This is a perfect example of why it pays to keep others informed. After grabbing a few shots of K444 since it was sitting in the hole at SE Tucker waiting for a crew, I decided to head north towards the Etowah Sub to see if I could find out where W024 with an SD50-3 leading a SD40-2 was. Upon arriving at Emerson, one of the younger railfans I helped informed where K444 was had posted that the crew had shown up out of nowhere & was waiting for Q583 to clear up the single track before heading south. I quickly got off at that exit & quickly started heading back over 30 miles south, not knowing if Q583 was near them. Upon getting to East Switch just before Howell Yard, I get word that K444 just cleared the signal at SE Tucker. So I parked where I was & waited for them to come to me, not wanting to give Howell any chance of slapping another engine or wying the power to put the 2431 in a trailing position. Less than 15 minutes later, they come into view & I set myself up, hoping that the break in the clouds would hold. Here, we see K444 knocking down the East Switch signal as it's about to go under I-75. As it would turn out, I ended up getting the only sunny shot of this train that day, as it would end up sitting at Gilstrap the rest of the day waiting for a crew to take it to Etowah.
