Each year, Ashland VA decorates center street for over a mile of Christmas lights, conveniently right next to CSX's RF&P sub the whole way. Having not been able to attend the lighting ceremony, I took the evening to pay my visits this year and pick up a few night catches.

I started the evening at Gwathmey Church road, about a mile North of downtown. There I saw P090 and P053, while the last bit of daylight faded away.

Next, I headed into downtown Ashland. There I took a self tour of the holiday displays, in which I included some limited footage of in my video. At 5:55, I saw Amtrak P125 arrive and depart. 125 would be the 1st of 4 northeast regional trains I would see tonight. After 125 moved on I reserved our table for 3 at the "Trackside Grill" downtown, and conveniently caught the 1st CSX to show, which was the SB Q415 manifest bound for Rocky Mount. After the downtown crossing gates raised once again after Q415, we were called to our table. Perfect timing.

I didn't miss any action while eating, so I picked right back up where I left off with another regional, this time P066, to get me back in the flow at about 7:50.

30 minutes later, P083 made its routine station stop. I then heard a Q136 calling signals north of Ashland, and it finally showed at about 8:30 with a train of incredible length. I had panned for this to be my final catch, but I was then allowed to stay until P097 passed, but that wouldn't be the only thing I saw.

P085 made its uneventful stop to finish out tonight's regionals but just beginning an onslaught of action to close out the day. Q130 was ordered to stop at Vaughn road just North of downtown, so I hopped in the car and drove to the crossing, arriving just in time to see the intermodal pull away(took 10+ minutes). Immediately preceding Q130, Q400, which had been waiting at Elmont for quite a while, came North with a massive train and a 6 unit lashup.

Finally, the finale happened. P097, Amtrak's Silver Meteor hopped on through with 5 private cars on the back, quite the surprise. Also, it was then I finally fulfilled my longtime goal of seeing the Silver Meteor while Railfanning.

Thanks for tuning in.

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