Seeing Heritage Units In Person

Its got to really be something big to get me to go stand trackside with a camera. With that said, to see/ride the NS PRR and Conrail Heritage Units, all I had to do was buy a ticket. 

 

I've also seen every single Amtrak Heritage/Speciality engine. Usually just by running into it as my daily commute takes me through the Amtrak Ivy City Yards and out along the old B&O Mainline west. Most of the time they are being positioned onto trains, on the fuel track, switching around, etc. Sometimes when my schedule works out, I'll see them leaving town and occasionally a heritage unit/speciality unit and/or private varnish will be on the rear. 

Saw the NS Heritage Southern ES44AC entering the Conway yard yesterday.

 

ONE NICE ENGINE - ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU DON'T EXPECT TO SEE IT.

 

I've seen the Southern, Monongahela, New York Central, Nickle Plate and Wabash all to date in person.

I saw the UP Mopac Heritage locomotive once, but that's the only one I've seen.

 

Jeff C

I've seen the UP Chicago NorthWestern

For the N.S. Conrail, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wabash.

I saw the red NS unit. And I saw the Wabash when I actually had my camera with me. Taken with my now deceased digital camera. Oh well it was 10 years old. The new one will be better.

Saw the CNW just this afternoon on a northbound ballast load headed for Springfield, IL area on the 12th. Seen here passing thru Carondelet Park in south St. Louis, MO. Dan

I have not seen one as yet, No NS in the DC area just CSX, I am going to Georgia again  tomorrow for a few days maybe I will see something there or along the way, my luck if I do it will be the worm engine. YUCK!

I've seen four:

 

UP/WP -- Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach

UP/Katy -- Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach

UP/MP -- Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach

UP/SP -- Covina, CA (part of the hospital train taking UP4014 from Faiplex to Colton.)

 

Unfortunately, I was driving and couldn't get positioned to get good photos of the first three.

 

I got to see all 6 UP units up close last year in North Platte at Railfest.

 

I saw all 20 of the NS Heritage engines when they were in Spencer NC. I'm in the process of collecting all of the NS Heritage engines. I own 7 MTH Premier engines so far!!!............13 more to go!!!

 I've operated most of the NS's heritage units,but still haven't seen all of them.

 

 I've never once spotted a UP heritage unit on the Pokey

When I do go railfanning, I almost never check heritageunits.com or a similar site. If it happens to come within my camera's reach, I 'm all the happier.

 

That being said, I've seen the PRR and Conrail units on the 765 excursion last year. The Wabash and Southern were snapped working an intermodal. The CofG also made an appearance. I also saw the Amtrak exhibit train (F40PH Cabbage #406 and Phase 3 Genesis #822) in Strasburg and the Amtrak Vets unit in Washington Union Station. Also, if this counts, I saw the Pittsburgh Port Authority's Heritage Trolley.

We actually rode behind the Southern Ry. NS unit back in March, on one of the NS "steam" trips.  The shop work on the 2-8-0 was not finished on-time, and the SOU unit was a substitute.

 

It was a disappointment that steam was not the power, as we had gone half way across the country for the train ride, but that's a risk you take with any main line steam excursion.  And NS did its best to provide something special as a substitute.  We'll try again next year.  The train ride was great nonetheless.

 

The Southern unit was stunning , I'll have to say -- a truly iconic paint scheme.

A few years ago, I was driving around Fort Worth and I saw the Katy and Mopac units working in tandem.  (I think they were pulling yellow passenger cars).

 

At the time I had no plans to acquire any UP locos, but now I have three, including the Katy.  I want to get the Mopac when it comes out in PS3. 

 

That experience definitely set up my interest in acquiring the O scale models.

This topic is really cool how it's going on how people have caught different heritage units. As for one engine below I took video and pictures below has not made it to the HeritageUnits.com website is LTEX #2519 Ex. Santa Fe Blue Bonnet.

 

Heard some cretin tagged UP 1983. They got it touched up, but I'd really like to mete out some fundamental frontier justice on that tagger.

 

I guess I don't get too excited over the Heritage units. Don't get me wrong, I think they are cool and I'm glad they are around. I don't think it would be much more than a slightly above average railfanning event for me though. I'd rather see some first gen diesel power on a short line or better yet catch the 765 when they come through town. THAT gets me excited. Boring universally homogenized 6 axle road power with a fancy paint scheme? Meh...

 

I've caught four of the NS units so far; PRR, Conrail, Lehigh Valley and Savannah & Atlanta.  The Lehigh Valley was a chance sighting but, I knew the other three were coming and had set up to video them.  Fortunately, I had the video camera with me when I stumbled onto the Lehigh Valley unit and was able to get it on DVD too.

Curt

I swear that is just BS.  I would love to meet the twerps that do this stuff.

I imagine that must be pretty cool to see the heritage trains up close.  Where I live will never get the chance.  Pretty cool!

That's sad about 1983 with graffitti. What's funny in that picture, if I or other people didn't know about crossing gate bells, look between the K5LLA and the Radiator Fans you can see the Crossing Bell. It looks like it's part of the engine. Reminds me, there's a gentlemen who lives in Florida that loves CSX and he put a Crossing Bell in his car. And acctually certain heritage units that get a little dirty or just dirty and not cleaned acctually looks cool. I saw a recent picture on the Internet of the Virginian #1069 has dirt on it and it looks better. It does cost money to clean and wash engines. 

 

I have seen 13 of the NS units while trackside around the Pittsburgh area.  If I'm going to watch trains, or even driving near Conway, I check heritageunits.com first.  I'm hoping to catch the Jersey Central unit coming off the Mon line this weekend.

 

On the CRHS tour last year, I recall the Conway diesel shop manager saying that NS has instructions to have those units washed on a more frequent schedule than the rest of the fleet.