Southern Tier - East of Binghamton

If this helps. Cool. If it doesn't cool. CP is still a mess, between all the recent flooding and an on-going crew shortage. An official says "what NS is thinking is operating via Suffern is much faster than the NYS&W and Marion Junction. In "theory" NS can probably operate a crew from Gang Mills to Campbell Hall; and a second crew from Campbell Hall thru to Allentown." It seems long term folks. Your thoughts are encouraged.

The Suffern routing will only work once Metro North rebuilds / reopens the line between Harriman and Suffern. They are saying a few months for that.....so will these continue to run down the NYS&W until the remainder of the line is open? Will they only run as needed? I guess we will see.

K4Pacific wrote:If this helps. Cool. If it doesn't cool. CP is still a mess, between all the recent flooding and an on-going crew shortage. An official says "what NS is thinking is operating via Suffern is much faster than the NYS&W and Marion Junction. In "theory" NS can probably operate a crew from Gang Mills to Campbell Hall; and a second crew from Campbell Hall thru to Allentown." It seems long term folks. Your thoughts are encouraged.

that's good. the more trains rerouted over the eastern end of the tier, the more hopeful i become in revival of trains between Croxton and Binghamton.

and MTA is saying that they should at least start service between Suffern and Harriman by December, or January, mostly on count of the weather.(the worse the weather, the longer it takes.)

Conrail ran Gang Mills to Port Jervis-206 miles.....Campbell Hall would not work since any crew change would have to be done on the main...If a crew wasn't available there would be no place to put the train unlike Port where it could sit on track 2...Campbell Hall to Allentown would also not work because it spans two different seniority districts...Binghamton to Allentown over the current route still seems like the best option for NS..

Hi Everyone,

I did some digging and talked to a friend who works for NS and got word on a "plan" for what it's worth (they seem to change by the week). The latest plan as of a couple of months ago was to do the following:

NS 12/13T are to go on a Buffalo, Binghamton (NYSW to Metro North), Oak Island (or Allentown) routing via the Southern Tier East.

NS 30/31T are to remain on the Binghamton to remain on the CP Sunbury Sub routing via Binghamton, Scranton, Kase and Harrisburg. Continuing to handling blocks of Westward connection traffic for Enola.

A "NEW" pair of NS North/South Intermodals are to implemented on a Harrisburg, Kase, Scranton, Binghamton routing to and from the CP Freight Sub to access the Mechanicville Intermodal Facility.

NS 12/13T were to be removed from the Sunbury Sub routing due to capacity concerns on CP's part on the segment of the Sunbury Sub between Binghamton and Scranton which already sees 10-13 trains a day now.

From what I have been told, the NS plans in the process of or soon to be implemented have been planned for over a decade and are just getting implemented now. There is a bigger a picture at work here and much change is likely coming!

Finally as for the short term, CP and NS are both quite short on crews on the D&H. CP is also still recovering from the worst flooding they have ever experienced in the Northeast, along with completing a planned (and MUCH NEEDED) MOW blitz on the CP Sunbury Sub to improve speeds and knock off numerous slow orders. All of this combined has made ops a complete nightmare. As this year closes out, flood repairs will be finished up, MOW work will rap up and CP will have 4 different batches of NEW highers coming out onto the Road to take care of the crew shortages. So operations SHOULD improve greatly in the next few months (or lets hope they do).

Thats all I got for now! Hopefully this helps answer some questions! But of course just like anything, some or all of this is subject to change. Railroads work in terms of years and decades as opposed to days and months so some of this could still be some time off or right around the corner! I just don't know!

Jim Cerulli
cprsunburysub yahoo group Owner/Moderator

Thank you Jim,

I do know JB Hunt is fuming over delays. Another 206 outlawed at Elmira. Yikes. Rutherford is out of space. Many days trailers are turned away. Just a nice problem to have. Growing pains.

conrailsharedassets wrote:Hi Everyone,

I did some digging and talked to a friend who works for NS and got word on a "plan" for what it's worth (they seem to change by the week). The latest plan as of a couple of months ago was to do the following:

NS 12/13T are to go on a Buffalo, Binghamton (NYSW to Metro North), Oak Island (or Allentown) routing via the Southern Tier East.

Jim Cerulli
cprsunburysub yahoo group Owner/Moderator

that is great news! Now I will hopefully see these trains over the next few months

A little off topic, but will the two "new" NS intermodals running the CP originate at Harrisburg or will they be "Crescent traffic" turning left at H-burg?

