It's about time I finally got off my a$$ and posted my shots from the completely epic SD50 chase I orchestrated early that afternoon.
Our earlier attempt at chasing a westbound stack train was single-handedly destroyed by a terrible Asian driver in a minivan. I pulled my patented center-lane pass on him in Marysville, but he became the leader of the westbound pack, after this dicey shot of the train at Banks:
So that nimrod backed up a nice line of traffic on 11/15, and also stopped right in the middle of the road at Duncannon, causing us to miss the Cannon shot by about 15 seconds. COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE. On ALL levels. But we knew we had a 503 bearing down on us with a pair of beautiful blue fightin' 50s fueling up at the pad, ready to take on the Middle Division. Turns out it was the same pair I chased eastward from Mexico last Sunday on an 82T, and after the day's first abortion of a chase, I was NOT going to be denied. So we set up at Burley Road and I put my game face on:
My shots at Cove and Kinkora were crap, so next stage ends at Duncannon. Cruising into town, we can see our foe has a clear signal, but it's gonna take more than that to throw me from my game. Cannon is where westbounds typically let 'er rip, and those 50s were screamin...:
Next up: the challenging Aqueduct Road stage of the chase. Features some gnarly curves on narrow lightly-traveled Perry County roads, perfect for letting every one of my 300 horses do what they do best. We easily beat the 503 to the end of the paved road at Losh Run:
Between Losh Run and Bailey is a stage of unpaved road consisting of rock and gravel, marked on either end with signs warning you to "Travel At Your Own Risk". To my STi, they might as well say "Welcome home!". Until an 80MAC chase back in May, I had questioned if this stage was beatable, but my baby did not let me down. Today would be no exception, and here is the shot at Bailey, after the tarmac resumes:
From here, several miles of road with only 2 or 3 curves worthy of illuminating up your brake lights stand between you and Newport, where the big curve in the tracks that seems to act as trains' cue to REALLY notch-out is. And here they are, belching exhaust as they charge along the course of the Juniata River:
Most sensible people, well, most sensible people wouldn't have even come this far. Your crazier railfans, at this point, would likely call it a chase. Next shot to the west would be Millerstown, definitely not gonna happen. Next after that would be Thompsontown, 13 miles away by rail and about 15 by road. Trains have a straight shot at track speed, while the intrepid chaser has to worry about fighting through the tiny towns of Newport and Thompsontown. You can't really beat a train from Newport to Thompsontown, can you? But we set off for points west, expecting to have to settle for the nice shot at Mifflin. We can hear him calling signals as we blasted west, and we seemed to have the edge we needed. So we dove down the exit for Thompsontown and made our way to the tracks, seeing him pass the signals at MP 142 just as we crossed over him on the Route 333 bridge...perfect...this sets up the nice shot out at Vandyke:
Google tells me that the distance between the Newport and Vandyke shots is 16 miles, taking a time of 26 minutes to cover the ground. Looking at the timestamps on my shots, I did it in 15. There comes a time in every good chase where you need to abandon those last shreds of rational thought and sanity, and in that stage, the moment happened when the total absence of traffic coincided with a stretch of highway with perfect visibility. I'm gonna plead the fifth and refrain from posting the speed we attained, suffice it to say that I was glad I shelled out the money for tires that carry a speed rating of W back when I bought new rubber last year...
Anyway, no sense going all the way to Vandyke without also heading out to Mexico, via a stage of Route 333 that is just plain FUN:
And that was that. Speed, blue units, loud metal, and winning a chase stage that you didn't think was possible makes for a DAMN good day. But now, how to improve upon this? Is it possible to add the shot at Mifflin? And what about Denholm, then Lewistown after that? Stay tuned, folks. As long as there are blue leaders to cause me to have severe drops in my self-preservation instincts, I WILL be chasing...
