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  • Penn Division - Under Starucca vs. Over Tunkhannock

  • Discussion relating to the D&H. For more information, please visit the Bridge Line Historical Society.
Discussion relating to the D&H. For more information, please visit the Bridge Line Historical Society.

Moderator: MEC407

 #31989  by John_Henry
 
Sween,

Remember that the LV above Coxton is only operted by R&N part way, and NS the rest. It is the only water-level route north out of the Lackwanna or Wyoming Valleys. With the tonnage restriction on the ex DL&W, I would bet the LV rises in stature sooner rather than later. It is alsmost as well engineered as the DL&W.

You heard it here first... come back in 10 years and see if I am on to something.

JH

 #32549  by Railjunkie
 
CP169,

The signs you saw is for defect detectors, CN markes the spots were these are located they read out both in english and french.

 #32664  by CP169
 
Railjunkie,

Thanks, I've always wondered about the reason for those signs. They must have quite a few detectors on that route.

 #32669  by Railjunkie
 
CP 169,

Its been a while since I made a trip north but if memory serves me there are only 2. I dont have my CROR book handy to confirm.

 #37504  by ChiefTroll
 
I found an error in my post of Apr 02, 2004. I meant to say that northward D&H trains from Wilkes Barre picked up at Hudson, not Buttonwood. They did not go into Buttonwood, because the PRR delivered all of their northward traffic to Hudson.

 #361971  by oibu
 
"Remember that the LV above Coxton is only operted by R&N part way, and NS the rest. It is the only water-level route north out of the Lackwanna or Wyoming Valleys. With the tonnage restriction on the ex DL&W, I would bet the LV rises in stature sooner rather than later. It is alsmost as well engineered as the DL&W. "

It is an option, but personally I think CR and NS gave it up for a reason. Also, it'd be an awful lot of extra miles to go all the way out to Waverly and back just to avoid one hill. (64 miles BD-Dupont via the current D&H main/exDL&W vs. 142+/- miles via the LV/Southern Tier from Dupont to BD)- 78 miles is an awful lot of extra mileage to maintain to avoid one 10-mile hill!

Heck the LV routing is still 36 miles longer than the current route of former DL&W to Binghamton/Southern Tier Line west, even for the Buffalo traffic! So if it's a choice of maintaining one line vs. the other, and taking the north/south traffic into account, it seems pretty clear to me which route would be favored.

Might make sense for westbound traffic to/from Buffalo, but not for north/south traffic. And NS has the Buffalo Line as well, so the old LV is really redundant twice over even for the Buffalo traffic. If anything my bet would be that IF enough traffic were to run the old DL&W, they'd just start basing a helper assignment at Taylor. This just depends on having enough traffic to keep a helper crew busy enough at getting enough trains over the hill fast enough/with fewer locomotives so that they aren't sitting much between trains twiddling their thumbs. And in the meantime, they'll just run trains with plenty of power on the head end.
 #403525  by 2nd trick op
 
Not sure how nuch of a factor this would be, but it's worth noting that curvature is often a factor in the economical operation of a rail line as much as grades, and the Nicholson cutoff, built around 1911, is an extemely well-engineered piece of railroad.
It's also possible, over the longer term, that pressure to open the former West Shore line to commuter or Empire Corridor service might eventually divert additional north-south traffic onto this route.
 #411572  by Superglide
 
One advantage to running anything on the LV is to get around the black hole at East Binghamton Yard. Trains go in and seem to disappear forever so anything that avoided that mess would be a plus.

On the downside...Vosburg. Last I heard, it was in pretty bad shape and did not have clearances for stacks or racks. The bridges are probably in better condition than the old tunnel.

Correct me if I'm wrong on that.

Re:

 #1009569  by toolmaker
 
John_Henry wrote:Sween,

Remember that the LV above Coxton is only operted by R&N part way, and NS the rest. It is the only water-level route north out of the Lackwanna or Wyoming Valleys. With the tonnage restriction on the ex DL&W, I would bet the LV rises in stature sooner rather than later. It is alsmost as well engineered as the DL&W.

You heard it here first... come back in 10 years and see if I am on to something.

JH
I was just reading this old string. Only 2 more years to see if this prediction pans out. Of course the Marcellus Shale traffic has changed the lines usuage.

-Gary
 #1196978  by Mike Stellpflug
 
Been scanning some slides from the good old days:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85501582@N03/8968593965/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Near the end in 1985:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85501582@N03/7860481952/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85501582@N03/9180690904/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mike