Special Moves and Consists

[Albo5000]

As we have all heard (or read) by now, the Downeaster will be adorned with the Great Dome car, and yesterday a photographer in Worcester (Woostahh), MA was very fortunate to catch a great shot of the delivery of the Great Dome and also a new "Cabbage" F40. (http://www.railpictures.net/photo/585626)

What I want to know is, was that photographer really lucky to get to see that move (right time, right place), or is there somewhere that the general public could find out about these moves in advance? I assume the photographer is not affiliated with Amtrak and assume they did not get a heads up from the inside, so to say.

 

[MikefromCrete]

There are lots of ways the photog got the shot:

1. He's an Amtrak or CSX employee and heard about the run as part of his job.

2. He has friends who are Amtrak or CSX employees who told him about it.

3. He heard about on a website such as Amtrak Unlimited or Trainorders.

4. He heard about the special run while listening to the CSX radio band.

5. He just got lucky, hanging around the railroad and the train showed up.

 

[Palmetto]

If you belong to enough groups like this, you get advance info on such moves. It's a matter of checking in on them often to stay abreast. Railroaders belong to such groups and will sometimes let members know of a special move.

 

[amtkstn]

Another good source of info on this topic is Facebook. There are several pages on Amtrak.

 

[Acela150]

If one goes on the Amtrak Northeast Corridor Fans Facebook page many of the members of that page are Amtrak employees. One of which works at the NEC locomotive desk. He's jokingly referred to as the Locomotive God of the NEC. He will consistently post heads ups saying for instance "42 May be worth a photo between PGH-HAR and again HAR-PHL". That last quote represents a recent event where the P42 on train 43/42 had a cab signal failure in Pittsburgh and they borrowed an NS unit with can signals to take the train to Harrisburg. On top of that it was a GP33ECO which is a rebuild that is fuel efficient and are normally held to yard shifting. Has a nice paint job too. So people will give heads ups on Facebook groups, emails, RR related forums, etc.