Just wondering since there has been a lot of recent chatter in the Hagerstown area about NS traffic increasing through there in the not to distant future.

Thanks.

Poppyl

Poppyl,

To be honest with you I haven't heard anything definite as to where they will be originating. But I do remember seeing a press release or something along those lines about NS wanting to connect Mechanicville Intermodal with as many other terminals as possible. So the "NEW" intermodals MAY be originating in Harrisburg, but likely carrying Northward connections from the South (ie. Norfolk, Atlanta, Jacksonville, etc.). I also think a train originating in Atlanta and running North to Harrisburg (block swapping) and continuing North is quite possible too.

I have a feeling NS maybe underestimanting the business potential on the Harrisburg to Mechanicville corridor. There is endless parades of EMP, JB Hunt, Hub Group, etc. running up and down the I 81 corridor to and from New York State. I would think if a train is available most of that stuff will be getting moved over to the high iron. I really think we may reach a point where one pair of trains aint gonna cut it on this corridor. But we currently have ZERO so who knows whats going to happen, time will tell!

If I hear anything further I will let every know! Lets just hope this plan goes through finally!

Jim Cerulli
cprsunburysub yahoo group Owner/Moderator

Thanks, Jim. I'll keep my ear to the ground, too.

Poppyl

Hi Everyone,

There was/is 2 Eastbound NS detour trains today on the NYS&W East of Binghamton. NS ran a 13T East on the Southern Tier around 15:30 hours this afternoon. There is now also another NS 13T sitting just East of B.D. on the Southern Tier getting an NYS&W recrew to take it East! Maybe a taste of whats to come! For those on the East End enjoy!

Jim Cerulli
cprsunburysub yahoo group Owner/Moderator

conrailsharedassets wrote:Hi Everyone,

There was/is 2 Eastbound NS detour trains today on the NYS&W East of Binghamton. NS ran a 13T East on the Southern Tier around 15:30 hours this afternoon. There is now also another NS 13T sitting just East of B.D. on the Southern Tier getting an NYS&W recrew to take it East! Maybe a taste of whats to come! For those on the East End enjoy!

Jim Cerulli
cprsunburysub yahoo group Owner/Moderator

thanks for the heads up, maybe in the morning i'll head on over to NYSW terratory to see them.

Thank you Jim,

I just plain can't keep up. Busy time of year here. Westbounds? Where do they meet? What's SQs crew situation too?

K4Pacific,

From what I understand, the 12T's have still been running daily out of Allentown via the RBMN at Lehighton, CP at Dupont to Binghamton. NS is also operating as many 13T's as they can over the CP/R&N routing to Allentown as well. The same goes for the NS 30/31T. 31T has been operating daily out of Enola via Kase, Dupont and Binghamton and NS is running as many 30T's as they can on the same routing. The detours over Susquehanna seem to have been extra sections or off scedule trains. At this point the only reason for the detours is lack of crew availablity on the NS out of Binghamton.

The 30T that detoured over the NYSW earlier this week was because NS had a W0T to go Enola and didnt have the crews to run both 30T and W0T south to Enola via the D&H. So 30T with less priority cars ran via the NYS&W on a detour. The 2 13T's that operated yesterday were either off schedule/backed up trains or extra sections that NS didn't have the crews to run South. NS did operate a 13T over the D&H routing yesterday as well. Essentially what I'm saying is that NS has enough crews to run 2 pairs of trains a day on the D&H at this point and not much more. Anything extra/backed up over that will likely detour.

There has been some grumblings (not sure if its gonna happen) that Allentown may start crewing the 12/13T and Binghamton will handle the 30/31T pool to assist with the crew shortages. I would imagine these detours over NYS&W have to be getting rather costly and are likely very time consuming for NS.

I hope this helps!

Jim Cerulli
cprsunburysub yahoo group Owner/Moderator

K4Pacific wrote:Thank you Jim,

I just plain can't keep up. Busy time of year here. Westbounds? Where do they meet? What's SQs crew situation too?

NYSW runs the SU-100 Binghamton to NJ on Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday nights. So if they ran 2 more separate trains for NS yesterday down the tier, that's 3 crews if all were separate trains. Don't know how they can handle that. from other postings I've seen that at least the first NS 13T was separate from the SU 100, don't know about the 2nd. JS