one hour in Palmer

My survey work on the Chicopee River near Springfield ended early on the Friday of Columbus Day weekend, so on my way home I spent an hour having a late lunch trackside at Palmer, to take pot luck on rail traffic.  In one hour, I was able to catch movements on all running tracks!

 Shortly after I arrived a westbound ballast extra rolled up to the west end of the siding, and dimmed its headlight.  I suspected a meet was in progress; ten minutes later, an eastbound loaded auto rack track sailed by:

 

 

 

Once the autorack cleared up, the extra got a high green and went west with it’s freshly repainted GP-40

 

note the solar panel and electrical cabinet on the ballast car. Each car was so equipped. Not sure what purpose they have

a few minutes after CSX cleared the interlocking, a New England Central GP-38 scurried north across the diamond

The final act was the reverse move of the northbound Vermonter, which rolled in from Springfield being pushed by it’s Genesis engine, paused while the engineer changed positions from cab car to locomotive, and the conductor dismounted and lined the two manual crossovers.  All in all the reverse move, and manual turnout process consumed almost 15 minutes

 

after crossing to the connection to New England Central, the train then stopped again to let the rear brakeman (I assume) realign the turnouts before leaving town

 

And off they went (shortly after that, so did I)!

Black Friday and black diesels

Charles Kadyk who now lives in Mohnton, PA (near Reading) kindly hosted me for a bit of railfanning this past Friday. We chose the former Reading RR (now NS) west of the city of Reading, as NS was running their full schedule and I had never seen that part of the railroad.  It’s essentially the funnel between Harrisburg and New York, and connects the former PRR MIDDLE DIVISION mainline as well as RDG Hagerstown gateway to the south with Allentown and NY/NJ, and Philadelphia. Multiple track and rolling country, so trains are frequent and fast. I think the longest we waited between trains may have been 30 minutes.  Plenty of signals and crew chatter so its easy to know when trains are nearby.  East of the Reading area, suburban sprawl has drained the area of much of its character and clutters most views, but from Reading west the feel of the region is still very much present, there's still some RDG atmosphere, and the landscape around the railroad less cluttered.

We started out at Wyomissing Jct, which is where the lines from Philadelphia and from Allentown both converge on the west side of town.  There's signals, as well as a stiff westbound grade coming out of the Schuylkill valley there.  After a brief wait we nailed a hard working westbound work extra behind an unorthodox combination of SD 40-2 and MP-15, and including some “vintage” well used N&W and Southern rolling stock:

We moved a few miles west to Sinking Spring, a town with many grade crossings (so a nice place to listen to horn music), branch junction, and an ethanol plant.  No sooner than we arrived than an eastbound Enola>Allentown transfer job slammed by, with some garden variety road power

The most colorful lash up of the day was this empty oil can heading west with an SD-70 leading some BNSF power including a warbonnet

another eastbound, a double stack from NC headed for NJ

there were also some interesting line side structures such as this very modelgenic, smallish grain dealer (and active rail customer):

and the freshly restored Wernersville depot and freight station (the platform sheds still need some TLC)

That 150 MPH Sensation

Autumn leaves are flying as a southbound Acela Express approaches Kingston, RI at about 150mph.  Fastest in US.   10-20-13

SB Acela blows past Kingston.

I started to feel the "need for speed" after the school year began and had spent one too many an afternoon around District 1 watching slow freights plod along at 10 to 20 mph.  From previous trips and common knowledge I knew that the Acela Express hit 150 mph through the station at Kingston, RI and began eying the place on the web.  The excuse to go came when a friend agreed to go along.  We happened to pick an awesome day for sun, color and traffic too.  As it turned out we got a side order of "Swedish Meatballs" in the deal.

A "Swedish Meatball" AEM-7 leads a 'Regional'.

As easy as it is to translate a schedule, it gets complicated, apparently, when one tries to write down a lineup for Kingston on a Sunday.  Between filtering out the non-Sunday trains and putting down chronological times and numbers to distinguish Acela Express from Regional trains, I messed up a couple of North-South designations.  I even nearly missed one last Acela as I exited the depot just as it arrived. At least we were on the platform when 5 Acelas and some Regionals went by.
Mission accomplished. 

The last NB Acela we set up for overtook a late Regional in sight of the station.  That put them on the left-hand track and a bit slower than normal. We happened to be on the pedestrian bridge at the time so we had a good vantage point.   The low sun really made for some striking lines on all the hardware reflecting those rays.  The windows were actually pretty clean but the harsh glare was tough to work around.

