On the hunt

[Matt L]

The first time I went looking for a heritage unit was just 10 days ago. I didn't find the Erie unit that day...but it did lead to some nice exploration of the former Lehigh Valley RR. The line is now called the Ithaca Secondary by Norfolk Southern.

One of the more interesting discoveries I made was this high nose EMD and a short MOW train on a short spur in Spencer, NY.



I subsequently discovered this spur is a short stub of the Elmira, Cortland and Northern. About a mile of track was still in place until a few years ago to service a feed mill in Spencer, but now a few hundred feet is all that's left.





The former Lehigh Valley yard in downtown Ithaca is still active. It is mostly used for salt traffic.



All photos in this post were taken by me Saturday 1/19/2013 in upstate NY. All rights reserved.

[Matt L]

When it became apparent I wasn't going to find NS 1068 that day, I went looking for other action. I headed over to the Southern Tier Mainline. This is the former Erie RR/EL yard in downtown Elmira- not far from where the "EL freight" photo was shot.



NS/CP 38T came through Elmira heights in the early afternoon.



There was also an MOW working on the ROW just a few hundred feet north of the previous shot.



Eastbound coal train 532 was parked on a siding in Horseheads.





All photos in this post were taken by me Saturday 1/19/2013 in Chemung County, NY. All rights reserved.

[Matt L]

I also checked out the yard at Gang Mills.



Manifest freight 13T was leaving the yard, so I drove ahead to intercept it at Route 352 overpass in Gibson.





All photos in this post were taken by me Saturday 1/19/2013 in upstate NY. All rights reserved. Despite not finding NS heritage unit #1068 (which was in nearby Sayre, PA!), I had a fun day. I did eventually catch up with the Erie unit, which will be the subject of another thread.