Faux Bonnet At Doodletown Bight. CSX B118-08 was a robust 12,000+ feet of empty ethanol cars and DPUs as it crossed Doodletown Bight from Iona Island to Bear Mountain, New York on the evening of Sunday, February 9, 2025. Having combined with B714 earlier, it was long enough that the logistics of running it that day were complicated by also passing an 11,000 foot plus intermodal train, amongst others on the mostly single-track CSX River Sub. But the juice was ultimately worth the squeeze as "faux bonnet" BNSF 783 (C44-9W, 9/1997, GE) crossed next to the Hudson River with just enough light, fortunately augmented by the reflection off of the frozen water and snow. Then President Mike Haverty inspired the "Super Fleet" scheme as a return to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad's historic roots, and this is one of the few that survive in the (mostly) original paint today, albeit with the change to BNSF. It has been approximately seven years since one of these units led in this area, and so enduring a bit of cold weather while waiting was a small price to pay to catch a shot.
