December 2011 - Page 5 of 13

CSX locomotive consist noteworthy for its rare Blue paint

CSX

In the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) breakup of 1999, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway acquired the assets of Conrail, and began repainting the Blue CR locomotives in their respective colors as they came in for maintenance or overhaul. The repainting process has been steady but slow for both railroads, and as of this post, over 11 years later, only 37 Blue units remain on CSX rails. Finding a Blue unit in a locomotive consist is noteworthy, and finding a Blue unit leading a train is special.

Here we see CSX 7374 (ex-CR 6229, blt 8/93) and CSX 7836 (blt 12/92) on the head end of a CSX unit ethanol train, with Conrail Shared Assets crew PR-19 in charge as they pass CP-PD on the CSAO Chemical Coast Secondary in Port Reading, NJ.

Image recorded June 21, 2010.

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Norfolk Southern train displays ‘Conrail Quality’ scheme

Norfolk Southern

With less than 200 units left in Blue (as of this date), Norfolk Southern SD40-2 3401 (ex-CR 6475, blt 1178), is becoming a rare bird after the breakup of Conrail between NS and CSX Transportation, some 11 years ago. Some units have not aged well, with rust and faded paint tarnishing their once proud status, but old 6475 seems to be holding up just fine, in her ‘Conrail Quality’ scheme, applied just a few years before that fateful day in 1999.

With the sun finally breaking through the earlier low clouds of this spring day, NS 3401 leads two western visitors (UP 6879, a GE AC44CW, and UP 5102, an EMD SD70M) on NS train 68Q, a unit ethanol train destined for the refinery just a mile south of this point. The engineer is guiding the train around the east leg of the wye at CP-PD, transitioning from the Port Reading Secondary to the Chemical Coast Secondary, where he will enter one of the two sidings and tie down, until the local Port Reading Yard crew can climb aboard for final delivery.

Image recorded June 11, 2010.

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Two Blue ‘CRQ’ units work small, busy Port Reading yard

Norfolk Southern

With Conrail Blue hard to find in the year 2010, some 11 years after the Consolidated Rail Corporation breakup, and with only a small percentage of the Conrail fleet ever painted in the ‘Conrail Quality’ scheme, it was with great surprise, and much delight, to find on this day not one, but two Blue ‘CRQ’ units working small, but busy, Port Reading yard in Port Reading, NJ, on the Conrail Shared Assets Operations Chemical Coast Secondary.

This is “Shared Assets” territory, where CSX and Norfolk Southern both supply power to serve the customers of the central and northern New Jersey area, so that some semblance of competition is preserved in this very busy market. Here we see CSAO yard job PR-6 switching the yard with veteran power, with NS GP38-2 5281 (ex-CR 8078, nee-PennCentral 8078, blt 2/73) and CSX GP40-2 4428 (ex-CR 3345, blt 6/78) easily handling the assignment for the crew on this beautiful spring day.

Image recorded June 2, 2010.

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Water travel precursor to modern freight transportation

Norfolk Southern

In the mid-19th century, the only mode of freight transportation was a horse-drawn barge along a canal beside a main river. To get to Jersey City, NJ from Allentown, Pennsylvania, in, say, 1855, one would load their barge to be pulled across the Lehigh Canal, seen here in the foreground, eastward to Easton, Pa, and across the Delaware River, to continue across New Jersey via the Morris Canal. Quite time consuming to say the least, but this was before the advent of the automobile/truck and also the railroad.

Since railroads tend to frequently follow rivers, due to their ‘flat’ geographic profile, it is with no surprise that we find, in the 21st century, a very modern ‘iron horse’ crossing the very canal that brought freight transportation to this region some 200 years ago. On former Lehigh Valley RR trackage, Norfolk Southern 7632 (a GE ES40DC) brings NS train 19G across the rail bridge, built in 1916, and across the original canal, to start her trip west on the NS Lehigh Line.

Image recorded May 29, 2010.

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NS locomotive finishes doubling, crosses Lehigh Canal

Norfolk Southern

Performing one of several ‘doubling’ maneuvers (several on this day due to having to set-out 2 shop cars for repairs), Norfolk Southern train 19G crosses the Lehigh Canal at the west end of Allentown Yard, ready to make her last shove before finally assembling the train for the run west.

‘Doubling’ frequently occurs when the total train length is greater than one or more yard tracks full of a particular trains consist; a train crew would, for example, couple to the cars on track 13, then pull forward to clear the switch, and shove back pick up the cars on track 14, as both yard tracks 13 & 14 would be full of cars destined for the next major classification yard in the same direction.

Today will see an all-General Electric loco head end, with NS 7632 (ES40DC) and NS 9939 (C40-9W) handling the mainline duties, as soon as the Lehigh Line dispatcher gives them the signal at CP BURN, just a half-mile west of this location.

Image recorded May 29, 2010.

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