24-08-17 VIDEOS: Fire Up Pittston

Looks like its time to fire up Reading and Northern T-1 class 4-8-4 #2102 for another main line steam excursion in the anthracite coal region of eastern Pennsylvania. This year the August offering for the RBMN's Iron Horse Ramble was a round trip from the new Nesquehoning Regional Transportation Centre to the end of their Main Line in Pittston, PA such that the railfans could spend a few hours enjoying Pittston's annual Tomatoe Festival (which started in 1983 when the decline in coal mining required a rebranding). Because I still need some time to finish the photos I'll be starting things off with a video post.

Sitting on the left hand side of the train, which would face the Lehigh River on the outbound trip, I chose to focus on still photos due to the superior scenery and lighting. The exception to the aforementioned scenery was the part of the trip between Glen Okono and CP-M&H JCT, which is located on the east side of the Lehigh River. Also lacking signals to photograph, I turned my digital camera to its video mode.



Once back across to the east side of the Lehigh River I switched over to stills and allowed my travel buddy Ferrocastor to shoot phone video as he saw fit. The grades on this part of the trip had former Reading T-1 #2102 working hard as it used its full 5000hp to elevate the 19 car consist.



After arriving at Pittston and spending the better part of 4 hours eating Old Forge style Pizza and associated carnival food, it was time to return to the Nesquehoning Regional Transportation Centre. There we found #2102 getting some mid-run TLC from the crews including an ash pan wash.



The locomotive then ran lite up the north end of the yard to fetch the 19-car consist for the return trip south. Most of the standard fare coaches were former Reading "Blueliner" electric MU's built in the 1930's. If one wanted to pay more to not hear or feel the main line steam action, one could ride in one of the post-war "lightweight" cars towards the end.



Intending to capture most of the return trip on video I pulled out my trusty old GoPro and got to work. This first part covers the most dramatic part of the trip as T-1 #2102 attacks the stiff grade of the old LVRR Mountain Cutoff between Pittston and Mountain Top, PA. North of CP-LAUREL RUN the former Conrail Lehigh Line switches to the old Central RR of NJ Alignment to its yard at Mountain Top where we pause to take on water.



All topped up with water, #2102 and friends depart Mountain Top under the old CNJ signal bridge and proceed to the community of White Haven, PA where the Lehigh Line shifts back to the former Lehigh Valley RR alignment. Note the square CNJ mileposts.



Back in the scenic Lehigh Gorge I get to face the cliffs and forests due to the RAMB spinning the entire trainset at Pittston. This video covers the former Conrail Lehigh Line from White Haven to CP-M&H JCT.



Crossing the river I get to pair my earlier video with its opposite facing towards the Lehigh River and the parallel CNJ bike trail located between the river and the LVRR. The video finishes up with our train taking the sweeping curve of the brand new bridge to connect the northern and southern ends of the Reading and Northern Main Line.



From this point on I already had video coverage of #2102 hauling a similar Ramble back in 2022 so I shut down the studio to enjoy the final few miles into the Nesquehoning RTC. Tune in next week for the equally exciting and informative still photos from this trip.

24-08-10 PHOTOS: Columbia Ave

When Amtrak re-signaled the Connecting Railway between ZOO and NORTH PHILADELPHIA interlockings around 2005, the short block distances resulted in a split signal arrangement with brand new 4-track gantries erected at Columbia Ave (eastbound) and Susquehanna Ave (westbound). The Milepost 86.8 signal bridge at Columbia Ave in particular was less than a half mile away from MANTUA interlocking's westbound signal bridge creating a high quality viewing location from the Oxford Ave road bridge that sat between the two signal locations. It was this area that I set out to explore ( mirror ) in August of 2024.

First one has to get to Philly, which in this case involved catching an Amtrak Regional at BWI and then the SEPTA connection to suburban. Locomotives encountered include MARC SC44 #87, the class leading Acela trainset with power car #2000, Amtrak ACS-86 #634 and SEPTA Silverliner IV #435.

The Connecting Railway portion of the NEC hosts the standard list of Amtrak trains plus SEPTA R7 Trenton and R8 Chestnut Hill West service, NJT Atlantic City Line trains and Conrail freight trains to Frankford Jct and Pavonia Yard. Here an eastbound SEPTA R7 with Silverliner V equipment rolls by taking the Clear signal indication on track #1.

This was followed by northbound Regional with Veterans ACS-86 #642
and a northbound Silver Meteor Train 98 with ACS-86 #628.





Track #1 is also used for the Atlantic City trains like this southbound example with Comet V cab car #6019 and GP40PH-2B #4204.

A southbound Acela showed up with power cars #2024 and #2021.

