Trackside Log for Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Today Sam was going to be visiting with her friend in Syracuse. Since they were going to be spending their time engaged in knitting interests, I decided to leave them to their own devices and find someplace trackside to see what CSX as doing. The weather wasn't great, but it was relaxing. It took quite a while before anything rolled down the tracks, but eventually a quick trio arrived.

• 1306 Jordan, NY - Amtrak 63 west - AMTK 110
  
• 1312 Jordan, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 7693
  
• 1323 Jordan, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 5331-CSXT 5225
  

Just after the third train passed by I got a call from Sam asking me to meet her at her friend's house. That signalled the end of my time trackside. By the time we departed Syracuse for home it was dark.

Trackside log for Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Sam asked me along on a short trip to Syracuse, New York to visit a friend. The idea was to drive leisurely there with a few photographic diversions. I decided to follow the Falls Road line in search of anything interesting. In Medina we encountered the Medina Railroad Museum and their New York Central painted E8s and former Waterloo-St. Jacobs passenger equipment.

• 1157 Medina, NY - power - RPCX 4068-RPCX 4080 with coaches RPCX 5735, RPCX 2143 and RPCX 761
  

Next we headed back toward the CSX mainline and had some time to park trackside to wait for any traffic that might be in the area.

• 1414 Churchville, NY - Amtrak 64 east - AMTK 110
  
• 1428 Churchville, NY - Amtrak 63 west - AMTK 43
  
• 1458 Churchville, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 5377-CSXT 860
  

The weather was getting darker and we were due in Syracuse for about 1700 so after the intermodal train we drove straight to our destination.

Trackside Log for Sunday, April 15, 2012

This morning I awoke to my last day in Cresson, Pennsylvania. I got up, collected my belongings and had breakfast at The Station Inn before heading out to see what the railways would present before my camera. As we were finishing breakfast an eastbound came to a stop in front of the inn. I went to the viewing platform in time to see a helper set pass it on track two.

• 0826 Cresson, PA - NS helper east - NS 6303-NS 6323
  

Then the helper set switched to track three before backing onto the front of the eastbound freight.

• 0833 Cresson, PA - NS helper east (reversing) - NS 6303-NS 6323
  

After a considerable wait the eastbound departed with its additional power whilst a westbound arrived.

• 0904 Cresson, PA - NS eastbound - NS 6303-NS 6323-NS 9465-NS 8409-NS 9659 w/ helper NS 6324-NS 6320
  
• 0914 Cresson, PA - NS westbound - NS 7708-NS 9007-NS 7693
  

Next the Pennsylvanian crept into town faced with a stop signal while a westbound approached on track three.

• 0931 Cresson, PA - NS westbound - NS 9292-NS 2616 w/ helper NS 6308-NS 6307-NS 6310-NS 6322
  
• 0932 Cresson, PA - Amtrak 42 east - AMTK 9
  

It took about 15 minutes before train 42 was presented a green signal. I waited around a while longer but nothing else showed up. Since the weather wasn't the best I decided to start my way back home. Naturally, a westbound came around the bend just as I was leaving.

I took the scenic route north following R.J. Corman tracks past the coal loadouts in Fallentimber and Mahaffey before heading to the Buffalo & Pittsburgh starting at Riker Yard. I didn't find anything to photograph until Salamanca where train SIJB was parked in front of the old Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh station.

• 1355 Salamanca, NY - BPRR SIJB south - BPRR 3330-BPRR 3333-OHCR 3328-BPRR 1512
  

After a number of photographs I continued heading north. The weather was rather wet for most of the rest of my trek to the border so I simply drove home. Overall it was a rather productive weekend for photography. More important though, I had a nice relaxing three days.

Trackside Log for Friday, October 7, 2011

It was the beginning of the Thanksgiving Day long weekend in Canada. It was to be a beautiful weekend so I elected to take the Friday off. My chosen activity for a fantastic sunny day was to drive over the border and visit Westfield, New York and the former New York Central and Nickel Plate Road tracks. After a relatively straight forward border crossing my first stop was in Dunkirk to see if anything was around. What I found was a parked Union Pacific and a CSX train switching. The CSX train took off on me, but I was easily able to photograph the Union Pacific.

• 0855 Dunkirk, NY - CSX westbound - CSXT 5309-CSXT 8073
• 0900 Dunkirk, NY - CSX power - UP 6950
  

A local was working the east end of the yard in Dunkirk, but I couldn't see it easily. With little other activity in town I made the short drive to my destination, Westfield. I grabbed a quick breakfast from McDonalds and headed for the little railfan park at North Gale Street. Then I waited. Nothing moved for over an hour but then it got busy.

• 1042 Westfield, NY - CSX westbound - CSXT 5411-CSXT 477 (video)
  
• 1047 Westfield, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 4719-CSXT 4766-CSXT 7829
  
• 1056 Westfield, NY - CSX K385 west - CSXT 4827-CSXT 4789 (video)
  
• 1108 Westfield, NY - CSX Q380 east - CSXT 5361-CSXT 7578
  
• 1113 Westfield, NY - CSX westbound - CSXT 5309-CSXT 8073
  

As quickly as the traffic picked up, so too did it taper off. It was another ¾ of an hour before the next train, a Norfolk Southern. It was 1½ hours for the next CSX train.

