VALDOSTA, GA With a lot of track maintenance taking place on NS Macon
District, I decided to forego Cordele, my usual stomping ground, for Valdosta.
I was not expecting much traffic on a weekend, but went for a sunrise to
sundown weekend bonanza anyway. The plan was to drive the Valdosta district
to Jacksonville, a line I have very little experience with, and spot some
good photo locations for a better day. On top of that, the weatherman was
trying to ruin another day by the tracks. So much for the low expectations,
the weatherman was completely wrong, and NS delivered everything they had
on the line. Saturday delivered nicely but on Sunday, NS alone brought
11 trains in less than 10 hours including 3 local jobs. I barely got into
Florida off the Valdosta district. Even the Valdosta Railway got in the
act with a morning job to the Clyatville paper mill and an afternoon job
to drop cars to NS in Valdosta. The only one missing in action was CSX:
the ADM grain train was parked on the mainline for most of Saturday and
on Sunday after a train was spotted in Quitman early in the morning
while on the way, that was it. Railnet did not bring any trains that
weekend, but action shots from a previous trip are included.
