train arrived. Additionally, lighting installed during the renovation leaves nasty shadows on winter mornings when the sun remains low in the sky. Eventually, I decided to walk up the platform a bit and grab what I could. What resulted could be likened to a snapshot at best. I had about enough time to return to my car at the other end of the platform when the train departed the station.
The chase was on. Hinton would be the next destination. Comparing my GPS’ estimated time of arrival against the train’s schedule showed I should beat the train with about 45 minutes to spare. This time allowed me to get much-needed fuel – for both me and the car – along the way.
I chatted with local railfan, Micah Mocnik, while en route to Hinton. He informed me that a group was headed to Meadow Creek to catch the train. But in my mind, I couldn’t visualize a nice composition there. I kept my sights on Hinton and wanted a photo of the train pulling the historic C&O depot there from Temple Street bridge. Several years ago, when I still lived in West Virginia, I ventured out to find trains-in-snow photos as none had fallen all season near my residence at that time. That day was cloudy and made for much easier lighting conditions. Today, however, it was sunny and the sky was clear and as blue as the ocean.
I arrived at Temple Street bridge, which overpasses the railroad and the rather angry-looking New River, which was muddy and swirling with energy from recent heavy rains. The bridge has a sidewalk on one side that looks down at the station. Surveying my composition, I realized this wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. One, amongst many things, that has changed over time with the railroad is the lack of clearing the right-of-way of trees, brush, etc. There was a small gap of light on the east end of the station that I would have to perfectly time the locomotive entering into to maintain light on the nose.
A lot of rail fans might prefer clear, blue skies, as that tends to really bring out colors and details. But in West Virginia, sometimes cloudy days are better to even out the light in the tight valleys and throngs of trees.
I was the only railfan to take up this particular location, and the same would be true at White Sulphur Springs (WSS).
I quickly departed Hinton toward Interstate 64. But no good plan should go unbothered. The department of highways was doing work on a rocky hillside alongside the highway leading out of Hinton, which was to closed one lane, alternating with traffic from the other side of the rather long work zone. To say I felt the pressure of the clock was an understatement, as, by my estimation, I would only have about 3-5 minutes lead on the train at WSS – which is a really tight lead when chasing something like a scheduled passenger train.
Probably few railfans have followed the suggestion of a “speed limit” imposed by those black-and-white signs on the highways when in the hot pursuit of trainage. Me being no exception, but I won’t say just how much though. I did manage to shave off a couple of minutes.
Arriving at WSS, I noted a few passengers already on the platform waiting for the train to arrive – which was running about 10 minutes late from its scheduled time. I hurriedly walked from the far end of the platform to where I wanted to be. Knowing that people would be boarding, I felt a bit relieved as I would have some additional time to get a composition I wanted. The location was backlit so a composition with the station awning (one of the very few left on the C&O) was my best bet with hopes of brining out some detail in post processing. Amtrak’s crews are efficient. By the time I got my photograph and got back to the car, the train was gone.
The next location was a bit of an internal debate. A friend had suggested BS Cabin near Covington, Va. – near the Boys Home of Virginia. It was about 20 road minutes from WSS. Unsure of the trains travel time to that location, I decided to head on to Clifton Forge for my next, and planned last shot.
The shot from the A Street overpass at Clifton Forge offers a unique vantage point of the mainline and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Historical Society’s museum grounds – which features several former C&O passenger rail cars. So, in a way, the modern is juxtaposed against the vintage. It also offers a nice view of the Blue Ridge Mountains that encircle town.
Clifton Forge was the first location where I met up with other fellow railfans. Of which, I believe, I was the second oldest amongst the group (I’m 28). Anticipation was mounting as #50 was heard on the radio and their horn in the distance coming into the station stop at CLF. Railfans are generally a chatty group of people. However, it is easy to know when a train is coming; a silence falls and the sound of shutter clicks begins firing away. The same was true as #519 blew the horn for departure and slowly pulled into view after having completed its station stop.
While this was my last stop as planned, the plan was quickly added to as others in the group set for Staunton, Va., to catch the train just east of town. While I have ridden the Cardinal several times from Huntington and Charleston to both Clifton Forge and Staunton, this was to be my first road trip east of CLF on the old C&O. The Cardinal leaves CLF and almost immediately diverges to the former C&O Mountain Subdivision, which is now operated by the Buckingham Branch Railroad, with many sections still being jointed rail.
I followed my friend Micah Mocnik, who was following his friend Jack Lazarski to the spot which featured an agricultural elevator operated by Augusta Co-op Farm Bureau, Inc. There is a nice curve shot here with good mid-afternoon light in the wintertime. Several other railfans also showed up in short order to catch the rare locomotive.
After that, we headed toward Blue Ridge Tunnel near Afton, Va. There’s a convenient parking lot at the trailhead for the Blue Ridge Tunnel Trail. Also, have to give props to whoever requested the fencing around the facility. It does an excellent job keeping people away from the tracks. So our desire for a tunnel shot was quickly squashed by the fence and the train fast approaching the location.
One other bridge shot was attempted for a freight train, but it too was squashed by a fence. Fences on bridges over railroad tracks are becoming an ever-increasing phenomenon, ruining many good vantage points for photography. Many road bridges that span both rail and river will have fencing that covers the railroad portion and not have any over the river. I guess that’s the government’s way of saying you can jump in the river, just not on train tracks. Though I suspect railroads push for these to reduce operational interruptions.
Dinner was had at the always excellent Jack Mason Tavern in Clifton Forge. They serve a surprisingly good New York Strip steak. A then four-hour drive home was uneventful and absent of inclement weather. Those with astigmatism will understand the delight of that.
Cardinal railfans were once again treated to Amtrak #519 a few days later when it would lead the westbound counterpart, Train #51. I plotted a plan throughout the day to flash it somewhere in the tristate area. I settled on the platform at the former C&O Depot at Catlettsburg as it provided the least amount of obstacles to set up flash units. So, running right on time, Train #51 passes by in the quiet of the night in a place where once upon time passengers would embark and disembark from a train. Just not anymore, sadly.