Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Railfan Trip to New York State and Pennsylvania - 3

Hi, Dale wanted a day along the former D&H so we dedicated Wednesday, 10/20 to this activity. Our hope was to shoot CP but it turned out to be an NS day for the most part. The first train was #934 shown cresting Richmondville Hill eastbound. This becomes MOAY, from Mohawk Yard near Schenectady to Ayer, MA, the hottest train on Pan Am Southern. By the way, the 930 to 939 trains almost always have NS power.

We let #934 go and headed back west to see what we could find. On the west side of Oneonta we encountered #931, also headed east, and gave chase. The train is shown passing one of the Leatherstocking Chapter, NRHS GG-1s stored on a siding at Cooperstown Junction, NY,

passing a former D&H signal mast at Schenevus, NY,

and finally, after a long wait (we never found out why) passing through Central Bridge.

Our last photo of the train was at Delanson where the former D&H line to Albany branches off. This is the track between the signal and the crossing buck.

The line to Albany has been cutback to the Guilderland Industrial park and is operated by SMS Rail Services as the Vorheesville Industrial Track. SMS's GP38 was waiting at the junction to make a pickup from the next eastbound.

When this train, #938, arrived it cut off a block of auto racks and pulled them up the main, cutting off before the interlocking signals for the junction.

The NS locomotives then pulled forward on to the single track allowing the SMS crew to back down on their pick up.


#938 then backed down on its train and left town.


Our final shot was of an eastbound CP powered freight about 5:00 PM at Esperance Station. It was the only CP powered train east of Oneonta, NY during daylight. There was a westbound in the picture but it had NS power (we could hear talk about it on the radio) and it never showed up.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

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