After chasing the Norfolk Southern OCS to Valdosta, GA, I grabbed lunch with Allan (waterboy31602), Blane (georgiacentralfan), and my sister Megan before Blane and I worked our way up Interstate 75 towards Cordele. As we were nearing Lenox, GA, I spotted a train through the trees on the interstate. Getting off, we learned that it was 152, who was stopped for some unseen reason. He got back underway shortly afterwards, and we went north to Eldorado, GA to catch him. I put my camera down and started filming without checking the shot, sorry for the odd angle.
We hit the road again and made it to Cordele, GA where we saw the tail end of a CSX autorack clear the diamonds headed north. We gave chase to Vienna, GA, where we caught him. Upon seeing the intermediate signal give him a medium clear, we knew he was meeting someone at the south end of the Lilly, GA double track. Upon driving up there, we were pleasantly surprised to see it was the southbound loaded CSX pipe train, destined for Cordele for a handoff to the Heart of Georgia Railroad. They are building a natural gas pipeline through the area and the place that they are offloading the pipe is situated along the HOG main.
We catch the pipe train picking up speed after leaving the siding. The engineer acknowledged my headlight signal, and later thanked me for it at Cordele.
We drove south to Cordele and barely beat it there. The train pulled down the HOG main and then the HOG's leased power coupled onto the rear. They then pulled the pipe down their main to Fish Hatchery Rd., where they tied down the train.
