DETOURS…..DETOURS…….DETOURS……DETOURS The bulk of news this month concerns detours over the OK everyone, its that time again, time to get caught up (somewhat) with the doings and goings on of our favorite railroad. It’s funny how things work out sometimes, as I mentioned in my last column about the lack of news from the Northern Division. Well, this time, that gap has been filled, and with interest. In fact, the bulk of this column will deal with the Northern Division to one degree or another. That said, I will divide the column up a little differently this time. So here we go… MOTIVE POWER UPDATE. The past several months have been rather quiet in this department. The SD60’s are working as intended on the road trains, and occasionally in local power duties in Cortland, Syracuse or Little Ferry. At press time, the 3804 was assigned to Little Ferry, along with the 3016. The 3014 was doing occasional duty in Cortland on the CL-1, with an additional unit assigned to Syracuse for the SY-1. These locals see their power rotated on a semi frequent basis, and their assigned power will have probably been changed by the time you read this. The one constant seems to be GP 40 3040, assigned to Utica, and that’s where it seems to be and will stay for the foreseeable future. SD60 3808 however, did strike a tree near Hankins, NY on an eastbound SU 100 in June, and that necessitated switching the power around in Port Jervis. It was a pretty significant tree as it damaged grab irons and ditch lights. No injuries resulted, and the locomotive went back on the following day’s SU 99 for repair and eventual return to service. The locomotive has since returned to service, but with a patch of grey primer just under the S-Ball logo on the nose, account repairs from the tree incident. It is expected this will get repainted in due time, but the locomotive is back in service. The Southern Division still has assigned NS and CSX units for local power, notably CSX 2732 and NS 5291 and 5294. The only time these units leave the property for the most part is when they have to go back to their owners for their periodic 92-day inspections, as well as any significant repairs, should the need arise. No one particular unit seems to be assigned to a specific job, though usually the Sparta turn will warrant a six axle unit when possible. Again, as I note, things have been relatively quiet the past few months in this department. 14 railroad from CSX. There have been multiple detours since May, and this is due to a variety of factors. The first “group” of detours was at the end of May, centered around the Memorial Day holiday. CSX had planned a signal suspension on its Chicago Line, east of Utica, NY in which 40 miles (roughly) of old NYC style signals would be replaced by newer Safetran systems, including intermediate signals as well as interlocking signals. The plan was to do so over the Memorial Day weekend and do so under the least amount of traffic possible. To do this, CSX notified Cooperstown of their intention to send 3 detour trains their way to NJ via Syracuse-Binghamton-Campbell Hall -Warwick. The trains would be two consecutive Q004 stack trains that normally operate to Kearny NJ with an additional train being symbol Q156, also terminating at South Kearny. Train # 1, Q004-25, had CSXT 862/CSXT 783 for power. It consisted of 30 cars, was 4749 tons, and approx 5200 feet in length. This train departed Buffalo the morning of May 26, and was interchanged to the NYS&W mid-afternoon. This train made an overnight run east of Binghamton, closely following (by a matter of chance) the normal SU-100 schedule. Train #2, Q156-25, Power: CSXT 5426/CSXT 832. 55 cars, 8471 tons, 8651 feet. This was interchanged to the NYS&W at about 8pm on May 26. Owing to its length and tonnage, the NYS&W added one of their SD60’s to the consist in Syracuse. This train, making its overnight run south of Syracuse became the one to follow for the Southern Division fans, as it hit Warwick NY (and home rails) just after 2 pm on Memorial Day in beautiful weather. Train #3, Q004-26, Power: CSXT 9051-CSXT 475. 45 stacks, 6081 tons, 7100 feet. This train made a late afternoon interchange with the NYSW, and was pretty much an overnight run east of Binghamton. Unlike the train ahead of this, it did not require the addition of any NYS&W power. One side note was the crew staffing. A Binghamton based road pool crew took the first train east of Binghamton to NJ and then taxied home on arrival. The second train, Q156-25, had a Jersey crew which was deadheaded to Binghamton to take rest for the train and thus brought that 156 east. The third train, Q004-26, was handled by the same crew who took the first detour train east, but on their rest after getting home from the deadhead back to Binghamton. All three trains operated without incident, though the second train which hit the Southern Division in daylight had a significant following including yours truly. Once the holiday had passed, everyone thought that would be the end of any detours for the foreseeable future. And they were right…to a point. Things changed at the end of June when, on the morning of June 27, CSX suffered a major collision between two trains and a resulting derailment that shut down the Chicago Line along the Mohawk River west of Amsterdam NY. Two crew members were injured and significant damage to the tracks, as well as adjacent NY Route 5 was the result. So once again, Cooperstown was contacted and detours were going to be the order of the day. But how many? It was estimated that it would take 3-7 days to clean up the derailment, and the next question was how many rerouted trains could the NYS&W handle. The first indication of what was to come was when the Cortland job, CL-1 was annulled from its normal morning time sign up, and rescheduled for 3pm. The plan was to taxi to Syracuse for the first detour, Q002 (formerly Q100), normally the hottest train on the railroad. The CL-1 crew would then hand the train off to a Binghamton based crew upon arrival at Binghamton (this changed as there was no road crew
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