Trackside Log for Saturday, August 15, 2009

Just the previous Tuesday I received my Ontario Enhanced Drivers License. Thanks to good old American paranoia I had been unable to cross the border into the United States since June 1st when the required documents for entry changed. So, with new card in hand, I decided that I should at least make use of the $40 it cost me. The plan was to visit North East, Pennsylvania for the day. Marcus was also going to be joining me.

I headed out the door at 0700 into what promised to be a clear but very hot day. I met Marcus at Fort Erie and we braved the Peace Bridge border crossing. It wasn't terribly busy and we were granted entry with minimal difficulty. In an effort to conserve time we took Interstate 90 straight to North East. A westbound with a pair of Union Pacific SD70Ms was already there when we arrived. We weren't going to be able to photograph it before it took off so we stopped for breakfast at McDonald's. Naturally, while there, an eastbound also passed through. Luckily CSX runs enough trains that we weren't too concerned. We took the food over to Bort Road and after a wait long enough to eat some trains showed up.

• 1017 North East, PA - CSX Q251 west - CSXT 377-CSXT 7678
• 1037 North East, PA - CSX Q371 west - CSXT 8196-CSXT 7628
• 1056 North East, PA - CSX Q281 west - CSXT 8806-CSXT 5824
• 1101 North East, PA - CSX Q268 east - CSXT 5388-CSXT 7789
• 1238 North East, PA - NS 310 east - NS 9195-NS 8773

By noon the air was thick. A lull in the action occurred after the Norfolk Southern train so Marcus and I decided it was a good time for lunch. We drove into North East proper and bought lunch from Subway. We took our subs to the former New York Central station which is now the home of Lake Shore Railway Historical Society. Between lunch and perusing exhibits and magazines some trains passed by the station.

• 1356 North East, PA - CSX Q109 west - CSXT 8758-CSXT 5338-CSXT 5373
• 1405 North East, PA - CSX Q161 west - CSXT 5479-CSXT 5415-CSXT 7911
• 1421 North East, PA - NS 22K east - NS 2639-NS 2527
• 1428 North East, PA - CSX Q146 east - CSXT 97-CSXT 5208

Word on the radio was that Norfolk Southern train 309 was on the way. Marcus and I made our way back to Bort Road for a photograph there.

• 1515 North East, PA - NS 309 west - NS 2629-NS 9249
• 1524 North East, PA - CSX westbound - CSXT 5323-CSXT 7392-CSXT 7612

The sun was starting to cross over the tracks and making photography difficult at Bort Road so we drove to the next crossing west, Remington Road.

• 1604 North East, PA - CSX eastbound - CSXT 5242-CSXT 7507
• 1607 North East, PA - NS eastbound - NS 9822-NS 9120
• 1613 North East, PA - CSX eastbound - CSXT 5263-CSXT 8809
• 1631 North East, PA - CSX Q115 west - CSXT 5377-CSXT 5366-CSXT 5439-CSXT 5230-CSXT 5359
• 1647 North East, PA - CSX Q381 west - CSXT 7689-CSXT 8049
• 1649 North East, PA - CSX ethanol eastbound - CSXT 7915-CSXT 8853
• 1704 North East, PA - CSX K645 westbound ethanol - CSXT 5313-CSXT 9039-CSXT 4795-CSXT 40-CSXT 5466

At that point everything got very quiet again so we made the move eastward, toward home. We followed Route 5 so we had easy access to the tracks if we heard of a westbound in the area. The only known train was a Q108 east which wasn't very photographable anyway. It caught up to us at Ripley, New York.

• 1737 Ripley, NY - CSX Q108 east - CSXT 7691-CSXT 7706-CSXT 5319

We managed to miss the only westbound that appeared during the 70 mile journey back to Buffalo but overall we managed to have a pretty decent, albeit sweaty, day trackside in Pennsylvania.