When 309 is late, it can be good for train chasing

[Matt L]

I was trackside yet again last weekend, and the weather continued to cooperate. The weather was sunny for most of the day, the temps were actually OK (40 degrees in the afternoon is acceptable for the beginning of March) and the wind was absent.

This trip started in Linden. NS still has switch heaters running up here in the tundra.



Westbound 23K arrived at the Molasses Hill Road crossing (in Linden) around mid-morning, and had a couple of the old "white face" wide cabs in the power mix.









   
The next sighting was westbound mixed freight 309, which arrived at MP 389 (Alexander, NY) on the Southern Tier Mainline late in the morning.







All photos in this post were taken by me Saturday 3/1/2014 in Genesee County, NY. All rights are reserved.

[Matt L]

Note the cut of covered hoppers in the last photo. The crew of 309 probably picked them up from the Rochester & Southern RR in Silver Springs.

Speaking of the R&S, I intercepted them on the way home. Normally, their road freight would pass through Leroy much earlier, but I'm thinking they had to get a load of salt to NS and pick up some empties. One of the few benefits of this terrible winter has been increased salt traffic on NY's railroads.

I will admit I caught the R&S road freight by pure luck when the road freight was dropping a few cars in Leroy.







I chased the Rochester & Southern RR northward. Among other things, I finally got a few shots at the North Road crossing in Scottsville for the 1st time.






I hope to capture the R&S entering the Brooks Avenue Yard, but this slow moving CSX intermodal (at the Route 383 crossing in Chili) ruined that opportunity.



Knowing the time was getting tight, I turned around and chose instead to catch the R&S at the Ballantyne Road crossing Chili.







All photos in this post were taken by me Saturday 3/12/104 in western New York. All rights are reserved. A special thanks goes out to the employees of the Rochester & Southern RR for their friendliness and professionalism.

As you can see, NS 309's late run probably helped me catch the R&S... which gives a new meaning to better late than never!