21-06-26 PHOTOS: Oscawana Tunnel

The lower Hudson valley has many interesting sights, but if nobody in your friend group can choose any particular one to visit, I recommend defaulting to the Oscawana Park, located just south of Cortlandt, NY. It is best known for incorporating the famous three-track, twin bore tunnel on the former New York Central Water Level Route that today continues to host Metro North Hudson Line and Amtrak Empire service trains. The full set of photos can be found here ( mirror ).

The Oscawana Tunnel is several miles north of the Metro North Croton yard that marks the northern limit of electrified service to Grand Central. Half Moon Bay roads provides a view of the northern end of the yard including M3's. M7's and the A-34 traction power substation. We can also see two of the main tracks are being reballasted.

Half Moon Bay Rd leads to Senasqua Park that sits directly adjacent to the former New York Central CD tower, now inhabited by the Metro North signal department.

Even on a reduced port-COVID schedule, there is still plenty of Metro North action with hourly Poughkeepsie diesel trainsets. CDoT owned P32AC-DM #230, seen here wrong railing through CP-36 on track #4 south of the tunnel is still in the New haven livery that has been replace by the Coke Zero scheme on CTRail units. CP-36 provides access to the Croton freight yard from the north and is one of the only instances of a Metro North signal mounted on a high signal mast. On tracks 1 and 2 is the milepost 36.6 automatic cab signal indication point.

Before the pandemic MNRR weekend northbound and southbound Poughkeepsie trains tended to meet in the vicinity of the tunnel and this appears to still be the case with NH #230 and its train meeting a southbound set with MNRR P32AC-DM #201.

Continuing with the whole opposite day thing, Amtrak Train 48, the eastbound Lake Shore Limited, appeared on the normally northbound track #1 with an unidentified private car in tow. Today's New York section of the LSL also consisted of two Amfleet II coaches, two Viewliner sleepers, a Viewliner diner and a Viewliner baggage car.

A pair of Amtrak Empire Service trains were also in the mix with P32AC-DM #702 heading up the northbound and Phase V heritage painted #708 on the northbound.

21-06-20 PHOTOS: Haucks

In the summer of 2021 the CNJ #113 fan trip was not the only exciting steam related rail event taking place in the former coal region north of Reading, PA. The Tamaqua, PA town festival was that weekend and the Reading and Northern was making its 4-6-2 Pacific engine #425 available for runs to the Hometowm viaduct and back. After meeting up again with Kevin P and one of his friends from out of towm, we set out to South Tamaqua Yard to catch the trainset being readied for service before proceeding to the junction at Haucks, PA where #425 would pass heading to and from its destination. You can view the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

We pulled in to the South Tamaqua Yard to find RBMN SD38 #2000 and GP39RN #2532 shunting the excursion trainset into one of the yard tracks where #425 would later couple to it.

RBMN #2000, along with sibling unit #2004, are two of just 103 non-Dash 2 SD38's built by EMD around 1970. The SD38 was the six axle version of the far more popular GP38, or a 2000hp non-turbocharged version of the more popular 3000hp SD40. Take your pick.

GP39RN #2532 is one of six former ATSF/BNSF GP30u's, which were themselves rebuilt EMD GP30's from the early 1960's. Known for their snazzy automotive styling from General Motors, the GP30's originally developed 2250hp with a turbocharged EMD 567D3 engine. The rebuilt rebuilt the engine with 645E power assemblies, raising the horsepower to 2500hp.

The excursion trainset consisted of a mix of former Reading/SEPTA "Blueliner" commuter MU cars painted in a light blue Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway scheme along with a number of former Lackawanna/NJT commuter MU trailer cars built in the early 20th century.

Freshly painted RBMN GP38-2 #2011 was on hand to provide protect power for the steam hauled excursion while former NS GP38-2 #2015 waited on a nearby engine storage track.

RBMN #425 soon arrived from downtown Tamaqua with a spare tender and water tanker behind a former Reading Blueliner being used as a shoving platform.

