Service to New York

I am kinda new to this board so a couple of club members had some questions concerning CSXT.These are the questions that was brought up in our club. First one. A stack train out of LA is destined for NY. How is it determined if it goes CSX or NS out of Chicago? Second question. When the Tropicana train comes to NY from Florida, how is it routed north of Washington,DC as the old B&O did not go north of Philadelpia,Pa. Third question, what is the most powerful locomotives that run on CSX today,especially on the former NYC from Buffalo to Ny (on the river division). Thanks in advance. Bob Rabie from Father and Son model railroad club.

1. Depends on container destination terminal and who has the contract for the container company. For instance, CSX has a contract with Maersk and runs trains to Massena NY and beyond for them.

2. A web search nets this: "It runs on the former B&O from Wash DC to Philly, then former Reading through West Trenton to Bound Brook, then former LV from their to Tropicana Facility which is adjacent to the NJT Meadows Maint Facility, near South Kearny NJ." Which essentially is the old Chessie connection to the NYC metro area (although by CNJ rather than LV back then).

3. CSX has ex-Conrail SD80mac units rated at 5,000 HP, although they're not well liked and most recent pictures show them in storage. One's been wrecked out of the 13 inherited from Conrail. They also have 114 AC6000W units, classed by CSX as CW60AC, which remain at 5000 HP; numbers 603-699 and 5000-5016. (the first three were rebuilt with 4400 HP engines). Most other engines are 4000-4500 HP or lower. I believe all are in general pool use, so there's no telling what will show up where.

Note - most trains heading to NYC actually end in Northern NJ just over the river.

'east of hudson' NYC/LI trains have a restricted pool of 2-3 dozen locomotives. sd40-2 and sd60s, along with a few gp38-2s and gensets for yard work. They need their plows cut to clear Metro North's 3rd rail, thus the 'dedicated fleet' (a few of which are usually roaming around elsewhere in the csx system). There were a few GP-40-2s as well, though they haven't been down here in ages.

Thank you all for answering. LVRR, it was a general question about service east of Chicago. But, I am quite sure any containers destined for the New York area is shipper specific. But still don't undertand how one routing is better ( Ns or CSX) if they both end up at Port Elizabeth in New Jersey. Is one railroad better at selling it self over the other? As to service to Massina,NY I doubt there is any reason for that type of service to there. I used to work as a conductor on the Mohawk Div of Conrail, and while that is some time ago, I do remember Massina as the end of a branch to northern New York State. Any container service to there would be destined for Canada, and if so, it would be better served by CP or CN.But again thanks for your imput. Bob Rabie,Fathers and Sons Club

Juice train actually terminates at Greenville in Jersey City

conductorbob wrote: I used to work as a conductor on the Mohawk Div of Conrail, and while that is some time ago, I do remember Massina as the end of a branch to northern New York State. Any container service to there would be destined for Canada, and if so, it would be better served by CP or CN.But again thanks for your imput. Bob Rabie,Fathers and Sons Club

CSX now runs through to Montreal via the St. Lawrence sub which has been upgraded to 50-60 mph. Several trains including containers travel the route daily. The D&H sees CP traffic as well as NS traffic off the Southern Tier line, coming out of Harrisburg, PA., and from the Pan Am line.

Poppyl

They don't all go to Port Elizabeth; traffic destined for domestic consumption (rather than export) tends to go to Croxton, Kearny, and North Bergen (as I recall, CSX runs North Bergen and NS has Kearny, and I forget which one got Croxton). Generally the choice of rail carrier depends on factors other than the terminal location, although the quality of service rendered in a terminal certainly weighs in the shipper's choice of carrier.

ExCon90 wrote:They don't all go to Port Elizabeth; traffic destined for domestic consumption (rather than export) tends to go to Croxton, Kearny, and North Bergen (as I recall, CSX runs North Bergen and NS has Kearny, and I forget which one got Croxton). Generally the choice of rail carrier depends on factors other than the terminal location, although the quality of service rendered in a terminal certainly weighs in the shipper's choice of carrier.

I believe but could be wrong.... CSX goes to N. Bergen, Little Ferry and S. Kearny... I believe NS just has Croxton, and both have Port Elizabeth....

Correct on NS and Croxton.

Poppyl

Again, thank you all for answering my questions. I just have a few questions about the terminal yards around new york and who got what.

First question, I thought that Kearny was a PRR yard and Croxton was el-lv yard. I thought that when CSX stopped going into Weehawken that they left the River Division above the North Bergen area and connected to the former Leigh Valley line that was next to the River Division. So how does CSX get to Kearny? Also, I did not know that CSX turned North Bergen into a major yard for them.
Second question...I thought that most of the yards in New Jersey were operated by Conrail shared territory.

To poppyl... Thank you for that information. I did not realize that CSX had updated that Montrfeal Sub into a major line.

As a bit of rambling by a retireree,When I started as a brakeman on the River Division under Penn Cetral,we alway pick up our train in
Weehawken by the tunnel or we had to go to one of the Waverlies (1-5) on the old PRR side to pick them up. What a trip that was. It was llike going back in time to pick these trains up on the Prr. Ah thed old days.
Thanks again Bob Rabie, Father and Sons Railroad Club

Bob;

This is a little off topic (CSX) but NS' Lehigh Line runs on the old LV main from Allentown to Croxton. And the old E-L main east of Binghamton (NS owned with NYS&W trackage rights) has undergone substantial upgrades over the past several years in expectation of increased NS traffic out of NJ to Buffalo and Canada and to free up capacity on the Lehigh Line.

Check the NY State forum if interested in more information on the eastern Tier.

Poppyl

You can tell me there's no reason for the service, but I see the trains go by every day; it's a contract with Maersk and those containers run in the trains. In fact, CSX wanted it badly enough to run test trains of empties back and forth for at least six months. I've forgotten the details on where exactly they load/unload, if it's Montreal or further south.

Railroads bid for service in some instances and the one that can offer the best rate may win, or the most reliable/fastest service may win out. It depends what the shipper needs. If a shipper has a major terminal on a particular railroad, then it may just be easier to route as far as possible on that road.