Railfan Trip to New York State and Pennsylvania - 42

Hi, Our next stop was the Wellsboro and Corning. This once sleepy shortline has seen an explosion in traffic due to drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation in north central Pennsylvania. Sand is used to fracture the shale thereby freeing the natural gas, and the sand arrives by rail.

As a result of this new traffic the railroad needed more powerful locomotives and late last winter they obtained 4 SD40-2s from the Quebec North Shore & Labrador. They have been very carefully and tastefully re-lettered. The rail line usually runs a turn to Gang Mills, NY on Mondays and Thursday. Our first stop was Wellsboro, PA where we found 2 of the units making up their train of empties for the NS interchange in Gang Mills.

We then moved north setting up at a grade crossing at Niles Valley.

Our next stop was a grade crossing at Holliday, PA. It was here that we unexpectedly met up with two old friends of mine, John "Cass" King (who loves the Cass Scenic RR) and Bob Markle. It was definitely the high point of the day as I had not seen either of them in quite awhile.

A few miles north of Holiday the line runs along the shore of Hammond Lake.

We continued north and finally got some sun a few miles south of Lawrenceville, NY, still in Pennsylvania. The location is called Beemans on the railroad.

The sun held out as the train passed a farm along River Rd. (County Rd. 120) near Lindley, NY.

However, a few miles further a cloud blocked the sun.

From here to Gang Mills the track is inaccessible. While the crew was dropping its train and making its pickup we got some sandwiches to go and were back at the yard as it departed with loads of sand. By now the clouds had socked in again. We got our only elevated shot near Erwins, NY.

We continued south to get another angle at the farm along River Road.

Beemans, in Pennsylvania south of the border with New York offered another nice location.

By the time the train got south of Hammond Lake there were breaks in the clouds. Here the train is just north of Holliday.

We were able to beat it to Holliday for still another shot.

Our final shot came at a feed mill at Niles Valley.

We followed the train the mile or 2 south to its terminus at Wellsboro but the clouds returned and we did not see anything else worth photographing. We said good by to John and Bob, and headed for our motel in Elmira, NY.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.