transportation, a red pickup truck. Together John and I explored Hamp- ton Roads and much of its railroad ac- tion. We enjoyed Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt’s attractive, diminutive SW1200s as they shuttled freight around Norfolk and environs. But we dreamed about what lay beyond Hampton Roads, espe- cially the rail center of Richmond. New- port News had some interesting CSX engines, but Richmond held a true bounty. It had a lot more action; it was also the southern terminus of the in- triguing bridge line, the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac.
Richmond opened up its amazing railroad landscape to us. We discerned that there were two distinct railroad personalities, the former Chesapeake & Ohio Fulton Yard and its lines which extended on a mammoth trestle south of downtown, and the old Seaboard Coast Line main, which bisected down- town, terminating at the RF&P’s Acca Yard on the north side of Virginia’s state
capitol. Fulton Yard, a huge
snake of tracks arcing southeast of downtown, was intriguing but difficult to photograph. Acca Yard was more photogenic with public access, Tomlynn Street, passing on a hill just west of the engine terminal. Here all the ingredi- ents of CSX and RF&P met less than five years before the smaller road’s 1991 inclusion into the larger CSX. One could never anticipate what unusual engines
or visual medley of paint
schemes would be waiting upon the next trip to Acca.
One visit had me gasping before I got out of the car. An ex-Louisville & Nashville U25B in Family Lines paint sat next to the service docks to RF&P’s engine house. John and I shared a love for F-units and Alcos, but I was alone in my admiration for General Electrics old U-boats. I snapped the shutter like
54 JUNE 2012 •
RAILFAN.COM
TOP: A Seaboard System U25B from Louisville & Nashville’s original early 1960s order was (incredibly) still pulling revenue freight in 1988, seen here at Acca Yard. ABOVE: A CSX train with ex-Seaboard power comes off the James River trestle with downtown Richmond in the background as it receives permission to enter Fulton Yard on October 29, 1988.
a madman, looking for new vantage points to capture this aged, endangered relic. I wasn’t paying much attention, but while John was being entertained by my delirium, he exposed only one or two images of the scarce beast. I could- n’t wait to get the film to the processor, but the Trenton set sail for maneuvers to train for an upcoming deployment. When I returned, a new copy of Trains was waiting for me. And what did I find in “Railroad News Photos?” A picture of the U25B with John Cummings photo credit! I couldn’t believe it! He didn’t
even know what he was looking at un- til I had gone bananas.
But that’s the way it is with railfan friends. We had a lot of fun and went a lot of places together. We searched out- side of Richmond for good photo loca- tions, but nowhere was more photo- genic than the small college town of Ashland (see February 2010 R&R). Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac trains split the town at main line speed right down the main drag. A safe place to view the action was the Amtrak sta- tion. There weren’t any curves, and the
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