The Acela trains did not disappoint.  No GE HHP-8 units but it was good to see the 30+ year old ASEA et. al AEM-7 "Swedish Meatballs" again.  They'll be replaced in the next few years as the new Siemens "Cities Sprinter" units are built and put into service.  I guess I'm attached to AEM-7's since I happened to do a semester in Sweden where their original ASEA "RC" form roamed in 1982.  I also caught the early Amtrak models in New Haven in 1981.  That makes these one of the few locomotive types I've seen and photographed throughout most of their lifespan.  I'll have to find those slides now.  They'll show up below one day. 

BC

ASEA unit on Swedish Railways (SJ).  Gavle, Sweden about Sept. 1982.

A typical AEM-7 "Swedish Meatball" leading a 'Regional' through Kingston.  10-20-13

An Old Friend Passes Through

A normal visit to Pan Am's District 1 with the DT&I Fan didn't yield much excitement, at first.  We started at 'the junctions' and worked our way to Leeds Jct.  We saw nothing and the scanner was silent.  At Leeds Jct. the signal was sporting a 'pair of greens'.  Strange since we saw nothing on the way. 

I got a photo of the signal since two greens are unusual, though not rare.  It could only mean we missed an eastbound back around L/A.  The scene at Leeds Jct. may also soon be changed, or at least cleaned up, by a tie crew working it's way east from Royal Jct. lately.  Still a far cry from the old Maine Central days when the track was good for 40mph or better. 

 In a rare moment of clarity I decided to head back into Greene to trace the rails in case something was actually eastbound and nearby.  Just after we crossed the tracks and headed for College Ave. in Lewiston, we heard "The Lady of The Woods" detector at MP 157 speak.  In fact is wasn't long after the two of us were talking about it being out of commission.  We turned around and headed for Sullivan Rd. crossing.  I was intrigued since I don't recall having used the crossing for railfanning before.

About 10 minutes later, a long time given that we were about 3 miles away from the detector and had to turn around etc to get to the crossing, POWA made its appearance.  602 on the point was at least reasonably clean but the lighting was pretty harsh.  It took a lot of editing to get that photo to show anything through all the deep shadows.  However, as the train went by I discovered that roster shots and such were ideally lit looking the other way.  Too bad I didn't see the shadow to the crossing signals first.

 The former BN unit caught my attention.  It had wandered these rails before but this is the first time I've had a chance to photograph it.  As I do with all BN SD40-2's I encounter, I checked the number real quick to see if it might have been a Colorado and Southern unit.  The number looked familiar enough but I'd have to check a roster to be sure.  In the meantime I simply checked the image on my camera and this is what I saw:

 There, above the rear end number boards was the elusive 'C&S' sub-lettering!  Nice!  The first one I'd seen in-person in Maine.  I spent the bulk of my growing up along the Colorado and Southern so this was a unit I'd probably seen in my youth.  These units were purchased by the BN for Powder River coal service mainly but they took their turn running along the Colorado front range by my home in Fort Collins.  This unit was built in 1978 while I was in high school.  The C&S was folded into the BN on the last day of 1981 while I was in college.  This unit probably rode the original C&S once in a while.

The original number was probably the C&S three digit #972.  However, the late batches were numbered directly into the BN four digit system right from EMD.  Given that 980 and 996 were 'master and slave' early model 'distributive power units' numbered well away from other units, and with no other numbers used in between, this one may have gone either way.   There were lots of 900 series SD40-2's on the rails along the front range mixed in with other BN and C&S six axle units.  After the merger was complete, the three digit numbers were updated into the BN four digit number system.  The paint on this one looks unaltered.



After POWA passed us in Greene, we had not heard any Rumford jobs yet so we headed to Danville Jct.  The idea was to catch a possible PORU following behind.  It was only a guess backed up by a hunch.  The radio was not helping us at all.  We met the head end of POSJ at Black Cat Rd. crossing as we approached Danville.  The long string of centerbeams on the point told us right away that it wasn't PORU.  No time for photos and it wasn't that photogenic anyway.  Driving over the crossings in the village we saw that the signals at the west end of Danville were dark.  At this point we decided to head home rather than give chase.  District 1 just didn't cause much excitement on this day.  Another eastbound might have changed that. 

A mere two hour tour and we saw two trains.  A high average for Maine but that's allowing the stats to lie for us.  If we'd kept going on until dark, the one train per hour average would have faded.   It was too nice a day to miss even a piece of it in the sun given all the clouds we've had all summer.

BC

The Last Hot Spot - Folkston

I haven't seen every railfanning hot spot in the country, but I've seen a lot of them.  Nowadays new ones are popping up all the time thanks to the internet and the economic impact of railfan parks.  'Back in the day' parks and platforms were unheard of and now they are all over.  Railroads and law enforcement are a lot touchier about trespassing than they used to be so having a place to sit and not be pestered just makes railfanning easy.

