22-01-15 PHOTOS: Nicholson Cutoff

In the winter of 2022 I finally made it out to the famous Tunkhannock Viaduct in Nicholson, PA. Although closer in proximity to me than many of the sights in central and western Pennsylvania, Scranton was just not a place I had either the ability or motivation to visit until recently when Subchat buddy Phil N moved into the area. Phil was nice enough to drive me around to both the viaduct and a variety of signal locations over the course of a day, and although I got about 1000 infrastructure photos we scored a goose egg for actual train movements. Fortunately another Subchat buddy, Kevin Painter, was able to bail me out with not only the usual tour of Reading and Northern equipment at North Reading, but also an introduction to the Colebrookdale Railroad in Boyertown, PA. You can view the lengthy set of photos here ( mirror )with the non-signal stuff all the way at the bottom.

The Tunkhannock Viaduct, sometimes known as the Nicholson Viaduct or Nicholson Bridge due to the community it spans, is typically viewed as a singular achievement of railroad engineering. In actuality it was just the showpiece of a far larger project initiated by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in 1915. The Clark's Summit-Hallstead Cutoff (aka the Pennsylvania Cutoff or Nicholson Cutoff) was the second great construction project undertaken by the DL&W shortly before The Great War (the first being the famous Slateford cutoff in New Jersey that proceeded the PA cutoff by a few years) and replaced over 40 miles of the 1850's era alignment with a brand new, high speed and low grade main line. The viaduct, measuring 2,375 feet in length and 240 feet above the ground at its highest point, was necessary to traverse the Tunkhannock Creek at an elevation sufficient to free the railroad from having to follow the path of existing rivers just north of Scranton.

Fueled by the flush profits transporting premium home heating coal at the turn of the century, the DL&W had the financial resources to not only reconstruct its greater Pocono region main lines, but also use the era's high tech wonder material, reinforced concrete. It would be the bridge's 167,000 cubic yards of concrete that would make it such an iconic and imposing presence compared to a similar bridge of steel beams.

The bridge consists of 10 spans, 9 piers and 2 abutments, all made from reinforced concrete. At the time of construction it was the largest concrete structure in the world and is likely still one of the largest concrete bridges in the world.

Although still branded Lackawanna, the DL&W Main Line did not survive the 1960 Erie Lackawanna merger with most traffic transferring to the Erie side. The Conrail merger of 1976 saw the line pass to the Delaware and Hudson, which was able to abandon its own less efficient Scranton-Binghampton route. In the 90's the D&H was sold to Canadian Pacific before ultimately falling under the umbrella of Norfolk Southern in the 2014.

The scope of the cutoff can be seen at other points along the line where local roads have to literally tunnel through the massive embankments.

The DL&W applied its use of reinforced concrete technology to everything, including station buildings and interlocking towers. Here the station in Glenburn, PA has been repurposes as public works offices with EL caboose #C267 on display nearby.

Moving down to North Reading the next morning, Kevin and I encountered the NRFF lashup awaiting its departure with GP38-2 #2014 on the tail end behind the two NRFF painted SD50s.

22-01-09 VIDEOS: R32 Retirement

In my previous post I covered the R32 retirement runs in early 2022 and mentioned that I would need to put all of the video content in a separate post. This will have both the long R32 railfan window videos on its combination B/Q routing as well as shorter clips from throughout the day.

In fact we'll start off with one such clip taken at the Hamilton NJT station on the cold Sunday morning as the southbound Amtrak Train 79 Palmetto races through en-route to the warmer environs of Savannah, GA.



The only way to get a railfan window for the southbound trip from 96th St on the Second Avenue Subway was to camp out in the rear of the consist from Brighton Beach. For all of the railfan window videos I had to use a selfie wand to get the GoPro camera up close to the window due to the presence of an anti-COVID chain to keep people "away" from the half-cab. The first video covers the reverse view of the express run from Brighton Beach to Prospect Park.



The second part covers the reverse view from Prospect Park to DeKalb Ave.



Part three is DeKalb to 42nd St Times Square.



And the final part covering 42nd St Times Square to 96th St Second Avenue.



My plan worked perfectly and by standing firm I managed to snag a prime RFW view for the southbound trip. Again the videos are in four parts, 96th to 42nd, 42nd to DeKalb, DeKalb to Prospect Park and Prospect Park to Brighton Beach.









After the first round trip I did a little walk along the platform and through the trainset to capture the whole vibe of the proceedings.



I then proceeded ahead of the next R32 departure to get some photos at Kings Highway. While waiting for the R32 retirement train to show up, I caught a pair of Q Brighton Beach local trains using R46 stock passing each other near Avenue U.



The payoff was this video of NYCTA oldest rolling stock passing NYCTA's second oldest rolling stock just south of the Kings Highway crossover. The R32's were the only express trains running on the Brighton Line that day due to the Covid related suspension of the B train. The camera runs as the R32irement train arrives past the throngs of Fantographers where I then enter to find Fred G.



I then proceed to 72nd St and Second Ave and get off in order to get video of the R32 set returning from 96th St. It seemed to miss its departure so I also shot some R46 and R68 Q train filler.







I'll wrap things up where I part ways with the R32's for the final time as it pulls southbound out of 34th St Herald Square.



I hope you enjoyed all of the videos as I begin to share a new year's worth of railfan content.

22-01-09 PHOTOS: R32 Retirement

At the time of the announced R32 retirement runs I figured that attending one of the holiday season weekends would be sufficient. It was only later that NYCTA announced that The R's 32 would be running on a special express Q/B service between Brighton Park and the Second Ave subway terminal at 96th St that I decided to attend due to the opportunity to return video along the route. My plan was to catch the first departure from Brighton Beach, get video on my first round trip and then figure out the situation from there. As with the R32 Holiday Train I will post still photos first ( mirror ), followed by videos.

NJT was once again the most practical way to get to the city with split level #7008 seen here pulling into Hamilton.

Along with the Penn Station support building, the Hotel Pennsylvania can be considered part of the original Penn Station complex. Unfortunately I've been told that it has become very run down inside and is slated for redevelopment into something that will totally not raise the cost of visiting the city.

At 34th St Herald Sq I caught an R46 Q Brighton Local to Brighton Beach. Despite the diamond the Q was all local on weekdays with (B) service suspended due to Covid. Seeing as i started riding the NYCS prior to 2001, it is hard for me to related to the Q being something other than an orange bulleted Brighton express.

There was already a crowd at Brighton Beach, but the only thing moving were Q trains of both the R46 and R68 variety.

At some point before departure the R32 train did finally appear in the decorations it had worn for the holiday trips still applied to #3894 on the south end.

At the other end of the train, R32's #3360 and #3361 had been further restored to their 1964 appearance with blue painted doors and pantograph gates, TA meatball logos and roll signs, and a banner similar to the one worn by the first train of R32's on the occasion of the entry into service. Even the H2C couplers had been painted.