Then came the maintenance curfews on the P&A sub. None of the locals and the westbounds were affected. However, some eastbound trains were stopped in Pensacola, until the curfew was cancelled by darkness. The unfortunate eastbounds would ease their way to Chattahoochee during the night, then would find the rising sun somewhere on the Tallahassee sub. Just what I needed. On top of that, sometimes late in March, a new eastbound Q608 was created to handle the traffic from Mobile to Waycross. It has been coming in the middle of the day. For a couple of weeks, I stake the new traffic pattern with interest. The last weekend of the P&A curfew, I decide to go for a sunrise to sundown bononza in my own backyard.

    Friday night, unfortunately, I spot all the eastbound except 602. Only 602 did not beat the curfew. 102 came in late that evening, 3 606 came through in the past 30 hours. A 106 had gone through Friday morning. Not such a good start. Saturday morning, I turn the radio on early. By the end of breakfast around 600 AM, Q602 clear the North end of Tallahassee. It blows by Weems road crossing as I pack the car. I crank up the car as it clears SE Chaires. I head for the Interstate. I am a little behind as I do not hear the DD from Lloyd. I check Drifton and Aucilla and still no trace of it and no radio contact. In Greenville, the siding is empty as well. It is still a little dark to start shooting pictures, so I move on to Madison. I finally get someone’s EOT, but it is 101 with 7794 and 7544 heading into the Greenville siding.

    First U-turn of the day. I catch it easing down the siding, while the crew talks to 602. I never hear the response, so I park the car in hope that this is going to be a short wait. The sun finally rises and starts warming the thick humid Florida air. An hour later, 602 finally shows up with the lead engine GCFX 3058.  Furthermore, the consist has no less than 3 yard switchers 1143, 1211, 1148 on the tail end. Another leased unit FURX 3020 sandwiches a lone CSX road unit 8639 with the lead unit.

    I drive to Lee siding where I should get a good shot of the consist. Unfortunately, the fog around the Suwannee River has not completely burned off yet.The train clears the DD box at Lee with 5600 feet of train. It barrels down the little town at around 945 AM. I decide to stay behind 101 to see if it is meeting anything else. I hear something on the radio but cannot make it out. I return to Lee to wait for the mystery train. The fog is burning off rather quickly by now. I figure 101 met it either in Aucilla or Drifton. It won’t be long. An hour later, the DD box wakes me up. 7123 in Conrail livery is encharged of 3500 feet of “little track machines”.

    I pace the train all the way to the US 90 overpass. With no other prospect, I head back home for a quick lunch. As I get back in town, Q608 releases the blocks but has work to do. Q101 gets the blocks and will meet P002 in Douglas City. That gives me about 45 minutes. I leave the scanner on while eating, and follow the progress, but get distracted for a minute. I missed the location of the planned passing of Q608 by P002. All I hear is something clearing SE Chaires.

    I head back east on I-10, and get off at Drifton as Q608 eases down the siding. NE Drifton is not a good shot so I set off to Aucilla. Because we have not gotten any rain in a while, driving on the dirt road that parallels Aucilla siding sets off a large plume of dust. I park the car at the top of the hill, climb the abutment full of weeds and wait for a close to on time P002. A friendly crew salutes my escapade in the weeds with a couple of short blows.

    Q608 is not far behind so I wait up on the abutments. As it passes the SE of the siding, a car blows by on the dirt road engulfing the track in a cloud of dust. For a moment, only the ditch light are visible. By the time the dust settles, the train is up to my spot, so I have very little time to frame a shot. However, I noticed that the train has a lot of pick up from Tallahassee yard. No wonder it was in there working for so long. Pensacola had reported 711 as the lone engine in the lead. It now also has 5897 one of the local engines. It also has a string of tank cars for the Florida Power gas plant on the Suwannee River, 2 separate sets of GILX pulwood cars from the Madison lumber yard, a few box cars and hoppers from Attapulgus rock plant and grain hoppers from Live Oak. That is an impressive addition to an already long train. The DD at Greenville says 7700’ of train.  I catch up with it in Live Oak siding.

    Q608 crew in Live Oak intensively buzzes the dispatcher. The message: we are on the law in 2 hours. How long are we going to sit here? The dispatcher dances around the answer. Bottom line, G203 needs to get into Wellborn siding, Q609 needs to pass G203, then meet Q608 in Live Oak. Q608 will still have a meet with Q605 before it reaches Baldwin. I don't think so.....I run to Wellborn where G 203 is fitting into the siding.

The train takes a little while to barely fit into the 3437' siding, then Q609 after having problem with the NE switch eases down the mainline.

    I run to Lake City in hope to find Q605 in the siding, but no luck. So I head back to Wellborn to find Q608 meeting G203. After a little fight with that NE switch, Q608 is finally on its way. With Q609 way ahead, on the way back, I hit the Live Oak Gold Kist drying plant and its GE 70 ton switcher.

    As I get back in Tallahassee, I hear Q106 releasing the blocks west of Tallahassee. However, Q609 has to wait for Q606 before heading west. It is getting dark so I head home.