19-09-21 PHOTOS: HARRIS Enola

The Harrisburg area is a great place to visit, not only for the PRR heritage and HARRIS tower museum, but also the high amount of rail traffic and large Enola yard and diesel maintenance shop complex. In the fall of 2019 I had the opportunity to give a new co-worker and NS fan from North Carolina a tour of the Harrisburg area with the secondary goal of photographing some of NS's more interesting power before it was sold off in an increasing number of fire sales because why would a railroad need locomotives. Anyway, both my missions were accomplished with a tour that hit all the major points including Enola Yard, the Rockville bridge and the Harrisburg station area. The full set of photos can be found here (mirror).

First stop was the driveway to the Elona Diesel Shoppe where a large quantity of NS Geeps were parked outside. On the run through track a lashup of remote controlled power was providing flat switching with an increasingly rare former Southern high hood GP3802 (#5004) was leading a road slug pair.

Also visible from this location was a line of stored 2600-series SD70M-2's, which were onle of the first NS classes to be pulled out of service, despire having been purchased new in 2005/6. Given the issues with Tier IV engines, M-2's like #2689 here are prime candidates for an AC traction rebuild or an as-is sale to CN, the other large user of the type.

Driving up past the shoppes to the Enola backlot we find the Conrail Quality logo ghosting through the white paint on the diesel fuel storage tanks. These tanks supply the fuel pad on the opposite side of the Susquehanna River via a pipeline that crosses the Rockville bridge.

The Enola backlot has both stores power and live power waiting to be dispatched in all four directions of the compass. 

The star attraction was stored NS SD80MAC #4208, one of only 25 built for a single Conrail order in the late 1990's.

Of course there were NS C44-9W's, but hiding behind #9210 and #9172 is Lycoming Valley RR SP9 #239.

One might expect NS #3400 to be a class leader, but it's just one in a large block of SD40-2's.

NS C40-10W #7575 appears to be at Enola for some work given the open side doors.

The remote control set with NS high hood GP38-2 #5004, GP40-2 #3060 and road slug #744 was slowly flat switching back and worth. 

At the west end of the Yard, NS slug #619 and GP59E #4661 were also getting some flat switching done.

The Operation Lifesaver Painted GP59E is a rebuilt version of the Southern exclusive GP59, a 3000hp, 710 V12 version of the more popular GP/SD60 series. 

A third flat switching set was also in operation with NS GP38-2 #5619 and GP38-3 #5803, allowing one to compare the differences between the original and the rebuild, with one being the larger radiators on the -3.

Moving on to the Rockville Bridge, we were just in time to catch Amtrak Train 42, the eastbound Pennsylvanian, crossing with P42DC #121.

The next stop was CP-BANKS where we just managed to miss an NS coal train heading out of the siding to follow Train 42. Despite being taken out of service, the PRR signal bridge still stands.

No sooner had we pulled up to park at HARRIS tower than NS Interstate heritage unit #8105 passed by on a lite movement to refuel at the Harrisburg fuel pad.

Next up was a westbound doublestack train led by NS SD70ACe #1121 and C44-9W #9807 running elephant style.

Interstate #8105 then appeared again, now running ahead of a brand new AC44C6M #4131.

Leading a westbound manifest freight NS C44-9W #9560 appeared to be wearing a fresh coat of paint despite being on track for an eventual AC44C6M rebuild.

On the Pennsylvanian Amtrak apparently applied an increment operator to both the train and locomotive numbers as Train #43 was being hauled by P42DC #122 past HARRIS tower.

Squeezing in between main line movements, NS GP38-2 #5179 passed by with a few gons for the Steelton mill. 

NS seemed to be running a lot of triple headers today as next on the scene was AC44C6M #4138 and ES44ACs #8113 and #8056.

In another lucky happenstance, we caught a second lite move from the fuel pad with a trio of NS EMD power. SD70ACe #1164 was nice to see, but not exceptional, however the following two late model SD70M's #2646 and #2605, were 2 of only 7 not in storage and would be sold off less than a year later.

In HARRIS tower news the Model 14 interlocking machine was back in service and completely repainted with new LED indication lamps.

Well that's the end of my journey. Next week tune in as I head to Strassburg to Fire Up 611.