NS on the former Erie Lackawanna in upstate NY

Matt L · January 01, 2009, 09:30:05 PM

I chose the Southern Tier Mainline for my final chase of 2008. That includes some of th old Erie Lackawanna mainline... and that is why I chose it for my chase last weekend.

Here we see the eastbound 12T headed towards the Jackson Road crossing in Cameron Mills, NY:

Photo taken by me Saturday 12/27/2008.

Matt L · January 01, 2009, 09:32:01 PM

An elderly SD60 still in CR's dress blue led the consist for 12T:

Photo taken by me Saturday 12/27/2008.

Matt L · January 01, 2009, 09:33:48 PM

In fact, two of 3 locomotives on 12T were former Conrail power:

Photo taken by me Saturday 12/27/2008.

Matt L · January 01, 2009, 09:36:50 PM

Since this is part of the old Erie/EL mainline, mile markers such as this one refer to the distance to the old Erie terminal in Jersey City, NJ:

Photo taken by me Saturday 12/27/2008 in Cameron Mills, NY.

Matt L · January 01, 2009, 09:39:59 PM

Moving east to Addison, I intercepted a slow moving westbound 533 shortly after it departed the Gang Mills yard near Corning, NY:

Photo taken by me Saturday 12/27/2008.

Matt L · January 01, 2009, 09:41:47 PM

An older standard cab SD60 led the consist for 533:

Photo taken by me Saturday 12/27/2008.

Matt L · January 01, 2009, 09:43:47 PM

A widecab was the other lcomotive in the consist:

Photo taken by me Saturday 12/27/2008 in Addison, NY.

Matt L · January 01, 2009, 09:46:52 PM

Train #533 is a coal run- loads east and empties west. As we can see with the last car, hoppers from the Somerset RR are often used:

Photo taken by me Saturday 12/27/2008 in Addison, NY.

Matt L · January 01, 2009, 09:51:06 PM

Now we see the westbound 533 rounding the curve at Rathbone, NY. This location has been a favorite location of railfans for decades- photographed in the Erie, EL and Conrail eras.

Photo taken by me Saturday 12/27/2008.

Matt L · January 01, 2009, 09:55:05 PM

When #533 got to this location in Cameron Mills, it was running at the 50 mph speed limit:

Photo taken by me Saturday 12/27/2008. Unfortunately lower speed limit for the highway west of Cameron Mills allowed the train to overtake me, so I headed back towards Corning.

Matt L · January 01, 2009, 09:57:48 PM

Train number 13T surprised me near Addison, so I headed back to Cameron Mills to intercept it:

Photo taken by me Saturday 12/27/2008 at the Jackson Road crossing.

Matt L · January 01, 2009, 10:07:09 PM

Here we see the tail end of 13T just after it passed Jackson Road. While 533 will continue west on the old Erie/EL main at CP Cass in Hornell (NY), 13T will diverge onto the Buffalo Extension there and terminate at Bison Yard a couple hours after this shot:

Photo taken by me Saturday 12/27/2008 in Cameron Mills, NY.

Matt L · January 01, 2009, 10:16:42 PM

I decided to head back towards Corning and caught up to 12T again. The crew had stopped at Gang Mills to pick up some additional cars before continuing on to Allentown. Here we see the head end power just after it cleared the Pulteney Street overpass in the city of Corning (a mile or so east of Gang Mills):

Photo taken by me Saturday 12/27/2008. This my final photo for this series. I have rediscovered some NS photos I took during the summer and promise to share them here at jreb.org soon. Happy New Year!

ssmith1627 · January 03, 2009, 02:59:22 PM

Very nice stuff. Thanks for sharing. Nice to see pics from different areas.

Steve

Matt L · January 03, 2009, 04:44:17 PM

I'm glad you liked the pics! I did mess up the link for the mile marker photo, which is now fixed.

