Woodbourne yard: grade separation possible?

Going to a movie the other night, my friends and i were stuck on woodbourne road where CSX's trenton line crosses. The yard is off to the right in this instance. We sat in stationary traffic right next to the commuter station for about 15-20 minutes as a train on the connector to NS's line there (which to the east leads to morrisville yard) seemed to move back and fourth. I have a couple of questions. One, what is the function of this maneuvering, is it possible to have grade separation of woodbourne road at both crossings, plus why does this take so long, and why at the tail end of rush hour vs at like 2-3 am when the roads are fairly empty? It's not like i'm mad at the railroads for doing their job as some of my friends were, i am just curious. Thanks for any/all useful info!

That's the CSX Fairless Branch. There's a local that interchanges cars between Woodbourne and Morrisville and they also use the branch to build/take apart trains at Woodbourne instead of fouling one of the main tracks. That's the operation you got caught in.

Is it possible to add another track (toward interstate 95) to facilitate this vs block the grade crossing then? Woodboune is hardly a minor thoroughfare, especially during rush hour (~16:30-18:45). We caught it right at the tail end of rush hour. My guess is they do flat switching (nudge vs hump), or do they use another engine?

TrainPhotos wrote:Is it possible to add another track (toward interstate 95) to facilitate this vs block the grade crossing then? Woodboune is hardly a minor thoroughfare, especially during rush hour (~16:30-18:45). We caught it right at the tail end of rush hour. My guess is they do flat switching (nudge vs hump), or do they use another engine?

They nudge. C746 uses a trailing engine but they have to break that train apart to pick up cars from Woodbourne. That local usually works at the dead of night so I'm pretty surprised to hear you got caught by it that early in the evening.

ekt8750 wrote:

TrainPhotos wrote:Is it possible to add another track (toward interstate 95) to facilitate this vs block the grade crossing then? Woodboune is hardly a minor thoroughfare, especially during rush hour (~16:30-18:45). We caught it right at the tail end of rush hour. My guess is they do flat switching (nudge vs hump), or do they use another engine?

They nudge. C746 uses a trailing engine but they have to break that train apart to pick up cars from Woodbourne. That local usually works at the dead of night so I'm pretty surprised to hear you got caught by it that early in the evening.

Yea, i sometimes go for a walk at night and i can hear them shuffling around. So basically if it gets in early, they start, even if it blocks the crossing for an extended period?

TrainPhotos wrote:

ekt8750 wrote:

TrainPhotos wrote:Is it possible to add another track (toward interstate 95) to facilitate this vs block the grade crossing then? Woodboune is hardly a minor thoroughfare, especially during rush hour (~16:30-18:45). We caught it right at the tail end of rush hour. My guess is they do flat switching (nudge vs hump), or do they use another engine?

They nudge. C746 uses a trailing engine but they have to break that train apart to pick up cars from Woodbourne. That local usually works at the dead of night so I'm pretty surprised to hear you got caught by it that early in the evening.

Yea, i sometimes go for a walk at night and i can hear them shuffling around. So basically if it gets in early, they start, even if it blocks the crossing for an extended period?

They probably couldn't get a later slot in to do their work and make their run to Lansdale. The way the Trenton Line is currently configured if there's heavy freight traffic things will bottleneck pretty quickly esp when you throw SEPTA in the mix.

Grade separation is an engineering impossibility.

The first bridge would have to go 22 feet obove the rail for the Fairless Branch, duck under U.S. Route 1, Then climb 25 feet over the catenary above the West Trenton Line, then come back to grade level for the parking lot and businesses at Woodbourne Station.

Tunnel would be cost prohibitive due to the swamp south west of the ROW.

Short answer....no.

It's just a cost of sprawl.