A snowy Turkey Trot & pumpkins on Black Friday

Matt L · November 30, 2013, 02:00:41 PM

Since I must travel to see my immediate family at Thanksgiving, it's an excellent excuse to engage in train chasing while I am there.

My first intercept was westbound NS mixed freight 309 at the Canaseraga Arkport Road bridge in Canaseraga:

Further east on the Southern Tier Mainline, I caught westbound intermodal freight 23K at the Catatunk Road crossing in Adrian:

I chased 23K west to Canisteo, where I snagged a few shots of the train at the Depot Street crossing:

All photos in this post were taken by me Thursday 11/28/2013 in upstate NY. All rights are reserved.

Matt L · November 30, 2013, 02:24:03 PM

I reamined n in the general area overnight. Black Friday to me means Norfolk Southern- I'll take a day by the rails over shopping whenever possible. Chasing resumed later in the morning.

Eastbound mixed freight 13T had a pair "pumpkins" in the power mix. My first interception was at the Saunders Road crossing in Cameron Mills:

I also caught 13T and the BNSF units in Rathbone on the Southern Tier Mainline:

Due to a 30 mph speed limit in Addison, I was unable to gkeep up with 13T. On the other had, I was eventually able to get to the NS yard at Gang Mills, which was hosting a visit from Uncle Pete:

Gang Mills also had a couple of familiar "faces" -I've seen the GP38-2 and the SD40-2 before, although not together.

What followed was a bit of a SNAFU that actually turned out well. Westbound 12T was sitting on the east side runner to the Gang Mills while 13T (which had stopped in the yard briefly) got ready to depart. Another mixed freight (symbol unknown) was leaving the west end of the yard, so I left both 12T and 13T behind to set up in the Canisteo River valley again.

The westbound mixed freight passed through the Saunders Road crossing at Cameron Mills early in the afternoon.

The westbound mystery freight arrives at the Canisteo River Road crossing in West Cameron:

My final shots of the day were at the County Route 119 bridge in Canisteo:

All photos in this post were taken by me Friday 11/29/2013 in Steuben County, NY. All rights are reserved. I am not a fan of cold weather, but the snow was a nice backdrop for the chases.

dschlegel · November 30, 2013, 03:43:06 PM

Nice series of shots, again!

And it's always best to avoid the shopping on Black Friday. I spent mine decorating for Christmas with my daughter, who was anxious to be done with all of the outdoor stuff so we could put the train around the tree inside.
PA Dan

Matt L · December 01, 2013, 06:31:34 PM

Thanx, Dan. I am not much of a shopper, except for my main hobbies (music and trains). Do you have any snow down in your part of PA?

thpbears · December 01, 2013, 07:24:56 PM

Nice pics.

dschlegel · December 02, 2013, 06:15:09 AM

Quote from: Matt L on December 01, 2013, 06:31:34 PM
Thanx, Dan. I am not much of a shopper, except for my main hobbies (music and trains). Do you have any snow down in your part of PA?

We've had a few squalls roll through but nothing has stuck so far, which is OK with me.
PA Dan

Matt L · December 03, 2013, 08:12:34 PM

Quote from: thpbears on December 01, 2013, 07:24:56 PMNice pics.

Thank you. One more thing- I think I caught a lucky break with the BNSF and UP units. They had been fairly rare in NY for most of the year, but started showing up more frequently over the past few weeks. A special thanks goes out to the Buffalo railfan group on Facebook for the info.