As freight traffic on the NEC's center tracks was replaced by high speed passenger trains in the 1970's, Amtrak had to essentially undo many of the PRR era infrastructure optimizations that separated freight and passenger traffic. One of these was at ZOO interlocking where the center tracks would lead to the freight only High Line forcing high speed passenger trains on track #3 to make a 30mph diverging movement to track #4. Amtrak remedied this situation by re-aligning the track to make track #3 take a straight route towards 30th St station and the "local" track #4 the diverging route. This sort of realignment is known as a "poor man's high speed turnout".

The Acela action resulted in this southbound Amtrak Regional with ACS-86 #640 to run on track #4.

Up next was on track #3 was ACS-86 #611 at the head of another long southbound Regional.

This was followed by a northbound Acela with power cars #2019 and #2012.

As the Acela rolled past a CSX transfer run between Pavonia and South Philly showed up with ES44AH #728, ES44AH #957 and SD40-2 #8881.

Amtrak tends to run SEPTA R8 Hill West trains out on track #2 to reduce the number of route conflicts. Here SEPTA Silverliners IV #313 and #12 take the Approach Slow indication for the slow speed diverging route onto the Chestnut Hill West Line at LEHIGH interlocking.

The SEPTA R8 move forced an eastbound Keystone with ACS-86 #632 over to track #1 while the CSX manifest freight waited for a signal at CP-PARK.

I waited around a bit, but the CSX transfer run was stuck fast and I ended up needing to wrap things up.

I did have a friend with me on this trip and they were able to get video of most of the train movements which I have compiled into a short montage.



Heading home to New Jersey my eastbound PATCO train made an unscheduled employee stop at the yet-to-be-opened Franklin Square station.



I'll close things out with this cool reflection of 1 Liberty Place across from the old PRR Suburban Station building.

Make sure you tune in next week as we fire up Reading #2102 for a round trip ramble to the Pittston Tomatoe Festival.

24-07-27 PHOTOS: Long Branch

My local NRHS Chapter does a good job organizing a wide range of informal events throughout the year, giving associates the ability to get out of the hose and socialize. Unfortunately my busy schedule prevents me from attending many of these, however in July 2024 I jumped at the chance to take the New Jersey Coast Line down to Long Branch from Pennsauken via Rahway. I had only ever ridden the NJCL once back in 2006, and that was only to Red Bank. This trip would also provide and opportunity to take NEC and UNION interlocking photos at Rahway and eventually connect to an Amtrak train back to Baltimore via New York Penn Station. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

The trip would start out from the Pennsauken Transportation Center, taking the NJT RiverLINE to Trenton, then an NEC train to Rahway. I got to the Pennsauken TC early enough to catch a Philly bound Atlantic City Line train make its station stop with GP40PH-2B #4215. It's not uncommon for ACRL trains to "meet" RiverLINE DMU's on the ground level Bordentown Secondary track, but this time southbound NJT #3502 didn't quite make it before #4215 and Comet V cab car #6018 pulled away. 

My group's DMU would be #3506, seen here arriving at the Pennsauken TC.

After purchasing tickets we got down to the eastbound platform to catch an arriving southbound Regional train with ACS-86 #650 on Track #4, while the FAIR interlocking 1AE signal displayed a Limited Clear for a northbound Amtrak Regional.



The Regional was followed on Track #4 by a westbound NJT Corridor Line train with ALP-46 #6001 while the northbound Regional with ACS-86 #660, arrived on Track #1. During their dwell, the pair was split by a southbound Acela Express trainset with power cars #2024 and #2021, on Track #3 before #660 ultimately departed past the Limited Clear signal indication to cross over to Track #2.

Our train to Rahway would arrive on the eastbound high level track with split level cab car #7017. At Rahway the power was revealed to be ALP-46 #4604.

Controlled by a staffed tower until 2009, UNION interlocking is the junction of the NEC and North Jersey Coast Line, aka the New York and Long Branch. It features a trio of flying connecting tracks with one dropping down and vanishing in the middle of the main NEC tracks.

NJT seems to have a thing for scheduling "non-connections" and in the case of the NJCL, the arriving eastbound NEC train is scheduled into Rahway a minute before the departure of the westbound NJCL train, forcing anybody heading from points west to the shore to add a pointless extra hour to their trip time. There did exist a convenient connection to head back to Trenton however with ALP-45 #4515 powering a westbound local.

While lingering on the Track A platform, a northbound Acela Express trainset with power cars #2036 and #2014 blasted through the statin at high speed.

Another iconic feature of Rahway and UNION interlocking is the combination signal bridge/cantilever at the west end of the island platform. Here is a video showing a southbound Acela on track #2 with power cars #2015 and #2010 and the resulting aspect progression on UNION's 2W signal. Due to the high speed of the Acela and the short signal blocks between Rahway and Metropark you can see it change front Stop and Proceed to Approach then to Advance Approach.

