Trains on CSX St. Lawrence Sub (CR's Montreal Secondary)

Thanks for that information. I had no idea they had a wye. My grandfather who worked for the Central said something about wyeing troop trains in the fifties, but I never knew where.
He said that some troop trains would come up via Utica, Rome, Richland and return via Carthage, Lowville, Utica. Why that was operated in that manner is lost to the sands of history.

It's long been my belief, albeit just my guess, that the passenger station for Pine Camp was actually on the line (former U&BR/RW&O) between Philly and Carthage, as opposed to around the current main cantonment. The current main cantonment wasn't built until just before WWII (ie, the old "WWII buildings"). Unfortunately, the topo maps cut off that area, so they are of no help there.

Assisting in that belief is an entry on the topo maps for that area between 1911 and 1947 which show a point labelled "Pine Camp" with a siding, a little north of the current "REGIS", or the point where the St Regis sidings came off the line.

As an aside, some track charts may show the current "west" yard as the "coal" yard, as there was a ramp (still there in the late 1970's) to a coal dump next to the current facility engineers area. There was (and may still be) a scale there, as well, as the area was used to store coal long after the rails were lifted from the ramp.

Usually what they do is pull the train forward then back the entire train around the wye into the unloading area. The KCS power brought in either the 3rd or 4th military train, there had already been a couple military trains brought in earlier this week, so those were the empties that the KCS power brought back south, believe there are only supposed to be 4 military trains this go around. Normal procedure is to bring the train to Massey, park it, then B778 handles bringing the trains between Massey and Drum and handles all switching on base, sometimes they call an extra B978 crew if needed, I think the SW9 that was there went away when the power plant shut down.

joha107 wrote:I think the SW9 that was there went away when the power plant shut down.

Heard from someone who works for PW that it's still there.

I believe these trains are National Guard convoys to Camp Grayling, MI for Northern Strike 2018 exercise. NHARNG 197th Field Artillery Brigade equipment departed on 70 flats on /around 19 July. Attached is the story as reported in Atlantic Northeast Rails & Ports e-bulletin 18#07(m).

ANRP2 wrote:I believe these trains are National Guard convoys to Camp Grayling, MI for Northern Strike 2018 exercise. NHARNG 197th Field Artillery Brigade equipment departed on 70 flats on /around 19 July. Attached is the story as reported in Atlantic Northeast Rails & Ports e-bulletin 18#07(m).

Military trains on the St Lawrence Sub will be in and out of Fort Drum. The NH trains won't be on that line unless they take a detour through Canada.

The old milepost markers (which I believe were the originals) seem to have disappeared around here, replaced with modern signs.

The block signs at Vern, Rich and Kalb have been replaced with new horizontal lettered signs replacing the vertical signs with the red and yellow markers.
Bill

How has the traffic been here in the last couple months? Tarriffs affecting carloadings?

As busy as it's ever been, several trains tonight, one down and one up before noon, a couple more after dark, I don't even try to keep track.

There's a grinder at work on the line tonight - currently in the Antwerp area.

A citizen thought they were in trouble as they kept going back and forth and things were a little "smokey." 9-1-1 was called, and after dispatch got in touch with CSX, the fire department was cancelled.

Notice this week that almost all trains are running with older power like SD40-2s and SD40-3s. This AM the south bound Q621 had a single SD40-3 leading . This seemed odd to me that all year trains would have 3 or 4 units on them until this week. Any Ideas ?

How long was the train with the solo SD40-3?

I watch the Deshler, OH cams a lot - and have seen a lot of single unit wonders. Seems to be an ongoing phenomenon on CSX.

I hadn't noticed other than an occasional train of empties with one unit. But I don't look at every train.

I think a regular old SD40-2 made it up the other day.