I was sitting at a local restaurant here in Madisonville, Ky with several other rail friends where we had just ordered our lunch when I got the first notice from another friend that CSX Q512 was headed north on the Henderson Subdivision with 7 locomotives! At the time it was passing the signals at Oak Hill, just south of Mortons Gap, Ky on April 6th, 2021!
Of course, I really didnt expect to catch it as I felt it would probably pass by when we were in the middle of our meal and pretty much resigned myself to missing this move. Next, I got a phone call about the move from another friend and then a message from another friend that it was passing through Mortons Gap, and still one more that it was at Earlington!
Well, my meal arrived, and I didnt wolf it down, but did get it finished (Over easy eggs, Hash Browns and Bacon with wheat toast) and bid farewell to the others and decided to see if I could catch it. I even thought about flying from the parking lot down to Monarch, which was about ½ mile away, but when I stepped out the door at the restaurant (Swaggy Ps) there was the head end of the power passing just across the street in the tree line! Luck was on my side!!!
I was able to get on I-69 at Madisonville and get far enough ahead of the train, running with CSXT 305, 3357, 78, GMTX 2158, 2160, 2156, and ARNX 3045! Of course, only the CSX units were under power as the others were dead in tow.
I was able to get shots with the drone from the south end of Slaughters, Ky where it took the siding to wait for Q503! This gave me plenty of time to get to the north end of the siding and capture this shot, in beautiful light, of the entire consist of power!
Sometimes things just come together!