Vintage EMD in Lafayette: NS and RJ Corman.

My wife and I spent a nice weekend getaway in Lafayette IN a couple weekends ago.  While there I snuck in a bit of trainspotting. All of what follows was photographed at the southeast corner of town at either end of what I think is referred to as the CSX yards.

At the east end of the yards on the north side of the tracks I pulled up next to a grain elevator at Ceres Solutions Cooperative and found Norfolk Southern SD40-2  #6165.

Though I was only able to get the shade side of 6165, I was able to get round the sunny westerly side of the adjacent grain elevator.

Turning straight to the west here's the area I was unable to get into.

I drove a long way around the complex until I found where the same tracks intersect Concorde Road further west.  I only had to do a slight trespass on the gravel road along the tracks to take these pictures from my car.

RJ Corman (RJCR) 1831. This is a GP16 that began it's life as Atlantic Coast Line GP7 in 1951.

 It's always a thrill for me to find a working locomotive that is older than my dad.

Then this almost-as-oldie GP9, RJCR #209 rolled up!

Online details are a bit confusing, but RJCR GP9 #206 was -until about 2010- RJCR #9010 before being given the number of a Yadkin Valley low hood GP9 that was purchased but appears to have never have been put into service by RJCR.  Though it's 6 years younger, the high hood (how often do you see one of those still working?!) certainly makes GP9 #206 appear to be the elder. 

 At this point it bears mentioning that fans of old road switchers will find alot to love in pictures of the RJCR Roster.  Based on the printed roster at the Altoona Works website, most of those are still operating today!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more updates this month.  More track is going down on the layout, a couple locomotive shells have arrived and I recently got a bargain on a treasure trove of modern CNW equipment!

Be Well,

Karl