At Chessie we shot our first gray and blue CSX "picture train" in May 1986 with EMD GP40-2 #6387 as one of two featured units, the other being one of those ugly GE B36-7s. As we had to not only replace every existing photo in our Chessie and Seaboard photo files but also get tons of new images for future use, we shot the tiny picture train with a variety of freshly painted car-types from every possible angle and with a cadre of photographers over a period of a week, using the better-looking EMD 6387 as our primary subject loco.
At 6:20 a.m. on May 12, 1986, when I first laid eyes on the 6387 in the pre-dawn fog down in Elkatawa, Kentucky, I nicknamed the new gray and blue CSX Transportation loco paint scheme "Stealth" after the "Stealth" aircraft then-rumored to exist. We all laughed but kept the nickname to ourselves lest some big-wig hear that I was making fun of their "wonderful" new locomotive livery. We also joked about the 6387 being "The Most Photographed Diesel Locomotive in the World". In August the railroad decided that the word "Transportation" was redundant on the side of a locomotive, and the word was dropped from the loco livery, being replaced with the now-familiar 55-inch Lubalin Bold typeface "CSX" lettering. Immediately, about 90% of all of our three-month old slides, negatives, movies and videotapes were no good, except for head-on views of the locos where the side lettering was not visible. Our photo budget had been blown for the year and we would have to wait until 1987 to reshoot the photos with a second picture train. We had to do with what few gray and blue livery photos of the 6387 that we had. In April 1987 CSXT inaugurated its new RoadRailer service (called ExpressRailer) down in Atlanta, and we CSX Corp photogs descended onto the town for the big event AND to get some more photos of the new gray and blue paint scheme with a different loco because all we had were shots of the 6387. We planned our shoot to maximize the one afternoon that we would have for the photo session, and decided to take the empty ExpressRailer train on a tour around Atlanta's loop track for our photos and videos in the beautiful spring greenery and flowers of the warm southern climate. But vice president Dan Quale was coming to town that day, and the Secret Service closed the railroad underpass under a street that he would traverse later in the day. They closed it just as we approached with our train--we missed getting through by a minute or so. We pleaded that he was not coming for hours and that we needed to get through there. "Can't we just get by?" "NO!" So we were stuck between that underpass and the switch off the main track onto the belt, about 1000 feet or so of "running track" for action photos and videotapes of the new "high speed" ExpressRailer train. The train consisted of a single locomotive and about 8 or 10 RoadRailers, so we had just a few hundred feet of track on which to accelerate, roll and stop before some Secret Service guy shot the engineer. We rev- ved up the diesel's engine with the brakes on and then released the brakes to get up some speed very quickly for the video cameras to make it look as if the train were really moving fast, and then we had to go into emergency braking to stop the train short of the underpass. Secret Service guys were crapping in their pants at all of this noise as they feared it would hide the sound of an assassin's gunfire, but they were well aware of our predicament--after all, they had created the problem by not being more flexible and letting us go by, so they let us alone for a while. After several hours of this loud exhaust noise and squealing brakes as we shot our photos, the Secret Service said that we had to stop because Quale was approaching the track. A half-hour later the v.p. finally rolled across the overpass--it took him 3 seconds to get over our track. We had wasted the entire afternoon waiting for his 3-second journey, and now had to scoot and clear the loop trackage for backed-up trains waiting to roll. What a lost opportunity for some badly needed photos! The sole engine at the head of the ExpressRailer train that day? Yep, the 6387, "The Most Photographed Diesel Locomotive in the World!" John B. Corns -> Web Site: http://home.att.net/~acphotog/sporrs/sporrs.htm -> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects
