ABOVE: While Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac engines watch, a CSX train hustles south out of Acca Yard in October 1988. Seaboard System power was still comon in those days. LEFT: CSX’s “grey ghost” scheme contrasts wildly with Chessie’s “disco” colors at Acca Yard in May 1989. The new CSX im- age slowly took, though the Chessie image was still visible into the 1990s.
I found a railfan group named “Yad-
topography was flat, but the idyllic buildings lining Center Street made a great stage for the drama that was east- ern seaboard railroading in the 1980s. After my six-month deployment in
1988 to the Persian Gulf during the Iran/Iraq War to escort Kuwaiti oil tankers around Iranian obstacles, we were based for several months in dry dock in Portsmouth, Va., within view of
the Norfolk Southern drawbridge over the Elizabeth River which hosted dozens of coal trains daily. And only Norfolk Southern coal trains. After a month or two, I was sated. I didn’t want to see another coal train for the rest of my life. It was like the time when I was a child and I downed an entire tub of Cool Whip: I didn’t touch any whipped cream for years.
kin” where congenial southern gentle- men met at a rural volunteer fire sta- tion monthly for an informal slide show. Among the aficionados I met was Bill Schaefer, an officer at Norfolk Southern, who was generous enough to take me into the bowels of the Lamberts Point facilities to show me the intricacies of unloading a coal train into a ship. His kindness was almost matched by the amazing organization of the whole enterprise. Sadly, my service in the Navy came
to an end all too quickly. My friend John left the Navy soon after I did. We both returned to the midwest, but never really got together to shoot the rail action in Illinois or Wisconsin. I think the escape from the Navy that railroading provided was the catalyst that made our relationship special. And John’s truck didn’t hurt either!
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