Fall 2003 Dalton RailFEAST

More images will be coming soon, as I get the slides from this weekend scanned.

	While "The Fireman" was going to conduct his fieldtrip on Friday, I decided to take advantage of the good weather and head out to Nickajack Lake near New Hope, TN and photograph trains on CSX's Nashville to Chattanooga main. Attendance for the fieldtrip somewhat was low, so Robert "The Fireman" Duncan, Bart Youngblood, and Jonathan Guy end up meeting up with me out by the lake about an hour after Q126 slips northbound through the rock cut.
	We move southwest (timetable north) to Bridgeport, AL where we catch Sequatchie Valley RR making a setoff near the restored station with former Illinois Terminal SW1200 #1210, now riding on standard switcher trucks.
	a couple of miles further west, and we find TVA SW1000 #102 shoving a string of UP hoppers from the Powder River into the rotary dumper.
	After catching many other trains along the CSX main, we wrap up the day's chase back at Nickajack lake to watch the sun set.
	The next morning, I meet up with the crowd in downtown Dalton, and set up across from the old interlocking tower to get shots of some passing trains before the sun shifts too far to the west. This facility is now used by CSX's signal department, but ya never know when this building may suddenly face the wrecking ball!!!
	"Bart, what are you doing with my... BART!!! Put my damned digital camera down!!!" Bart inadvertantly photographs me.
	A former Warbonnet unit now wears a much different but just as colorful scheme as it leads an NS train past the tower just prior to banging the diamond. The Dalton Depot Restaraunt occupies the former NC&StL station behind the 926.
	Jonathan, Bart, Phil, and Paul photograph the DPU of a passing loaded Sherer Train as Woody observes from the ground.
	The attendees enjoy the passing of a former Conrail unit on the point of an NS train.
	Suddenly we are finding just as much foreign power as home road locomotives. A UP SD70M and a beat-to-hell BNSF B40-8W lead an NS train south to Atlanta.
	Robert "The Fireman" Duncan throws the chicken breasts onto the grill as yet another UP unit passes by, this time on a CSX train.
	Robert shows his spirit while applying the barbeque sauce as a passing UP unit shows its American spirit.