21-11-24 PHOTOS: Croydon Return

After a year off due to COVID I was able to rejoin Chuchubob for our annual Thanksgiving Wednesday NEC carpool. This year, after the traditional south jersey stops at Cove Road and Pennsauken, we traveled to catch the increased Amtrak traffic at the Croydon SEPTA station due to its proximity to a really nice brewpub. Unfortunately over the intervening period, Amtrak had responded to the change in travel patterns and tight labor market by raising prices instead of adding capacity. As a result there were no Thanksgiving Wednesday extra trains, just some extra cars. Still, it was an excuse to get out and take some NEC photos on a really nice fall day. The full set of photos can be found here ( mirror ).

Starting off at the Pennsauken transportation center where we arrived in time to catch an inbound NJT Atlantic City Line train seen here heading over the Delair Bridge before a stop at the station.

NJT RiverLINE trans also tend to pass just north of the Pennsauken transfer station so when you encounter a northbound, a southbound will soon follow. Today #3511 was heading north and #3506 south.

At Cove Road NS SD70ACe #1177 and C40-10W #7516 were in the process of building their train at Pavonia Yard. The train's length was such that the lead units were spraying sand and needed to get routes pulled up at CP-HATCH.

On a hunch Bob drove down to the RiverLINE's 36th St station where we found SD70ACe #1025 in a DPU position ahead of a cut of coal hoppers.

We also caught the next southbound RiverLINE train with #3513.

At Croydon, an outbound SEPTA R7 was first to arrive with Silverliner IV #293.

This was followed by a northbound Amtrak Regional with ACS-86 #625. A major feature of the Croydon station is the proximity to a PRR style intermediate signal location.

A inbound R7 train with Silverliners IV #372, #373, #277 and #296 then arrived. In years past these Thanksgiving adjacent train could be seen with up to 6 cars.

An eastbound Amtrak Keystone was next with ACS-86 #628 and Metroliner Cab Car #9645.

21-11-21 PHOTOS: Wyomissing Jct

When driving home for Thanksgiving or Christmas I usually take the opportunity to make a side trip to Reading, PA as between the Reading & Northern and NS, it's a reliable location for both train movements and railroad related infrastructure. Since prior to 2021 I had largely exhausted the supply of signaling and infrastructure locations in the Reading area, I decided to meet up with Phil N. at CP-WYOMISSING JCT to see what might be moving on the Harrisburg Line. Luck and the sun were both shining on my that day with a bevy of through freights appearing in the space of an hour or two. After lunch a visit to the Cumru Bridge did not yield any additional results, but I had gotten more than my fill earlier in the day. The full set of photos can be seen here ( mirror ).

CP-WYOMISSING JCT is located on the former Reading Railroad Lebanon Valley Branch just west of Downtown Reading and Reading Yard. The Junction part of Wyomissing Jct is in the form of a connecting track that links the former Reading Belt Line that is currently used by through freights heading east to Philly (via the Harrisburg Line) or New York (via the Reading Line). Needless to say, most traffic is of the New York Variety. Here we see a westbound doublestack intermodal train heading up the ramp from CP-TULP with ET44AC #3645, AC44C6M #4134 and C44-9W #9910 passing AC44C6M #4136 at the head of a westbound manifest freight in the process.

A Medium Approach Medium signal indication on Track #1 implied that an eastbound heading to the Reading Line and North Jersey was approaching. The manifest freight with a trailing autorack block train soon appeared with AC44C6M rebuilds #4122 and #4392 leading.

21-11-12 PHOTOS: Allegheny Valley

Rail trails do not generally provide sufficient railroad content to meet the FRA's recommended daily amounts, however once in a while they do provide access to interesting railroad artifacts and locations that can raise them above something like an infrequently operating short line. One of these trails covers the former Pennsylvania Railroad Allegheny Valley branch that ran between Pittsburgh and Erie with connections to the coal and oil fields of North Central Pennsylvania. While on an Armistice Day related road trip this was the closest rail activity that would both involve the whole day and not leave my friend sitting in a car while I took obsessive photos of searchlight signals. Also, because I knew that I would probably need some photos of real trains, I made a point to stop by Altoona and Tyrone on the way out. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

ALTO tower, built in 1915 and closed in 2012, was still hanging in there. It is slated for preservation, but the process of making it suitable for visitation and restoration is ongoing. Until that happens is sits unoccupied, at risk of vandalism and fire.

While I was on site, an NS PSR special descended the hill with C44-10W #8044 and C44-9W #9826 leading a manifest block ahead of a an autorack block, then AC44C6M #4483 before a long trailing block of RBMN coal hopper cars.

This long PSR monster stopped with the head end near the Rose Yard crew base, indicating an main line re-crew or tail end helper cutoff. As the sun was starting to set I felt it best to get back on I-99 and try to get ahead of the train and get a photo at the Tyrone station about 10 miles to the (railroad) east. Since my last visit, the Tyrone station renovations had been completed with a new platform and ADA parking spaces.

Although the train I had encountered at ALTO did not appear, a replacement was provided in the form of an eastbound doublestack intermodal train with C44-9W #9913, SD70ACe #1116 and C44-9W #9581 leading.

21-10-30 PHOTOS: Harristober

No, this is not a rerun of a previous post. Due to having had two years off thanks to the Covid pandemic, I decided to double my number of visits to HARRIS tower with an early season visit added to my more typical final weekend visit. Will my initiative be rewarded? Read ahead and find out. Also included are some additional photos taken on my frequent Amtrak trips to and from Philly. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

Most times I get many photos of signals with few trains. At HARRIS the opposite is true as upwards of 50 NS and Amtrak train movements passing through this critical rail chokepoint by every day. This day would be no different with NS SD70ACe #1030 and ES44AC #8062 being first on the scene with a westbound intermodal train.