A former Gulf, Mobile and Ohio light Pacific, #425 is the RBMN's primary steam excursion asset. A number of moves were made to set out the tank car and couple to the trainset.

21-06-19 VIDEOS: Fire Up 113

For anyone who previously viewed my photo set on the special June 2021 CNJ #113 excursion, they may have noticed the limited number of photos taken during the main line portions of the trip. This was because I was busy taking video due to the somewhat limited nature of the photo angles available on board the open gondola car. I also have enough video to warrant their own special post.

We start off with GoPro footage from the first gondola behind CNJ B-7 class 0-6-0 #113. I'm sort of a newbie to the whole special steam excursion scene, but I know enough to bring a GoPro on an extension wand, which nobody else seemed to think of. This first video captures the first half of the outbound run from Minersville station, where the trip originated, to Cressona Yard.



Here is the second half of the outbound trip from Cressona to the Reading and Northern shoppe and office complex at Port Clinton.



At Port Clinton #113 pulled off the excursion train and ran to MULLER interlocking where it reversed back on the main track to get serviced at R&N steam locomotive facility.



At the steam facility there were a number of switching moves to put the open gons back behind #113 for the return journey.



The last such move involved #113 pulling the train ahead to clear a switch, dropping a clear signal indication at CP-CLINT.



Finally the train was reversed back through the R&N diesel shoppe and office complex and after getting a Restricting indication at CP-PULPIT, #113 got a running start on the upgrade back to Minersville. The video follows along the old Reading Main Line to the yard limit sign at Milepost 79 (from Reading Terminal in Philadelphia). You can hear how hard #113 is having to work as well as see the black smoke from the repeated intervention of the fireman to add more steam generation capacity.



Unfortunately, a mere 30 minutes before the end of the trip it began to rain which made further media creation impractical. I was able to get one last video clip of #113 basting through the Schuylkill Haven station at "speed".



I hope you all enjoyed these. Tune back in next time as I stick around in the area to catch the regular Reading and Northern steam excursion locomotive, 4-6-2 #425, at the rebuilt HAUCKS interlocking.

21-06-19 PHOTOS: Fire Up 113

With all the talk about Reading steam locomotive #2102, it's easy to forget that there is another significant operational steam engine right up the street. Former Central Railroad of New Jersey B-7 class 0-6-0 switching locomotive might not sound like much, but in addition to being only one of two preserved CNJ steam locomotives, it is also one of the most powerful 0-6-0's ever built. In June of 2021, the Railway Restoration Project 113 organized an excursion to benefit one of their long time engineers who suffering from a chromic medical condition. Run out of their base in Minersville, PA, the excursion would travel about 20 miles to the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern shoppe complex at Port Clinton before returning. Informal South Jersey railfan Kevin Painter obtained my ticket in one of the open gondola cars. I was able to take both still photography ( mirror ) and videos of the trip with the videos appearing in a following post.

As is usual for these events, I met up with Kevin at the Reading and Northern's North Reading station. The R&N would be operating its regularly scheduled RDC excursion from the station later in the day #9168 was waiting south of the station platform.

A pair of R&N MP15DC's were also on hand to pick up and interchange from Norfolk Southern.

As the #113 trip was scheduled for later in the morning, we had time to stop by the Temple, PA station to check on SW8 #800.

At the North Reading yard, a trio of power was waiting to power the North Reading Fast Freight just as soon as the consist could be assembled. The lashup includes SD40-2's #3057 and #3059 and SD50-2 #5019 in the new Fast Freight paint scheme.

The ticket included a meal afterwards so the Minersville station platform was packed with both railfans and portable tents. The engine's full time home was the spur track on the left.

CNJ #113 pulled in with the excursion train on the advertised after getting ready in the green room north of the station.

Although most of the excursion train consisted of former Reading and Lackawanna commuter cars, my first class ticket got me into one of two open air gondola cars, borrowed from the Lehigh Gorge operation, set immediately behind #113.

As a signal fan and regular Amtrak rider, I was not expecting the large crowds that turn out for live steam special excursions, most of witch had video cameras on tripods.