Ashland VA 4.25.09: Fancy (Almost) Meeting You Here

The slow running due to the College Avenue gates acting up was still in effect when the northbound Carolinian coasted through town behind P42 192.

Another headlight approached from the north, unfortunately not fast enough for the meet to occur in front of us. As it was, the Carolinian passed the oncoming Q173 in front of the Randolph-Macon campus. The trailing ex-Conrail C40-8W on Q173 was a nice variation from its typical all-GEVO power.

Shortly after Q173 left town, a CSX hi-rail truck showed up, and a signal maintainer took care of the gates in fairly short order. The quiet zone was in full effect again.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Amtrak
• CSX
• freight
• passenger
• train
• railroad
• meet
• intermodal
• piggyback
• trailer
• container
• Carolinian
• 173
• P42
• GEVO
• ES44DC
• C40-8W
• RF&P
• Subdivision
• station
• College
• Avenue
• crossing
• Ashland
• Virginia
• HD
• hi
• def
• high
• definition

[trainkid16]

Nice job! It would be plain awesome if Ashland wasn't a quiet zone!

[FastFlyingVirginian]

However, no orders were ever placed for the optional donk rims that the extra height was made to accomodate, and the feature was quietly dropped from the order book later on.

[xxxDeath9572xxx]

The easy way to tell the different is by height. A C40-8W is taller in heigh than a C40-9W

[csxdispatcher]

the earlier dash 8's fins are thinner then the later ones and the dash 9's due to lack of split cooling.

[csxdispatcher]

FRA changed the rules to become a quiet zone, and yes the horns were blown in town at the time. To keep their quiet zone, Ashland is going to have to close some crossings, I believe.

[csxdispatcher]

Several ways. First off: the trucks. AC44's for CSX have either the hi-ad or radial trucks while the 8's do not. The second: the engine air intake behind the dynamic grids, the 8's have a long intake, while the AC44's have a smaller, single air intake. Secondly, the marker lights denote its a Conrail unit. Fourth: AC44's are 1-599 and 5100-5121 in numbers...

[mgaines106]

Nice K5HL on the Q173!

[hhp8]

how do u tell the difference between a c40 and c44?

[hhp8]

oops, i meant the AC44009W and the AC60009W are in the 9 series,but i thought the C40 and C44 are all dash 8 units and they are all 4,000hp and all the radiator wings on almost all the radiator wings on almost all GE engines(excluding the ES units) look almost the same

[FastFlyingVirginian]

Other way around - C40s would be dash 8, C44s would be dash 9, unless you're weird like NS and insist on downrating a C44-9W to 4000hp... :)

I'm not sure about the flatter nose, but the radiator 'wings' are slightly thicker on a dash 9 vs. dash 8., plus I don't believe the dash 8's ever came with the same truck design as the dash 9s.