Although the days weather was rather crummy I was sheltered from the elements inside HARRIS tower with its restored and fully operational Union Switch and Signal Model 14 interlocking machine.

Some of the recent changes help visitors see how the mechanical interlocking works.



The next train to pass by was an eastbound intermodal with NS C44's-10W #7577 and #7532 sandwiching C44-9W #9973.

My luck did ultimately hold up as I was treated to N&W heritage ES44AC #8103 running ahead of sister ES44AC #8003.

21-10-14 PHOTOS: MOAPA

The National Parks are America's Best Idea, however sometimes it can be challenging to incorporate sufficient rail content into a national parks trip. During my 2021 visit to Bryce and Zion National parks in southern Utah I was able to identify a rail related point of interest in the small Nevada town of Moapa, just a mile or so off Interstate 15. Due to various circumstances I was able to finagle a stop there on both the outbound and inbound legs of the journey from Las Vegas and despite long odds, I was ultimately rewarded for my perseverance. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).


The Moapa station/siding is located on the Union pacific Caliente Sub on what used to be Amtrak's old Desert Wind route, until that service was cancelled in 1997. The siding is 384 miles from Las Angeles and I visited the northern end due to its proximity to a paved road and potential fire fuel. Although the Caliente Sub had been resignaled during the great PTC purge, the old pole line had been abandoned in place and provided some interesting visual content.

The railroad location of MOAPA is about a mile north of the town of Moapa and within spitting distance of Path 27, a 500kv HVDC power line running from Salt Lake City to the Los Angeles basin.

Because I was with non-train people I only had limited time to take some photos of the location and I was not expecting to catch a train movement. While my friend gathered wood I was treated to some A-10 Warthog ground attack aircraft flying out of nearby Nellis AFB.

Just before I was about to head out a Clear indication on the approach lit westbound mast signaled the presence of an approaching Union Pacific freight train.

It was a doublestack intermodal train led by Union Pacific SD70ACe #9048 and SD70Ms #4832 and #4543.

21-10-10 PHOTOS: EAST CONWAY

It's getting harder and harder to track down genuine PRR position lights these days, but after a major bout of resignaling wiped out the PL's on the former Conrail Fort Wayne Line west of Pittsburgh, a quirk of NS's policy of disinvestment somehow managed to preserve a stretch of ABS Rule 251 signaled track on the Cleveland Line in the Ohio River valley west of Rochester, PA. These signals had the benefit of also being located near the PRR's premier classification facility, Conway Yard so while in town for another event I took the opportunity to hit two birds with one stone with visits to both EAST CONWAY and the Milepost 2.7 intermediate signal location in Beaver, PA. The full gallery can be found here ( mirror ).

First stop were the milepost 2 intermediate signals located at the west end of the municipality of Beaver, PA. It is located in the shadow of the Interstate 376 bridge over the Ohio and across from the new Shell Oil Ethelene cracking plant that uses local frack gas to produce plastics. The eastbound signal can display Approach Slow for the slow speed route at CP-ROCHESTER. The former Conrail Cleveland Line takes an alternate routing to Alliance Ohio via the Ohio Valley and Yellow Creek. With local industry in decline, most through traffic travels via the Fort Wayne Line before switching over to the Cleveland Line at CP-ALLIANCE.

The next stop was the confluence of the Beaver River and the Ohio River that features two beefy steel age bridges built to take the weight of late steam age mega-locomotives. The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie cantilever bridge over the Ohio River is now part of the CSX Pittsburgh Sub on that railroad's Washington to Chicago service lane. One level below, the smaller PRR truss bridge over the Beaver River is still very impressive. The local waterfront is now a park overlooked by a new apartment block.

Previously part of CP-ROCHESTER, the logical triple junction between the Conrail Era Fort Wayne, Cleveland and Youngstown Lines, the 2019 re-signaling project split off the Cleveland Line single to double track switch into CP-BRIDGEWATER located on the west end of the Beaver River truss bridge.

Conway Yard in its current form was a post-war PRR project to increase efficiency on its primary east-west freight market. After its rebuild Conway had the distinction of being the world's largest from 1956 to 1980 with separate classification humps for both eastbound and westbound trains. Although one hunp was removed in the early 2000's (and sent to Enola Yard), Conway is still a major component of Norfolk Southern's New York to Chicago market. Conway Yard is largely paralleled by PA Route 65 from which I was able to get photos of a road slug set with NS GP40-2 #3091 and RP-E4C slug #745 along with AC44C6M rebuild #4233 in the DPU position at the rear of a coal train.

Beginning with the 1956 rebuild, rail traffic around Conway Yard was controlled by a Union Switch and Signal N-X type interlocking machine within EAST CONWAY tower. The tower survived both the coming and going of Conrail, ultimately being closed in the 2010's by NS.

The vehicle bridge over EAST CONWAY interlocking is a popular railfan spot, unfortunately the pneumatic switch machines were replaced in the 2019 resignaling project.

Trains can be frequently found waiting at either end of EAST CONWAY and on my trip NS AC44C6M #4340 was shifting cars in the westbound receiving yard and C44-9W #9856 waited at the 4-track westbound cantilever for a lineup into the yard.