Railfanning York Rail

Hi, On March 29 friend Jim Kleeman and I travelled to York, PA to check out York Rail. Trackage in York derives from former Pennsylvania RR, Maryland & Pennsylvania RR, and Western Maryland RR operation.

Almost immediately on our arrival we spotted a local switching and set up for our first shot; crossing Codorous Creek.

We caught the local two more times, the first time when it stopped to switch an industry (above) and the second as it was about to enter Lincoln Yard (below).

We then went to the west end of the yard to see if there was any activity and found train RJ2, a turn job to Hanover, about to leave. The chase was on. Most of the run is on a former WM branch to Porters Sideling, PA where there is connection to the former WM "Dutch" line to Hanover.

Our first location of the westbound chase was off Biesecker Rd. in Thomasville, PA (above and below).

Next we caught the train at Sprenkle Rd, east of Spring Grove, PA.

While RJ2 worked in Spring Grove we moved to Colonial Valley Rd. on the west side of town.

Porters Sideling was our next stop (above and below).

Fortunately train speeds are low so we beat the train to Sterner Rd.; west of Porters Sideling.

We explored Hanover, PA but were unable to determine where RJ2 would drop its outbound cars so we returned east. RJ2's pickup was spotted on the siding at Smith's station (above and below).

While RJ2 completed switching at Smiths Station we moved to Thoman Rd east of Porters Sideling (above and below).

Next we returned to Colonial Valley Rd. west of Spring Grove.

 

Our final photo of RJ2 was taken at East Railroad St. in Spring Grove. At this point we decided to leave RJ2 as it would be mostly running out of the sun.

We returned to the east end of Lincoln Yard in York. A power set went to work shortly after our arrival and began to switch but it never came anywhere we could get a shot. This former Maryland and Pennsylvania switcher, however, was sitting on a siding in storage.

Thanks for looking.