Southern Tier - West of Binghamton

scottychaos wrote:Heads up Corning!
EMD leaser sitting at the Dresden Powerplant, Corning secondary, 1-1-11....

....Her companion is NS 6664, also a standard cab SD60!
Looks like they were laid up for the night..
the EMD unit is facing south, so she will be in the lead when they head back down to Corning..probably Sunday or Monday..

Scot

I see your SD60 standard cab and raise you another - this one was/is H13 power tied down in Sayre Thurs 06JAN:

Your Monday report...

Three UP engines in Gang Mills, I think PRB coal for Bow, NH.

Also, it's official to let loose, Baker Street yard will be rebuilt after April for use as staging area for all nat gas traffic. More later this week.

What ever happened to the Ethanol trains that were going to come off the CP in Buffalo and go to Sewaren via the Tier and R&N? They are still running as CSX K408/K409. I know they had to do modifications to the haulage rights agreements. Were there snags there, or are the cars too heavy for the Portage bridge, or is it something else? Thanks.

K4Pacific wrote:Your Monday report...

Three UP engines in Gang Mills, I think PRB coal for Bow, NH.

Also, it's official to let loose, Baker Street yard will be rebuilt after April for use as staging area for all nat gas traffic. More later this week.

Glad to see that you were able to get your bosses to take my advice!! (Ha! Ha!)

Poppyl

K4Pacific wrote:Your Monday report...

Three UP engines in Gang Mills, I think PRB coal for Bow, NH.

Caught those 3 UP engines on 310 at Silver Springs on Sunday.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 5&nseq=105

The EMD leaser was sitting southbound on the Corning Secondary at Baker Street late this afternoon.

From the short length of the string of empty hoppers behind her, I'd guess that might be the last Dresden drag before the layup as the plant works off its on-site inventory.

Poppyl

"...Estimated start time is unknown as of now, but talks are that it could happen as
soon as this Spring. The train is supposed to handle Intermodal from Harrisburg
to Points West (Buffalo, NY via connection with NS 205 at Binghamton) and Points
North (Albany, NY and Ayer, Mass via Connections with CP 938 (NS 206) and CP 934
(NS 22K) )..."

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/B ... sage/31793

Poppyl can you find out if Dresden really is going to mothball for sure. Somerset outside Buffalo started up again. A meeting with NS this week with gas drilling and supply companies has major track building at Sayre Yard, Baker St.n and Elmira. You'll see more extras as they adjust to the chaos.

K4Pacific wrote:Poppyl can you find out if Dresden really is going to mothball for sure. Somerset outside Buffalo started up again. A meeting with NS this week with gas drilling and supply companies has major track building at Sayre Yard, Baker St.n and Elmira. You'll see more extras as they adjust to the chaos.

Yikes!! AES is about as forthcoming with info on future actions as is NS. As far as I know, regulatory paperwork is still proceeding but it can be stopped almost on a moment's notice. But for that to happen, IMO, some change in the underlying conditions that led to the decision would have to occur. I'll see what I can find out, but no guarantees, however. I actually think that NS will know before anyone based upon the lack of coal traffic.

I still believe that if there is a future for the Greenridge station, it is in some mixed use scenario -- nat gas, wood pulp, and maybe Waste to Energy. Waste to Energy is very amenable to rail transport and might help to reduce the volume of truck traffic to Waterloo. What I don't know is whether the existing environmental technology at the station is appropriate for a WTE mission.

WTE might be something for NS to explore with AES.

Poppyl

I have an old conrail map from sept 78. it shows what baker st. yard used to look like there were 7 yard tracks ,a siding and the secondary .this was just after comrail took up the tracks that ran thru corning-chemung river north thru baker st. I hope it looks that way again! (the north corning yard). i wonder if n.s. ever gave a thought about buying the land east of the gang mills car shop that would make a decent size staging area ,(from the old trasfer station to gn-oops cp gang mills?

railbird steve wrote:I have an old conrail map from sept 78. it shows what baker st. yard used to look like there were 7 yard tracks ,a siding and the secondary .this was just after comrail took up the tracks that ran thru corning-chemung river north thru baker st. I hope it looks that way again! (the north corning yard). i wonder if n.s. ever gave a thought about buying the land east of the gang mills car shop that would make a decent size staging area ,(from the old trasfer station to gn-oops cp gang mills?

FYI, Conrail ran on the old NYC through Corning until 1981. I saw a northbound run that spring, a few months before CR stopped using the line.

railbird steve wrote:I have an old conrail map from sept 78. it shows what baker st. yard used to look like there were 7 yard tracks ,a siding and the secondary .this was just after comrail took up the tracks that ran thru corning-chemung river north thru baker st. I hope it looks that way again! (the north corning yard). i wonder if n.s. ever gave a thought about buying the land east of the gang mills car shop that would make a decent size staging area ,(from the old trasfer station to gn-oops cp gang mills?

Steve;

Check the "Motive Power on the Pensylvania Division" thread on this forum and you will find several links to the "old" Baker Street yard as it was structured in the NYC era. You will see that it was considerably larger than during the CR days. As far as I know, NS still owns most of the original real estate so there is a lot of room for expansion without having to deal with the expense, etc. of acquiring more real estate. And it is already connected to the Tier.

Poppyl

JDFCLK96 wrote: *Edit to original post:
The above was written based on the assumption that the ATCS being asked about was code being broadcast over radio that can be monitored with a scanner and ATCSmon. A little research revealed that the system west of Waverly could very well be driven by ATCS code, just not via radio broadcast. The earliest versions of AAR's ATCS Specification look to have been developed in the late '80s/early '90s.

I've been listening - nothing at all on any of the ATCS frequencies. No obvious antennae on any of the CP's that would support radio-based system. Judging by the conversations between the DS and all there definitely is some sort of ATCS in effect, but likely hardwired. (unfortunately)

New York Central's "North Corning Yard" - 1915:

http://scotlawrence.smugmug.com/Railroa ... hPqe-O.jpg

View is from the hillside on the east side of the yard..photographer is facing West.
Corning is to the south, left side of the photo.

Scot

thannon wrote:

JDFCLK96 wrote: *Edit to original post:
The above was written based on the assumption that the ATCS being asked about was code being broadcast over radio that can be monitored with a scanner and ATCSmon. A little research revealed that the system west of Waverly could very well be driven by ATCS code, just not via radio broadcast. The earliest versions of AAR's ATCS Specification look to have been developed in the late '80s/early '90s.

I've been listening - nothing at all on any of the ATCS frequencies. No obvious antennae on any of the CP's that would support radio-based system. Judging by the conversations between the DS and all there definitely is some sort of ATCS in effect, but likely hardwired. (unfortunately)

I think you're right. I don't see any evidence of fiber, so I'm assuming that it is through the rails.

Kind of a bummer, because one can only determine so much through the radio. I sat trackside on Monday for 3 hours and only could hear signals being called within 4-5 miles of my location. Dispatch was weak as well. I was, however, next to a signal, which helped a little. Had I been able to view a dispatcher's display while sitting in my warm car, I could have more time to make it down the trail to the tracks to grab my video.