Southern Tier - East of Binghamton

[waldwickrailfan]

They did both ways!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52erZzXn9aI&t=905s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[waldwickrailfan]

21M detoured up NJT and the Tier to Binghamton yesterday. Was by WC at 09:15
NS AC44C6M’s 4051, 4078
-384 axles

[pumpers]

There is a pic of it at Millrift PA here: https://www.railpictures.net/photo/694490/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A post at the Yahoo groups "Orangecountyrails" email list said it was a 10,000 ft stack train - not sure if that exactly matches 384 axles but that's long in any case.
Could this have been the longest train ever on the Tier, at least east of BInghamton? I don't know how long the old Seatrain trains in the early days of the "modern" NYSW were, but 10,000 feet sounds long to me.
Jim S

[Deeretracks]

Last summer I saw a 23K westbound intermodal stopped in Waverly and set the trip odometer on my car and drove from the front to the back of it on a parallel road and it was 2.35 miles long. It had 22,000 hp pulling it. 21M may have been the longest train to come north into Binghamton but definitely not the longest to run west.

[pumpers]

I'm not up to date on modern intermodal technology, but zooming in on the picture at the link I just posted above, it looks like the intermodal cars come in a 3-car set, with a total of 8 axles, and total length of about 3 of the AC444C6M engines (which from an internet search are 73 feet each), so that's about 210 feet for 8 axles. At that rate, if I am right about the intermodal cars, 372 axles (+12 axles for the engines) comes out to just under 10,000 ft.

[cjvrr]

Pumpers,

In the late 1980s / early 1990s my dad and I used to railfan that line at least once a month. I remember one Conrail TV train we chased to Lackawaxen that was around 12,000 feet.

I believe some of the Sea Land trains were also around the 10,000 ft mark.

[sd80mac]

TV 555,550. 552, 553 (I think) and uh.. 554 I believe so... they're pretty long NYSW train (sealand)

I cant remember which one went thru West ST... and which one goes to Syracuse and go down on NYSW line and vice versa...

[SecaucusJunction]

I know NYSW stacks used to be 200+ wells long. Rumors of 300 car trains but I never saw any.

[sd80mac]

Doesnt NYSW have their own line between NJ and Bingo? I recall that NYSW run through Sparta line or something like that?

I have to look up Railpace or Railroad & Railfan for article about NYSW and their line between Bingo and NJ. But I'm not doing to do that....

[rr503]

They have their own line from the Campbell Hall area to NJ—specifically the old LHR to Sparta Jct, and then original NYSW trackage from there to Jersey City. North/west of CH, they have rights over the NJT/CNYK (CNYK being a subsidiary of DO that leases the Eastern Tier PJ-Bingo from NS) to Bingo.

[sd80mac]

What happens to that line now since NYSW had shifted to CNYK line.

[rr503]

Which line? CNYK line = southern tier.

[ricebrianrice]

CNYK is a sub of the Delaware & Otsego. CNYK is a paper only railroad.
NYSW is a sub of the Delaware & Otsego.
So NYSW has right to use the CNYK from Port Jervis to Bingo, through the parent organization the D&O.

[SecaucusJunction]

It's a complicated scheme to avoid paying taxes on the line.

NYSW really gets no benefit from the deal as there is hardly any online business but they are forced to maintain the line to 40mph standards for 3 round trips per week, as well as upkeep all the signals, even though there hasn't been a meet on the line in years.

There were rumors that NS forced the issue back in the day by threatening to abandon the line if they were not given a tax break, and the NYSW did not take over the maintenance.

[rr503]

NYS has been giving breaks of various sorts on that line for years. For obvious reasons, CR was never too hot on it; IINM it was NYS intervention that saved it from the axe in the '80s and then again in the '90s. With NYS railroad tax rates, it would be an economically compromised proposition without them.