My personal list of railfan parks and places to visit started shrinking fast in the last few years.  I grew up with Sherman Hill and the Moffat Tunnel within easy reach so most western sights were already checked off.  A pair of trips to Altoona in 2002 probably kicked off the list reduction in fine form.  There I took advantage of Gallitzin Park, Cassandra Overlook, Cresson Platform and of course Horseshoe Curve Park.  It was just a lot more fun when you didn't have to watch the signs or look over your shoulder.  Later on other trips I checked out more park settings like Deshler, OH, Rochelle RR Park, and Kansas City Riverwalk.  A H.A.P.T. adventure to Sand Patch filled in some great spots on the old B&O.  Another H.A.P.T. trip to California in 2009 hit spots like Fullerton, Roseville, Cajon Pass, Tehachapi Loop,  Keddie Wye, and a small park at Portola.  Last year though really cleaned house.  Charles Kadyk and I hit Marion, Bellevue, Fostoria, Homewood, Rochelle, Galesburg, found more in Burlington, Keokuk and Fort Madison, IA.  We found perches throughout Nebraska including Grand Island and North Platte.  We even found a new park in Pacific, MO and a very hospitable town with street running in LaGrange, KY.  The final crowns were The Elkorn Inn in WV on the old N&W and a stop by the Virginia Transportation Museum in Roanoke. 

There simply weren't many other big name places on my personal list, except for Folkston.  Sure I'd go back to any of those on my list but this was the only personal 'biggie' left.  I'll continue to fill in new places but I feel like I've reached some sort of completion level thanks to a road trip to Florida.  It didn't hurt that I hit my 48th of the contiguous states a few miles down the road when I continued on to Florida.

The park at Folkston is suitably located south of a junction which 'funnels' nearly all north-south traffic destined for Florida by the platform.   The platform is located on the east side of the tracks and is a good viewing point for most of the day.  The intense sun began to drive me out around 6pm.    Humidity was the only real annoyance.  Ceiling fans really made a difference with the abundant shade at the platform.  Trains were abundant too.  A scanner provided a good deal of info and a track chart was posted.  You can see from the photos that the platform itself is pretty well situated and well furnished.  They even have a permanent rest room building. 

On my visit, I saw plenty of trains.  It was a Dash 8 haven mostly.  But, I saw other oddities like the GP30 slug and a rebuilt SD40-3.  The Tropicana train and Amtrak get through here too, but I didn't see them in my 6 hour stay.  The heat slowed my activity so I didn't have the drive to visit the museum across the tracks.  They had a small covered picnic table and a long porch but it was too sunny while I was there.  They would have been good perches if I'd stayed overnight.  A local fan group apparently is working on the caboose as a clubhouse.  Some guys with clipboards were chatting with them just before I left.  Might have been a permitting process tour of some kind. 

I really enjoyed the visit.  There were various local visitors and railfans from the region to chat with from time to time.  Some cloud cover made movement tolerable and those glorious ceiling fans really made the visit comfortable.  Even though I'm not much of a CSX fan, the number of trains and the SCL heritage overwhelmed that bias. 

 BC

Montauk Branch revisited

During a recent visit to my parents on Long Island, I had occasion to stop off at the Babylon station on a summer Saturday around mid day. Babylon is the end of the electric MU district on the Montauk Branch; passengers for points further east transfer to diesel trains.  Back in the day, mid-day locals were met by the "Scoot" which shuttled eastward between Babylon and Patchouge which was essentially the east end of the commuter district.  East of Patchouge the line continues another 50 miles to Montauk, but was (and is) lightly traveled other than during the summer season when New Yorkers all head to the Hamptons.  Up until the late 1970's LIRR ran actual named varnish (Montauk Cannonball, Sundowner, Weekend Chief) complete with heavyweight parlor cars and open end observation cars for the east end summer trade.

When I was a kid the Scoot was typically an RS-3 and two random coaches, except during the summer when the train could really swell up as it made stops in Bayshore, Brightwaters and Islip, all south shore towns that had ferry service to the Fire Island beaches. Then it was often a C-420 and as many as 8-10 cars!   Here's a 1970's 6 car summer scoot at Bayshore, just east of Babylon

and here's a Montauk express led by an FA-1 converted to push-pull cab car

Okay here's the 2013 edition of the same service at Babylon, awaiting the MU train from Penn Station, with a diesel on either end.  These are EMD DE-somethings, basically LIRR-only budget F-59s designed for low clearances.  No more parlor cars or Alcos...

the MU connection from Penn Station rolls in from the west. Pennsy heritage lives on in the form of position light signals

conductors shepherd aboard the last of the transferring beach goers and highball the engineer

 and away they go!

the final act was a westbound local for Penn Station running with a set of M-1 "relics". I remember when these replaced the owl-eye PRR MP-54's and MP-72!!

old and new MU's share the lay-up yard just east of the station