Prior to a recent NS OCS trip to the Masters Golf Tourament in Georgia, the NS A-B-B-A F unit consist needed to be serviced at the engine facility in Cresson, Pa.
I received a heads up of this move…An Altoona helper set would haul the F’s up to Cresson from Altoona, and then the F’s would return to Altoona under their own power after servicing…
I put together a video-slideshow of the F unit move between Altoona and Cresson…
Great pics., thanks for sharing!
Dave, excellent presentation of the NS A-B-B-A units…and the music selection was really great…! Sound reproduction through my system here was excellent.
I’m almost certain I saw this train as it was heading to the Masters tournament. Just as I tuned into the Roanoke rail cam last week…a “passenger train” was passing left to right on the screen…I did not see the engines, as they had already passed, but a long line of maroon passenger cars were passing…{I saw 12 of them}…What a nice catch.
That was probably the OCS that you saw…The OCS made it down as far as Florida on this trip…It departed Altoona on March 26th and should have just gotten back to the barn at Altoona as of early this morning
I managed to catch the OCS as it headed East from Altoona toward Harrisburg on March 26th…First video was shot at Ardenheim, Pa,MP 200 just East of Huntingdon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7CqDgbNF_g
and we managed to get ahead of it again and shoot it at Lewistown…MP162
if they didnt move under there own power it was because they were FRA dead.
FRA dead means past their 89(?) day inspection period?
…Yep, Dave…that’s the train I saw moving thru Roanoke. Could tell for sure by {watching your video at Lewistown}, and seeing that last car and the full length dome…What a nice site. A “passenger train” and as clean as that was…A beautiful consist…!
Yes that is what i figure because it was being towed. if dead all they are allowed to do is idle.
I was wondering, “Why Cresson?”. They can certainly do 92 day inspections at the test shed at JBS. I’m guessing it was for fuel. Anybody know?
I’m wondering the same thing. Don’t they have at least some fuel, lube oil, and sanding facilities at the Juniata Back Shop to set-up the recently repaired and rebuilt units, and to service the Altoona yard and local switchers, which could have been used instead for these units ? On the other hand, 4 road units could use up a goodly quantity of same, and there must be a reason that Cresson still exists up there, even though there’s lots more room and buildings at Juniata/ Altoona. So maybe it is a case of only rebuilds and repairs are inspected and serviced at Juniata - all of the routine inspections and servicing for in-service units is assigned to Cresson instead, ‘just because’ that’s the way it is ? - Paul North.
The reason given was that the units needed to be sanded…and there is a truck that normally sands the units down at Altoona, but it had broken down…so the decision was made to send the F’s to Cresson for sanding…
units can move with out sand they were dead units .
No doubt they needed their periodic inspection. Maybe if they had to run them up there for sand, might as well do all the work at one place.
The only thing I saw them doing to them at Cresson was sanding them…But come to think of it, I left the scene for awhile until they were ready to pull out so they may have done an inspection as well…The OCS had not been run since the previous Fall, so likely did need the inspection while they were getting their sanding…