Fun day railfanning on Friday while in Chattanooga.
First at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum one of the highlights of the tour was watching a locomotive switch directions on a turntable. This was the first time that I had ever seen this in person. The loco was a Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis EMD GP7 #710 that pulled the tour train (the museum uses the steamer on weekends).
Then, while getting ready to leave the museum this northbound freight rolled by powered by Norfolk Southern #8063 and Union Pacific #5206 up front and then a Union Pacific #8058 centered in the consist.
Last was at railroad bridge by the Chickamauga Dam on the Tennessee River with a southbound Norfolk Southern (locos 1079 and 1197) slowly crossing the dual track bridge starting at 1:06p. After about 7 minutes the train stopped on the bridge until a northbound freight rolled by on the other track. The train then sat motionless for 33 minutes before finally moving again at 1:46p and continued on for another 7 minutes before completing the crossing. I then moved to the west side of the bridge to film in case another train came by while this one was stopped. I also caught what turned on out to be end of the consist while I was under the bridge with my cell phone camera. You’ll notice that near the end of the video where my main camera stays focused on the bridge after the train was off screen before I returned to catch the end of the train rumbling off into the forest.
Both of those long freights are in the video below:
From what I understand, trains cross that bridge slowly due to congestion and crew changes so this speed is a normal occurrence.
Great rail fanning Kevin! A beautiful setting to do just that. It must be a nightmare putting those consist' s together'. Again, those are some very long freights. Are there autos in those tall rounded top cars?.. Nice work'.. I've enjoyed each episode you've posted.. Time well spent'.. Also, your Nikon takes a great photo and video'......