Conrail WISE (WASE) and wreck images and questions

March of 1979, an SD35/GP35 combo, still in Penn Central black, leads WISE1x through Haworth.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 244&nseq=0

Does anyone know any info on the WISE? Did it run from Edge Moore? As there was big GM plant down there, did this train handle cars for it? Thanks in advance for any info.

Next shot is December of 1978, a wrecked GP9 (and a just old Erie Lackawanna RS3) in the deadline in Altoona.

http://freericks.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... ?id=971832

Anyone have details on what happened to the GEEP? I found a website that said it was hit by a runaway boxcar in West Virginia. I'm curious when this happened? What were the circumstances?

Thanks in advance for your help, and for looking.

Charles

Interesting picture, lots of memories of some of that power. I do think
you should re-check your notes, I do not recall a WISE symbol on the
River Line, Wilmington was not a big destination but we did have freights
with a WASE symbol indicating Pot Yard which was still active at that time.
I ran many trains during that period with a WASE symbol.
Edge Moor was the yard in Wilmington, Delaware that was in use at the
time and the symbol there was "ED" but we did not have any trains on
the River Line with an "ED" symbol.
Noel Weaver

That was my first thought when I scanned the slide (that it must have been a WASE). My notes defintely read WISE, and the same symbol shows up three times, all around the same time as this picture (unlike WASE which shows up constantly).

I've also looked through the freight scheudle that was in effect then and are there is no schedule for a WISE. There is, however, WI as an origination/destination listed for some of the trains running through Newark DE.

Just guessing now, but I'm wondering if one of two things happened.

1) The freight sked has a misprint and the dispatcher used that misprint in calling for the train.

2) Far more likely, WASE sounded like WISE in the accent of one dispatcher?

Anyway - thanks for the info - as a funny add on to this - I noticed in the freight sked that the WASE had a name - "The Montrealer." Did not know that.

The SEWA was called "The Washingtonian," too. These terms were used by marketing types to sell routing clear back to PC merger days. Eventually, it changed to SEPY/PYSE.

In later years, PYSE was changed to TV24 -- basically a PYSE manifest train with some NS intermodal traffic added at Pot Yard. For a while, they put the pigs on the head end. This was not a good way to build a train for "track/train dynamics" purposes, though. After a buff force lift off derailment (at the north portal of B&P tunnel in Baltimore - a single-axle pig car literally popped out of the train) they started tacking the intermodal cars on the rear where they belonged. Conrail instituted surcharges on the NS freight because of the relatively short haul. This effectively limited the traffic to 10 or 15 cars a day.

I also do not recall a "WISE."

That SD35/GP35 combo was a recipe for frustration, what with their trouble-prone multi-step transition systems.

I'm enjoying your shots, Charles!

LCJ wrote:I'm enjoying your shots, Charles!

Thanks - Yeah, I'm now really starting to think I misheard WISE. If you say W.A.S.E. fast and then W.I.S.E. fast, they sound almost exacty the same.

It MIGHT have been a WISE. During that timeframe I recall hearing and photographing trains which weren't in the schedule book - BASE (Bay View/Baltimore -Selkirk) and NHWA (Cedar Hill-Pot Yard) come to mind.

I never figured out if these were extras (BASE-X), some unusual event (an NHSE that was all Pot Yards, so just symbol it as such run it around the wye at CP132 instead of yarding it in Selkirk) or just radio foolery, but I heard what I heard.

Interesting... well all three times I have the symbol recorded, it's with a small x at the end.

erielackawanna wrote:Interesting... well all three times I have the symbol recorded, it's with a small x at the end.

There was no WI symbol in the book, at least not in the ones that I have
in my collection.
Noel Weaver

Chuck,
For a time in the late 70's early 80's, I recall there being (2) WASE/ SEWA trains on the Riverline.
An extra WASE/ SEWA, as was my assumption, was given the "x" denomination

e.g.
WASE 4A
WASE 4B
WASE 4X

Other than that, all extra trains for that day would get the "x" (ENSE 4x, SERU 4x, etc

BB

mainetrain wrote:Chuck,
For a time in the late 70's early 80's, I recall there being (2) WASE/ SEWA trains on the Riverline.
An extra WASE/ SEWA, as was my assumption, was given the "x" denomination

e.g.
WASE 4A
WASE 4B
WASE 4X

Other than that, all extra trains for that day would get the "x" (ENSE 4x, SERU 4x, etc

BB

Bob,

It's actually a good bet you were standing next to me when I recorded that symbol. Did you keep notes of numbers in 1978? We could just see if you had a WASE or a WISE the same time?

The mystery of the ghost WISE has me curious.

Chuck

I didn't take notes unfortunately, but I don't recall a WISE, or a SEWI for that matter. It was probably WASE.

Wouldn't bet against it though, as you never know with the Riverline!

I WORKED THE RIVER LINE DURING THE PERIOD IN QUESTION. We did
not have any trains with a WI symbol, period.
Noel Weaver