Trackside Log for Saturday, June 16, 2007

Tonight while working at the computer I heard a train whistle for the crossing down the road. However, this time the train sounded very odd and slow. It quickly dawned on my why. It was a rail grinder. I grabbed my video camera and drove to Boyle to see it grinding in the dark.

• 0012 Boyle - Loram rail grinder northbound - RG 310

After the video it was time for bed since Marcus was arriving in the morning to head over to Buffalo for the day. After I got some sleep Marcus arrived at my house and we left for New York state where our first destination was Angola.

• 1024 Angola, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 80-CSXT 788
• 1050 Angola, NY - CSX V871 west - CSXT 5496-CEFX 2800-UP 2681
• 1107 Angola, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 5289-CSXT 5426

After talking about what we might like to see, we decided to meander our way to North East, Pennsylvania. So we departed Angola with our first stop in Dunkirk where we discovered a parked coal train.

• 1149 Dunkirk, NY - CSX westbound - UP 7148-UP 6213

Nothing much else seemed to be coming so we continued along until we got to Brocton. We located an interesting location and stayed there for a few trains.

• 1244 Brocton, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 658-CSXT 692
• 1258 Brocton, NY - CSX westbound - CSXT 5430-CSXT 5500
• 1341 Brocton, NY - CSX westbound - CSXT 5413-CSXT 5444

We had just started to leave when we heard our parked coal train heading our way. We turned around and photographed it in Brocton.

• 1356 Brocton, NY - CSX westbound - UP 7148-UP 6213

Things slowed down a bit again and it was time to continue westward. Marcus wanted to see the station in Westfield, so that was our next stop. He noticed a signal lit for a westbound so we took the opportunity to photograph it by the station.

• 1437 Westfield, NY - CSX westbound - CSXT 5005-CSXT 5270

After our photographs we drove to North East, Pennsylvania and visited the Lake Shore Railway Museum. Marcus hadn't visited before so we wandered around. It's an interesting little museum with some very nice exhibits. They were busy preparing for the Fathers' Day dinner to be held in two of their vintage passenger cars. While at the museum an eastbound happened by.

• 1517 North East, PA - CSX eastbound - CSXT 5437-CSXT 7554

I also took a few photos around the museum including the "Little Joe".

• 1539 North East, PA - Lake Shore Railway Museum exhibit - CSS&SB 802

Having finished looking at the museum we drove back eastward to Remington Road to see what would arrive. Unfortunately it was nearly all eastbounds which were poorly lit.

• 1609 North East, PA - CSX eastbound - CSXT 258-CEFX 3105
• 1619 North East, PA - CSX eastbound - CSXT 5492-CSXT 5290
• 1634 North East, PA - CSX eastbound - CSXT 7709-CSXT 7619
• 1647 North East, PA - CSX westbound - CSXT 280-CSXT 8356-CSXT 8733
• 1650 North East, PA - NS 206 east - NS 9695-NS 9572
• 1700 North East, PA - CSX eastbound - CSXT 5349-LTEX 3415
• 1711 North East, PA - NS 309 west - NS 8769-NS 6638-NS 7522-NS 8756

After a very long lull, a westbound finally approached.

• 1845 North East, PA - CSX westbound - CSXT 8574-FURX 3046
• 1904 North East, PA - CSX westbound - CSXT 4747-CSXT 55
• 1941 North East, PA - CSX eastbound - CSXT 5273-CSXT 5232-CSXT 5316
• 1956 North East, PA - NS eastbound - NS 9244-NS 8306
• 2006 North East, PA - CSX westbound - CSXT 7793-CSXT 7890-CSXT 745-CSXT 5411-CSXT 5407
• 2017 North East, PA - CSX Q279 west - CSXT 7339-CSXT 7768

It was starting to get dark so Marcus and I called it a day. We managed to photograph in some new locations and saw a decent variety of trains even if CSX threw a large portion of their ES44DC roster at us. But alas it was time to return to Canada.