ANY FREIGHT ON FORMER PRR MAIN LINE PHILADELPHIA-HARRISBURG?

(1)Do any NS freights use the former PRR main line from Philadelphia
to Harrisburg?

(2)Same question for the former PRR Trenton Cutoff.

(3)If not, I presume that all NS freights use the former LV/Reading route
if coming from the Metro NYC (New Jersey) area.

(4)However, how does NS get freights from the Philadelphia area to
Harrisburg, if not over the former PRR main line?

To the best of my knowledge, no freight east of Downingtown in years.

Trenton Cut-Off a bit more complicated. Scrap trains ran west to Coatesville with some frequency, now that schedule seems to be more irregular, I'm not sure if it's only what I'm seeing or part of the continuing Lukens / Bethlehem / whoever reorganization.

Additionally, the cut-off sees a large volume of trains on the east end, between Trenton and the NS (Conrail/Reading) connection, with containers and TOFC's. The second track was pulled up quite some time ago, but a new bridge is being constructed just south of the PA Turnpike at PA 309, a fairly heavy-duty shoe-fly was built there in the spring. A new bridge was also built over I-76 in the King of Prussia are a few years ago, so while traffic is nowhere near what it was, the rails aren't rusty yet.

I am moving this thread to the Fallen Flags, Pennsylvania Railroad forum.

This is the Amtrak Forum, folks.

DonPevsner wrote:(1)Do any NS freights use the former PRR main line from Philadelphia
to Harrisburg?

(2)Same question for the former PRR Trenton Cutoff.

(3)If not, I presume that all NS freights use the former LV/Reading route
if coming from the Metro NYC (New Jersey) area.

(4)However, how does NS get freights from the Philadelphia area to
Harrisburg, if not over the former PRR main line?

1) There are some freight trains that use the line (many of them from short lines that have a direct connect to the ex-PRR mainline/Amtrak Keystone Corridor), but the use is fairly limited.

2) There is a greater amount of usage on this line, as much of the traffic that heads southeast from Reading uses the cutoff.

3) Correct. The vast majority of NS rail freight goes between NYC/north Jersey-ABE-Reading-Harrisburg. The Port of NY/NJ is a much more significant port for container shipments than the Port of Philadelphia. Also, the Port of Philadelphia currently has some channel depth issues on the Delaware River.

4) Some of the freight is transported between Philadelphia and Reading and then between Reading and Harrisburg, while other (more) freight is moved on the Amtrak NEC (during overnight hours) and on the parallel CSX line between Philadelphia and Perryville, MD and then between Perryville and Harrisburg.

Incidentally, PennDOT is conducting a study evaluating double-stack freight rail clearance issues on the Keystone Corridor (i.e. ex-PRR Philadelphia-Harrisburg main line). Both Norfolk Southern and Amtrak are participating in the study. Based on some information I've seen, the Keystone Corridor could be critical for NS as freight rail traffic on their eastern mainline (Harrisburg Line) continues to grow. The growth is being largely driven by a high rate of growth in container/intermodal (rail/truck) shipments.

BTW, this thread REALLY should have been placed in the Norfolk Southern forum, because the questions raised in the initial post are related to current NS operations.

Ok guys, straight up from the Train Director at Thorn:

6 days a week, an NS train comes west along the Trenton Cutoff, or what we now call the Dale Secondary track, to Glen (west of Frazer Yard) and then goes up the Harrisburg Line to a hand operated switch just west of the Coatesville Viaduct, where it goes into the Brandywine Railroad. This westbound runs every day except Saturday and tends to run anywhere between 10:30am and 3:00pm.

If it gets into W&N early enough, and the railroad can handle it during the day, it will make a run back to the Dale Secondary. Whether or not it makes it all of the way back to Abrams Yard in Norristown, I don't know.

If it gets into W&N Junction too late, or operational conditions do not permit the eastbound to run it during the day, I get to run it late at night.

A second freight move east of Lancaster is the H-27, an NS Local between Lancaster and Parkesburg. This train very seldom runs during daylight hours except for maybe a Friday morning. The interesting thing about this train is that even though it only runs from Parkesburg to Cork, it needs to come all of the way to Thorndale to gain access to the Parkesburg Industrial Track (old A&S Branch). The reason for this is that Park tower is left unmanned and in automatic mode. The physical structure at Park involves the industrial track going down the middle of the 2 main tracks and going under the eastbound main (No. 1) to the local industries. To my knowledge, this train is the only train left to use No. 2 track between Park and Caln interlockings.

There are some moves west of Lancaster in the wee hours of the morning, but having never worked at Cork or State, I am unfamiliar with them.

CHIP72 wrote:BTW, this thread REALLY should have been placed in the Norfolk Southern forum, because the questions raised in the initial post are related to current NS operations.

Or perhaps the Pennsylvania (state) forum...?