I have a few goodies from this past summer to add, as well. I spent a pleasurable day chasing the Bath & Hammondsport RR in August. This included the interchange with NS at Painted Post. Here we see the power for H77 coming off the former EL wye:

Photo taken by me Friday 8/22/2008.

Matt L · January 03, 2009, 04:53:41 PM

After travelling a mile or so up the tracks, the crew of H77 returns with a full train from the B&H in tow. As we can see, the majority of the traffic interchanged between the B&H and NS are tank cars of natural gas which ship to a customer near Bath, NY.

This is the former EL Wayland Branch. Much of this line is the ex-DL&W mainline, but the wye and the tracks in Painted Post are among a few segments of the Erie Rochester Division consolidated into the branch shortly after the EL merger.

Photo taken by me Friday 8/22/2008. Notice the open door of the cab- it was a warm day.

Matt L · January 03, 2009, 04:58:50 PM

I had never seen a tank car with this shade of blue on a real (prototype) train before. I have seen a few like it since then, mostly on the B&H!

Photo taken by me Fri 8/22/2008 in Painted Post, NY.

Matt L · January 03, 2009, 05:02:47 PM

As soon as the H77 local disappeared around on leg of the wye, guess what appeared on the leg of the wye?

Photo taken by me Friday 8/22/2008 in Painted Post, NY.

Matt L · January 03, 2009, 05:11:52 PM

Yeah, we are looking at a pair of Alco Centuries on NS! Here we see B&H #631 leading the B&H local off the wye. The big M630 was on a test run that day. She had been recently restored for the B&H's sister railroad, the Western New York & Pennsylvania (WNYP) and would be transferred there via NS a few weeks later:

Photo taken by me Friday 8/22/2008 in Painted Post, NY.

Matt L · January 03, 2009, 05:16:24 PM

Looking very brute, #631 crosses Hamilton Street in Painted Post. I believe this is where the line changes from NS to B&H:

Photo taken by me Friday 8/22/2008. The kid in the cab is the grandson of the mechanic who restored #631 to service.

Matt L · January 03, 2009, 05:29:01 PM

The trailing unit on the B&H local is ex-EL C424m #422. She and B&H #423 (another ex-EL C424m not seen here) are the normal power for the B&H local. They make the trip to Painted Post 2 to 5 times per week to interchange with NS.

Photo taken by me Friday 8/22/2008.

Matt L · January 03, 2009, 05:50:17 PM

The following day, I journeyed west to CP Cass, which is in Hornell. This is the historic junction for the Erie/EL mainline and the Buffalo Extension. Conrail had operated the ex-EL mainline east of CP Cass (as well as the Buffalo Extension), but had taken most of the EL mainline west of CP Cass out of service in 1991. Upon leasing it from NS in 2001, WNYP restored the tracks between Meadville and Hornell to full service. This is most activity these tracks have seen since the early days of CR.

We begin with the daily NS/CP transfer between Bison Yard near Buffalo and Mohawk Yard in Schenectady. The train is headed eastbound and is about to enter the junction at CP Cass.

Photo taken by me Saturday 8/23/2008. The train is on the Buffalo Extension. The track at left is the ex-EL main operated by the WNYP.

Matt L · January 03, 2009, 05:57:57 PM

An hour later and a few hundred feet east of the last photo, an NS manifest freight rumbles through CP Cass and onto the ex-EL mainline. This might be 12T, although I'm not 100% sure.

Photo taken by me Saturday 8/23/2008.

Matt L · January 03, 2009, 06:05:16 PM

Another hour passes, and I have the pleasure of seeing a WNYP local in person for the first time. Here it is entering CP Cass:

Photo taken by me Saturday 8/23/2008 in Hornell, NY.

Matt L · January 03, 2009, 06:12:24 PM

Like the B&H, the WNYP is an Alco-powered shortline. Here we see a C630 and an ex-EL C424m (sister unit to the B&H C424ms) leading the WNYP local through Hornell on NS rails:

Photo taken by me Saturday 8/23/2008.