Last summer, I spent a humid day railfanning New York's Southern Tier region. This thread features photos taken in Hornell. For those who don't know, CP Cass was the historic junction between the EL/Erie mainline and the Buffalo Extension. NS operates the Buffalo Extension and the former EL/Erie main east of CP Cass today as part of its Southern Tier Mainline.
Conrail had left the remainder of the former Erie/EL main between Hornell and Meadville for dead in the 1990s. After the CR split, NS received the route. They did little with most of it until the WNYP entered the picture. The latter shortline revived Old Reliable between Meadville and Hornell, so NS became interested in trackage rights. An agreement was reached several years ago and NS currently operates 2-4 coal trains per day on the line.
I headed down to Hornell on August 23, 2007. After waiting for over an hour, I was rewarded with a light in the distance:
(https://www.jreb.org/ns/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi105.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fm231%2FAmtrak_Matt%2F072_72-1.jpg&hash=c96f7516a77ea25207e1a3e379b93cb33f00b810)
Photo taken by me.
We are looking west at CP Cass. The NS coal train is coming off the WNYP to the left and about to enter the NS Southern Tier Mainline. The Buffalo Extension branches off to the right.
(https://www.jreb.org/ns/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi105.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fm231%2FAmtrak_Matt%2F076_76-1.jpg&hash=17118870f8b06196c6bbd374900de19e56f4fea2)
Photo taken by me 8/23/2007.
I was photographing about 200 feet west of the actual junction at CP Cass. Here you can see the leading widecab about to enter the interlocking:
(https://www.jreb.org/ns/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi105.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fm231%2FAmtrak_Matt%2F077_77-3.jpg&hash=a2b5862957b9357879f3a0abf1fb98816240f1de)
The tail end of the coal train is clearing the interlocking at CP CASS. I wanted to take more photos here, but heavy thunderstorms arrived later to put a damper on chasing for the rest of the day.
(https://www.jreb.org/ns/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi105.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fm231%2FAmtrak_Matt%2F080_80.jpg&hash=6ae669f77ce2a924559e0744b197bef59af026d3)
Photo taken by me at Hornell, NY on Thursday 8/23/2007.