24-07-12 PHOTOS: Athens Station

Finding new rail things to do for my annual trips to Georgia has become a real struggle as rear placed baggage cars prevent generating content en-route and I have also covered most rail locations of interest within casual driving distance of my friend. For the 2024 visit I used what might have been an otherwise inconvenient knitting group meeting to perform a walking tour of the old Seaboard Coast Line station in Athens, GA. Combined with the typical Washington, DC power changes, Greensboro, NC layover and waiting three hours at Gainesville, GA for the midnight train going Anywhere (station code ANY?), I managed to collect enough content ( mirror ) for an engaging post.


Because Amtrak Carolinian Train 79 does not stop at BWI, I must start my trips with a short hop on MARC to Washington Union Station. Today my mid-morning train seemed to be a B&O set with single level cab car #7761 eventually leading the consist into Washington track #7, the non-electrified, lowest numbered station track typically reserved for Camden and Brunswick line trains. Split level Bombardier cab cars #8047 and #8053 were on the adjacent tracks 8 and 9.

Train 79 arrived behind ACS-86 #664, which was swapped out for P42DC #94.

The next I saw of #94 was during the smoking stop at Richmond Virginia RF&P Station. These engines might be going on 25 years old, but they are currently more reliable than their Siemens Charger replacements.

CSX SD40-2 #8232, SD40-2 #8253 and GP38-2 #2645 were hanging out in Richmond's Acca Yard that day.

Arriving roughly on time at Greensboro I managed to exit the station and run up to the Elm St grade crossing before #94 and T79 departed.

The former Sothern Railway 1899 Greensboro Depot and later Eastern Division HQ appears to have been sold by NS for redevelopment. Meanwhile, Train 79 was being shown an uncommon R/R/G Diverging Clear signal indication for a slower, but not necessary slow speed, secondary route through ELM interlocking.

After last call I caught the tail end of a southbound NS intermodal train at the same Elm St crossing.



That nights southbound Crescent Train 19 was roughly on time with a pair of new ALC-42 Chargers, #343 and #321.



After somehow managing to avoid a Charger breakdown, Train 19 dropped me at Gainesville and proceeded through MIDLAND interlocking on a Diverging Clear signal indication.

The Seaboard Coast Line's Athens Georgia station currently serves as a CSX MoW base for the Abbeville Sub. Athens is home to the University of Georgia and the station probably had more than its fair share of passenger traffic back in the day.

Some nice touches include "Seaboard" cast into the concrete of the road underpass and "Athens" spelled out in white painted concrete letters.

There was a Southern RR station right nearby with some of the track still in place, but I'll have to visit that next time.

Fast forward to Sunday night and I was back at the Amtrak/Southern/NS Gainesville station waiting for the midnight departure. The train used to arrive a bit after 9pm, but three hours of padding was added to the schedule south of Atlanta to help improve on time performance. As was typical a pair of engines, ET44 #3654 and SD40-2 #3379, were tied down at the station for switching the New Holland yard.

As with past years a cut of road power was also present, likely having delivered a regional manifest freight to the local yard from the Atlanta hub. These included ET44 #3661, ES44AC #8128 and ES44 #8007.

Before my northbound Crescent Train 20 arrived with P42DC's #144 and #45, I was treated to a northbound manifest freight with SD60E's #6999 and #6932 and a southbound manifest with a pair of AC44C6M's taking a Diverging Clear signal at MIDLAND interlocking for a move from track 1 to track 2.








Train 20 and engine #144 getting a re-crew at Charlottesville.



After arriving at Washington DC I headed up to watch the power change. A RailVac unit was sitting on the still unfinished Track 22.

While waiting for #144 and #45 to come off T20, Capitol Limited Train 30 arrived with a somewhat shabby P40DC #817. When the passengers were off, the short Train 30 set was shoved towards Ivy City Yard by #817, before Train 20's P42DC's #144 and #45 are pulled off to be replaced by ACS-86 #668. Just after #668 coupled, an afternoon VRE trainset arrives from the yard with MP36PH-3C # V64 leading and gallery cab car #V723 on the rear.

After that concluded a light engine move including Amtrak P42DC's #128 and #79 coupled ahead of MARCC MP36PH-3C #19 and #17, and SC44 #85.

Also on the MARC front, MP36PH-3C #31 was pulling out with a Penn Line train while #15 sat ready to go all while VRE MP36PH-3C #V59 was pulling into a low level berth.

Well that's all for my 2024 Georgia trip, I'll be back next time with a West Jersey Chapter NRHS sponsored trip to Long Branch, NJ via Rahway.