Southern Tier - West of Binghamton

He's right. Binghamton crews will be for D&H northeast and Allentown/Enola. Buffalo crews will handle to Binghamton. Corning/Elmira will handle the hub and spokes. BTW A Corning crew has a Bow coal train east by Elmira at 1800. Croxton would handle the East.

So busy that the Rules class was held yesterday over the due 6 months ago.

K4;

Without revealing any confidential information, when are we going to hear something "official" from NS about what all of this means in terms of traffic on the Tier? Or will I just wake up some morning and see the double stacks running?

I understand the reasoning for more crews in Buffalo, Bingo, and Croxton, but is there anything besides sand driving the Elmira/Corning hiring over and above the current board and extras?

Oh yeah, when will the doubles start running up the Secondary to Geneva? Readers -- that question is a total fantasy so please don't start a rumor!!

Poppyl

In case people still don't believe this is happening, I guess it was talked about during a recent OCS trip out of Croxton. I do not know the individual who wrote this...

http://blog.railplanning.com/wp-content ... ct2010.pdf

This makes twice that NS has advertised this service. Seems like there is a lot more to this than just fluff. The only question remaining is when willl this materialize?

Jim Rowland

The new flow patterns will be phased in over 2011.

K4Pacific wrote:The new flow patterns will be phased in over 2011.

What flow patterns...? Can you be more specific on destinations and origins?? Thanks!

I hope this is the right place to ask....

I just moved up to the Niagara/Buffalo area and would like to spend a day railfanning the area. The NS line seems like a good place to start, but I can't find to much online about the best days and time to go about it. Could you guys maybe shed some light on that?

Long Train Runnin' wrote:I hope this is the right place to ask....

I just moved up to the Niagara/Buffalo area and would like to spend a day railfanning the area. The NS line seems like a good place to start, but I can't find to much online about the best days and time to go about it. Could you guys maybe shed some light on that?

NS operates 24-7, so you can find a train on the Southern Tier Mainline east of Bison any day you choose. I've seen 13T and 38T heading east in the late morning or early afternoon. Symbol 23K used to rumble westbound through Hornell around mid-day, but I haven't seen it the last few times I've gone out, so the schedukle may have changed. Symbol 310 can also come through during the afternoon. There's often an hour or more between trains... so I recommend you bring something to read or otherwise keep yourself occupied while waiting for the next set of lights to appear in the distance.

I'm not an expert in that area, but you're probably better off chasing CSX as I believe they have more of a presence in that region.

SecaucusJunction wrote:I'm not an expert in that area, but you're probably better off chasing CSX as I believe they have more of a presence in that region.

I never knew you would be the "CSX Watchdog" as well!!!

SecaucusJunction wrote:I'm not an expert in that area, but you're probably better off chasing CSX as I believe they have more of a presence in that region.

not really..
yes, technically CSX has more trains through Buffalo..
but as for "presence in the region" I would say NS and CSX are about the same in Buffalo proper..
If you are railfanning in Buffalo, you will probably find as much NS activity as CSX activity..

out along the mainlines east or west of town, yes, CSX will give you more trains per hour..
but "presence in the region" is more subjective that just the amount of trains.
If I drive to Buffalo looking to photograph CSX or NS, I will have no problems with either..

Scot

If you are looking at a Saturday, NS usually sends an EB out of Bison a little after 1:00 PM. I've seen a WB precede and follow that at times. Just take a run down Erie St. in Lancaster which parallels the line. The CSX mainline can also be accessed by going a couple miles north of Erie St. on Townline or Ransom Rds. West of Bison, the Furhmann Blvd / Tifft St. area can work out too - not sure of the best times to be there, though.

NS had a staging area for equipment and material at 200 West Ave in Owego(former republic steel culvert plant). all the old signals ,crossing gates and control boxes are in a Weitsman scrap container. Nothing can be bought, however if one was to talk to Adam Weitsman, once it is at his yard, I am sure he would consider it for $$$. The number there is 607-687-2780. The only thing is it will be at scrap price from his BUYER.

Itchman wrote:NS had a staging area for equipment and material at 200 West Ave in Owego(former republic steel culvert plant). all the old signals ,crossing gates and control boxes are in a Weitsman scrap container. Nothing can be bought, however if one was to talk to Adam Weitsman, once it is at his yard, I am sure he would consider it for $$$. The number there is 607-687-2780. The only thing is it will be at scrap price from his BUYER.

I spent some time along the line from Binghamton to Waverly yesterday, and while I didn't make it over to West Ave, I did note that there are some signals between Owego and Binghamton that haven't been picked up yet. One is stashed in the weeds, and the other is in the woods covered in leaves. I'm not so sure the one in the woods in from the NS single tracking, is it is very rusty and the lens was missing. Perhaps it is a relic from Conrail or EL work. The one in the weeds is definately from the NS work, as it still has the bag covering the head, and the numberboard is still attached. Perhaps it was forgotton, as the control boxes and the signal from the other side of the tracks were hauled away early on.

I finally got around to uploading this video of a 205 back in April before the single track project. I'll get a comparison video one of these days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF3fkB3TH-o

Enjoy!