Owego & Harford in SAYRE - Lehigh Railway

Over on the Susquehanna board in the thread "Motive Power Update... of Sorts" is a picture of recently sold former NYS&W/P&W U23B 2304. The unit's painted black with an LV-style nose diamond containing only a letter L... and the photo filename includes the Lehigh name... I think it's safe to presume should this operation actually come to exist, power will be U23B's. Which makes I think everyone who was speculating about that - myself included - wrong.

lvrr325 wrote:Over on the Susquehanna board in the thread "Motive Power Update... of Sorts" is a picture of recently sold former NYS&W/P&W U23B 2304. The unit's painted black with an LV-style nose diamond containing only a letter L... and the photo filename includes the Lehigh name... I think it's safe to presume should this operation actually come to exist, power will be U23B's. Which makes I think everyone who was speculating about that - myself included - wrong.

woo!
first possible Lehigh Railway locomotive sighting!
I agree..it seems very likely this could be one!

the pic is here:
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 2&start=90

Scot

Apparently, the paint scheme was designed and applied to keep railfans away.

Charles

nydepot wrote:Apparently, the paint scheme was designed and applied to keep railfans away.

At least someone put an "L" in a diamond! I want to nickname this railroad "Lionel Lines" but I don't want anyone to get mad at me.

Have they began to run yet? I'm only in the area another day or so and had been hoping to see them.

joshuahouse wrote:Have they began to run yet? I'm only in the area another day or so and had been hoping to see them.

nope..not yet.

we believe a spy-shot of what is perhaps (very likely) the first Lehigh Railway locomotive was just posted today..
but the unit is still at the NYSW Utica shop.

Scot

nydepot wrote:Apparently, the paint scheme was designed and applied to keep railfans away.

Charles

yeah, thats unfortunate..
but it fits with the official "family paintscheme!"

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u45/ ... llsize.jpg

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u45/ ... llsize.jpg

Scot

Considering grades on the line and expected carloads, is one loco enough?

Charles

nydepot wrote:Considering grades on the line and expected carloads, is one loco enough?

Charles

I doubt it..
they have three in Owego and three on the L&S..
so I was figuring at least three for Sayre..
but thats just a guess..

you want at least two, just for the sake of a backup,
even if you only run one at a time..

I dont know about current train lengths..
but everything I have seen on NS on this line over the last 10 years usually has 2 units..
(although I havent seen many "south of sayre" trains in Sayre recently..usually just the Ithaca coal trains..
which wont be running on this line)

and back in the Conrail days they usually ran 3 or 4 units on every train south of Sayre!
but thats probably not relevant to todays traffic..

Scot

kingfish wrote:

lvrr325 wrote:Was I to guess I'd say that unit's headed either to Owego or directly to Sayre, to be power for the "Lehigh Railway" that's intended to take over the former LV main from Sayre to Mehoopany. (Per posts elsewhere on this forum).

Both units to Sayre.

from: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 2&start=90

Confirmed!
Two ex-NYSW U23B's to the Lehigh Railway!

GE U23B - Ex-NYSW 2302 - BDLX 2208 - P&W 2208 - nee CR 2794
GE U23B - Ex-NYSW 2304 - P&W 2207 - nee CR 2796

Both built new for Conrail, May 1977.

Looks like Lehigh Railway will probably keep the numbers 2302 and 2304..
which is also (like the black paintscheme) standard practice on the Owego & Harford.

Scot

I was going to say, did you look at the other thread and note both U23B's were sold.

More of those should be fairly cheap to pick up, possibly even some of the remaining Lehigh units that are out there, should they need more than two. Owego is also close enough it wouldn't be a big deal to shuffle units around if need be, according to their needs. (too bad the rest of the branch is gone).

As for the paint, think of it as if the Penn Central had taken more steps to merge/absorb the LV -

Wow, that looks nice! I'll finally have an excuse to get out towards Sayre now! (That and I still haven't chased a SOM train yet...)

Any idea of a start up time? I'm gone to Phoenix for the next week or so, so I hope I don't miss the first train!

And where would these be housed and fueled? Owego? Sayre?

Andy, I assume you're being facetious? (I'm 99% sure you are but sometimes you never know....

RS

ANDY117 wrote:Wow, that looks nice! I'll finally have an excuse to get out towards Sayre now! (That and I still haven't chased a SOM train yet...)
Any idea of a start up time? I'm gone to Phoenix for the next week or so, so I hope I don't miss the first train!
And where would these be housed and fueled? Owego? Sayre?

Andy,

its likely the engines will be kept somewhere south of the Sayre LV passenger station.
I highly doubt they will be kept in Owego, since getting them from Owego to Sayre on a regular basis would be a hassle, they would have to always run them over NS to Waverly then into Sayre..I dont see any reason for that to be necessary..and it certaintly wouldnt be practical..
im sure the Lehigh Railway power will be kept on its "home rails"..

So IMO its most likely they will be kept somewhere on the south end of the Sayre yard..
The actual "division point" is listed as MP 269.5, which is way down in Athens, near the Main street crossing just north of the Chemung river bridge..but I doubt the locos will be kept down there..not much room..
so I still stand by my prediction that the "interchange yard" will likely be the small yard area just south of the Packer Ave Bridge in Sayre,
and the locos will likely be kept there..

as for fueling..I dont know!
the Sayre fuel and sanding facility has been gone over 20 years..
I dont know where NS fuels the Sayre-Ithaca power these days!
probably Elmira or Gang Mills...which wouldnt be availble to the LRWY..
so I dont know about that!
some shortlines just bring in diesel fuel trucks..thats always a possibility.

or! its possible the locos will kept on the south end! at Mehoopany..(I hope not!
although I doubt that, since Sayre is so much closer to Owego and the company HQ.
although maybe that wont matter..

so..in short, no one really knows yet!
(well..im sure someone knows.. just no one here in railfan-land yet!)
but im going to predict Sayre as the most obvious place for the Lehigh Railway "engine terminal"..

Scot

They'll probably be fueled by truck. The LV was fueling units in Ithaca by truck in the 1970s, it's SOP at this point. Per elsewhere on the board, units are billed to Sayre. Plenty of yard tracks there to park them on, units will probably be kept wherever is handy and not in the way of NS operations.