NS Lehigh Line Archives - Page 2 of 5

Still busy, but not what it once was

Where there were once two, now there is only one; main track, that is, with Conrail electing to single-track the former Lehigh Valley RR mainline west of CP Port Reading Junction (just beyond the signals in the distance). The exhaust heat waves on this chilly spring morning are quite evident, brought into prominence by the large lens used to record westbound Norfolk Southern train 11J, about to cross over Main Street in Manville, NJ.

With the closing of the Ford and General Motors assembly plants in the Garden State, all loaded autorack cars are inbound only, which necessitates a dedicated empty autorack train (11J) daily to return railcars to the assembly points in the south and midwest. Today, NS C40-9W 9573 leads the train out of the Raritan River watershed, heading ‘up the mountain’ as the dispatchers say, towards the only railroad tunnel in NJ at Pattenburg, some 26 miles away. (Trans-Hudson River tunnels to NYC don’t count here; they start in NJ and end in NY.)

Image recorded April 30, 2011.

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A train by any other name is just as colorful

Norfolk Southern

A train of many symbols and names! Those who have been around awhile know this as ‘the D&H’ train (as much of its route ran along the old Delaware & Hudson RR trackage), and newcomers know her as CP256/254 and/or NS train 38T. Originating in Toronto, Canada, this Canadian Pacific train travels south to Binghamton, NY, as CP 256, then further southward to Allentown, Pa, as CP 254, to join the Norfolk Southern Lehigh Line main and eastward to New Jersey.

As part of the large northeastern US railroad ‘reorganization’ of the past 30-some odd years, Canadian Pacific was granted trackage rights to the metropolitan market of NY/NJ, although the specifics are quite involved. The CP trains are never large, and any intermodal traffic goes no farther east than Bethlehem, Pa; NS then moves any ‘dockside’ (Port Newark/Port Elizabeth) traffic on their own. There is some trash service out of NJ that CP handles directly, and hopefully traffic will grow for the large Canadian railroad in the years to come. In the meantime, whatever tonnage is transported by this interesting operation means revenue generated, and a chance for some color on the rails of NY/PA/NJ to keep the railfan community happy.

In this picture we find NS train 38T, with CP 9660 (AC44CW) and CP 9692 (AC44CW) entering track 3 in Norfolk Southern’s River Yard in Bethlehem, Pa., for the daily intermodal set-out.

Image recorded August 28, 2010.

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Dawn breaks over Norfolk Southern in eastern Pennsylvania

Norfolk Southern

Another day is about to begin on the Norfolk Southern Lehigh Line main in eastern Pennsylvania. The sun is just rising on a very chilly late fall day in the small city of Bethlehem, and the small patches of ice from the morning dew on the Fahy Bridge warn of the impending winter season right around the corner. Fortunately, the dense fog hovering above the Lehigh River has stayed a bit to the east in this image, nearly obscuring the bridge in the distance. The long dormant Bethlehem Steel steel mill looms in the background, a testament to the city’s life-blood that brought prosperity to this region in the early 20th century, until less expensive imported products spelled doom for the steel industry in this country.

The last 30 years have been economically difficult for this region, but the hearty people of this area have survived, and new businesses and a new casino, recently constructed right next to the mill in the distance, have delivered a positive outlook to this part of the Lehigh Valley. All’s quiet at this particular moment on this particular day, but the peaceful silence will soon be broken with the first movement of the new morning, a westbound train just 20 minutes away.

Image recorded November 6, 2010.

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Roundabout route explains odd-numbered train symbol

Norfolk Southern

Just a few miles out of Norfolk Southern’s Allentown Yard, NS train 38G pulls hard through Emmaus, Pennsylvania, as she heads west on the NS Lehigh Line. On the point we see NS 9251, one of seven GE C40-9W locomotives painted in the special Operation Lifesaver 25th Anniversary scheme.

Why is this train westbound, when NS usually symbols their trains with odd numbers when heading west? Well, there is an explanation, as this train’s destination is geographically east of Allentown, Pennsylvania; initiating in Allentown, this move heads west to Reading, Pa, then turns southward to Philadelphia, then heads eastward across the Delair bridge into New Jersey, destined for the CSAO Pavonia Yard in Camden, NJ. So, technically, this is an eastbound consist, albeit in a roundabout way. In any event, she’s a money-maker for NS, with train lengths commonly in excess of 100 cars, running seven days a week.

Image recorded October 23, 2010.

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Executives tour the NS system from Office Car Special

Norfolk Southern

There is no mistaking one of the the finest ‘Executive’ trains in the world, as we witness the passing of the Norfolk Southern OCS, or Office Car Special. In the late summer and early Fall of 2010, NS President Wick Moorman and his executive staff toured the entire system on rails, getting a close view of their empire, and perhaps a better idea of how to handle todays rail-freight traffic. Proudly displaying the colors and scheme of NS predecessor road Southern Railway, the spotless F9A/F7B/F7B/F9A EMD locomotives capably handle the westbound 10 car consist as it negotiates the sweeping S-curve alongside the Lehigh River in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, milepost 87 on the NS Lehigh Line.

Image recorded September 26, 2010.

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