NS 5156, a high nose GP38-2, leads NS 371 southbound at Oostanaula Bend Road, south of Calhoun, GA on August 5, 2015. The day before, I had driven up from my house in Rockmart (50 miles one way) to shoot train 370, which I thought would have 5156 leading. I was wrong on the 4th - instead it was 3rd out. On the morning of the 5th, however, I woke up to a text from one of my friends at NS saying that 5156 had (miraculously) ended up in the lead of 371 out of Chattanooga, so I made the trip back north to shoot it. This was the first time I shot a HH GP38-2 in the lead of a road train, but little did I know I would shoot another one leading an intermodal three days later! Summer 2015 proved a great time to be a railfan between Chattanooga, TN, and Rome, GA, as 370 and 371 ran almost daily with a mix of GP38-2s and SD40-2s. I made multiple trips to that territory to shoot these trains while I was on summer break, as who knows if they'll still be running with the old EMDs come next summer? (For as long as I can remember before, up until around the beginning of 2015, Dash 9s were the primary power.)
I still can't believe how lucky I was with this shot to not get blocked out by a cloud.
