COMMENTARY BY KEVIN EUDALY
whiteriverproductions.com Turning Adversity into Adventure
have three brothers) on a railfan trip, usually the summer we turned five. My trip happened to be the fall of 1964, so I was not quite five yet. The thrill of going on an adventure alone with Dad was a childhood memory that will last a lifetime. Anytime the desire strikes to relive that trip, all we have to do is go to Dad’s slide collection. The sight of Chesa- peake & Ohio E8s blazing through New Rich- mond, Ky., at 90 m.p.h. is forever etched on my mind. I remember sitting on the top of our 1959 Rambler station wagon at Fort Spring between the C&O’s tunnels, watching trains on Cheviot Hill in Cincinnati that I now know were powered by Baldwin AS-16s, and the presence of the late Phil Shuster who accom- panied us on that trip.
A That first adventure was the start of a life-
time interest in railroad photography, always encouraged by Dad. My brother Lon’s interest in the early 1970s provided more fuel, and before long we were both toting cameras in search of anything on rails in the Kansas City area. After a slight hiatus in the late 1960s Dad was more than happy to plan a series of trips to his beloved C&O, the first in 1974, the year my brother turned 16 and I turned 14. Every couple of years we made it “back east” to the C&O, and in between were numerous outings around Kansas City and beyond. Dale Sanders, former editor of CTC Board
(later RAILROADS ILLUSTRATED), once said, “An adventure with no adversity is just a trip.” Most serious railfans who have spent signif- icant amounts of time in pursuit of railroad photography have a number of stories where they were stranded by automobiles, got stuck in the mud, got hopelessly lost, and had all manner of other adventures. Often the first reaction of panic eventually turns into an ac- tion plan to get out of the jam. In early January 2013 a routine trip be-
came a most unusual adventure. My parents were along for the ride, and the three of us started east on a sunny January 4 photo- graphing Norfolk Southern and CSX action around Princeton, Ind. From there we headed for deepest West Virginia, with photography starting on the former Norfolk & Western at Tunnel 5 at Tripp. On a gloomy Sunday af- ternoon we were working east on the former N&W main and spent some time at the tre- mendous sweeping curve at Ought One. After shooting No. 9261 leading a westbound at just after noon, we drove east through Wharncliffe when our trip became an adventure at the Ben’s Creek crossing. A bridge had spanned the creek but winter rains had washed it away. A fateful spur-of-the-moment decision
to cross the creek without complete reconnaissance resulted in my Ford Explorer taking a dip into the creek — or more like a plunge. As the water surged from up under the hood across the windshield the car died and I knew we were in trouble. We were in the proverbial tight spot — Sunday afternoon, dead of winter, stranded in a creek crossing deep in Appalachia — oh, boy. I opened the
4 DECEMBER 2015 •
RAILFAN.COM
BOUT FIVE DECADES AGO I went on my first railfan trip. My dad had put in place a tradition of taking each of us boys (I
www.railfan.com PUBLISHER
KEVIN EUDALY
KEUDALY@WHITERIVERPRODUCTIONS.COM Contributions of features and photos
from our readers are always welcome. Please contact the editor for details.
EDITOR
Publisher Kevin EuDaly’s adventerous attempt at fjording Ben’s Creek near Wharncliffe, W. Va., resulted in rescue by Chaston Christian and his grandfather Irvin Gibson.
door and crawled across the hood of the car, and Mom and Dad followed. We started the trek up the long gravel road toward the small town of Wharncliffe. In amazingly short order, a pickup came
along with Chaston Christian behind the wheel. Though there are certainly people in the world that cannot be trusted, there is also a portion of humanity that will go the ex- tra mile to help a stranger in trouble. After a quick assessment Chaston made a fast run into town to get his grandfather, Irvin Gibson, to help out. Good people are where you find them, and we found several at Wharncliffe. Irvin pulled us out of the creek and towed
the Explorer to his house. He dried out the engine and spent several hours trying to bring it to life to no avail. He then turned to his best friend, who came down with a two-wheel dolly and they towed our vehicle on the twisty curvy 30 miles to Logan where we could get the car repaired on Monday. The definition of “above and beyond the call of duty” should definitely include these guys. Monday turned into Thursday, so a rent-
al car had to suffice for several days on the C&O. We spent some serious money on the car repair in Logan, but we gained some friends in Wharncliffe. It seems a fair trade. No doubt many of you have similar tales, but the experience at Ben’s Creek gave me a less cynical view of the world we live in. I’ve been pulled out of sand by a tractor, dragged out of the mud by an 18-wheeler, and rescued from snow and ice on more than one occasion, but the grandfather-grandson team in Wharn- cliffe makes the highlight reel. The pages of RAILFAN & RAILROAD have
covered the gamut over the years, and the adversity that converts a trip into an adventure has been woven across its pages by the many writers and the two editors during its four-decade history. A little more than a year ago R&R itself faced serious adversity, but today the adventure continues. Dale’s “adversity” came into play one cold day in January and yielded a really excellent adventure. I’m ready for the next one. How about you?
“Admiral” Kevin EuDaly is the founder of White River Productions and the publisher of RAILFAN & RAILROAD. His natucial days are currently dormant, but railroads often follow water...
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