• 1156 Westfield, NY - NS 316 east - NS 9607-NS 8954
  
• 1242 Westfield, NY - CSX Q227 west - CSXT 8343-CSXT 8098 (video)
  
• 1308 Westfield, NY - NS 15M west - NS 9197-NS 6777-NS 6539
  
• 1316 Westfield, NY - North Gale Street crossing with numbered tracks
  
• 1322 Westfield, NY - NS 287 west - NS 9327
  
• 1336 Westfield, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 7684-CSXT 614
• 1337 Westfield, NY - NS 916 east (rail train) - NS 6112-NS 9428
  
• 1501 Westfield, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 5005-CSXT 8725
• 1520 Westfield, NY - NS 205 west - NS 9417-NS 9504
  
• 1525 Westfield, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 5470-CSXT 7511
• 1535 Westfield, NY - NS 309 west - NS 7586-NS 9030
  
• 1541 Westfield, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 8714-CSXT 5200
• 1550 Westfield, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 5347-CSXT 8541
• 1559 Westfield, NY - CSX westbound - CSXT 4756-CSXT 4849-CSXT 696
  
• 1603 Westfield, NY - NS 14T east - NS 8887
• 1616 Westfield, NY - NS 22K east - BNSF 4740-NS 9918-NS 8416

Throughout the afternoon a series of locals arrived and kept the boredom away with some conversation. But the day was getting on so I bid them adieu and began the journey home. Along the way I made one last stop trackside in Brocton where I managed to see a few more trains.

• 1700 Brocton, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 5449-CSXT 7522
  
• 1710 Brocton, NY - CSX westbound - CSXT 7318-CSXT 7596
  
• 1728 Brocton, NY - NS 206 east - NS 9913-NS 7547
• 1734 Brocton, NY - CSX westbound - CSXT 724-CSXT 7906-CSXT 7678
  

After the quick rush of trains things seemed to die down a bit again. This time I drove back to Interstate 90 and straight home. Other than a rather slow afternoon on CSX it was a great day with beautiful weather and more Norfolk Southern trains than I'm accustomed to.

Trackside Log for Saturday, July 30, 2011

Marcus and I hadn't made it trackside together in quite some time. Today we decided to head back to New York again for what promised to be a very sunny albeit somewhat hot summer day. Marcus was unfortunately delayed by the closure of the Queen Elizabeth Way so our departure was a bit delayed. Nevertheless, after a reasonable wait at the border for a holiday weekend, we made it to the former New York Central tracks. We exited Interstate 90 at Dunkirk and after finding nothing to photograph proceeded toward Westfield. We attempted to catch an ethanol train in Portland but narrowly missed the pair of BSNF SD40-2s pulling it eastward. We did stick around for another pair though.

• 1151 Van Buren Bay, NY - CSX eastbound - CSXT 552-CSXT 467
  
• 1200 Van Buren Bay, NY - CSX K849 west - CSXT 390-CSXT 674
  

The radio grew quiet and we were getting hungry so we drove to Westfield, picked up a bite to eat, and headed trackside. After only a few bites the first eastbound drew near.

• 1249 Westfield, NY - CSX Q140 east - CSXT 4850-CSXT 7314-CSXT 7900
  
• 1301 Westfield, NY - CSX Q114 east - CSXT 7392-CSXT 4543
  
• 1312 Westfield, NY - Amtrak 48 east - CSXT 6094-AMTK 54-AMTK 58
  

We were not expecting the CSX GP40-2 to be a very late Amtrak train. I can imagine there were some disgruntled passengers today.

• 1321 Westfield, NY - CSX Q115 west - CSXT 5208-CSXT 229-CSXT 247-CSXT 10
  
• 1336 Westfield, NY - CSX Q157 west - CSXT 671-CSXT 5332 (video)
  

Once the angle of the sun became problematic Marcus and I decided to make a little side trip to visit the Western New York & Pennsylvania and the New York & Lake Erie. First up was Falconer where we discovered a C-424 coupled to a spreader. WNYP 4223 is ex-Morristown & Erie 4223 and originally Canadian Pacific 4223.

• 1435 Falconer, NY - Western New York and Pennsylvania power - WNYP 4223
  

After a few photograph we drove north to Gowanda to see what might be strewn around the former Erie tracks.

• 1534 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie power - NYLE 1013-NYLE 6764-NYLE 6758
  
• 1540 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie power - NYLE 77
  
• 1541 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie power - CR 5067
  
• 1545 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie equipment - NYLE 7
  
• 1548 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie equipment - Contrack coach
  

The above ex-Amtrak coach still wears its "Contrack" paint from the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

• 1554 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie power - NYLE 76
  
• 1555 Gowanda, NY - New York and Lake Erie power - NYLE 78
  

After baking in the sun while photographing the collection of rather sad looking equipment we headed back toward the former New York Central and Nickel Plate main lines. First we stopped by Dunkirk again to see if anything had changed. Nothing had although we discovered that one of the parked coal trains actually had a pair of Union Pacific GE locomotives on the east end. With impossible lighting we drove on for Silver Creek where we determined that a train was lifting out of track 3. Before we could photograph what turned out to be a ballast train a pair of eastbounds rolled through.

• 1708 Silver Creek, NY - CSX eastbound - CITX 2792-CSXT 8138
  
• 1723 Silver Creek, NY - CSX K694 east - HLCX 6206-HLCX 6340
  
• 1735 Silver Creek, NY - CSX ballast train west - HLCX 6302-CSXT 8848
  

The day was getting on so Marcus and I proceeded toward home again. We stopped off in Blasdell where we caught a pair of westbounds leaving the Buffalo area.

• 1926 Blasdell, NY - CSX V818 west - CSXT 315-CSXT 75
  
• 1938 Blasdell, NY - CSX westbound - CSXT 5304-CSXT 5436-CSXT 7884
  

The shadows were quickly deepening so we decided to end our quest and drove back to Canada and to Kelsey's in Fort Erie for supper.