C&D, contaminated soil, and plastics traffic, this was offset by increases in automotive, food grade products, lumber/building materials and chemical traffic. Also, a C&D traffic customer will be establishing (or better yet, re-establishing) service in North Bergen, with cars to come in off the NS via Croxton, and the loads to be shipped out via the NYS&W to Binghamton. These cars will be similar to the extend length grey TLAX/ LEWX/FWTX cars, but will be shorter than those, and will wear NS reporting marks. As of mid May, several cars are already on the customer’s siding awaiting start up of operations. As for specific operations themselves, I am a bit lacking MAY 2012 W ell, after an extended absence amidst a whole bunch of events in my personal and professional life, I’m happy to restore this column to the REFLECTOR, and get back into the swing of things, reporting on those events related to the NYS&W. After all, this IS the New York Susquehanna and Western T&HS, so some news from our “home road” should be a regular part of the REFLECTOR. And so, without further adieu (what is “adieu”, and why shouldn’t there be any further of it??) lets get down to brass tacks. The news and events recorded herein are corrected to Mid May 2012, and therefore events may change after press time…… OPERATIONS As a refinement of the preface above, the news here will be primarily of the past few months, as opposed to an extended period. The railroad is doing very well these days in terms of business, both in terms of carloads and new and existing customers. The figures I will cite below are from April of this year, the latest available. Traffic levels in general are very encouraging. The railroad handled almost 1,800 rail cars for the month of April, an increase of 24% over the same period in 2011. For the year to date, the railroad is handling 14% more carloads than this time last year. On the Northern Division for April, traffic was just over 600 carloads, 39% above the same period for 2011. While shipments of asphalt/ aggregates declined during this time, they are expected to rise in May. Several customers increased their rail service this past April, those primarily being Roth Steel, D&I Silica, and Headwaters. Finally, TTX informed the railroad that they will end their lease of storage space on the railroad (several cars were stored along the Southern Tier/CNYK track age) by the end of June. On the Southern Division, overall traffic was increased also, with a total carload count of almost 1,000 cars, up 17% above the month of April 2011. While there were declines in 15 in Northern Division information this time around, but hope to have that rectified soon enough. As always any news and information is welcome, and should be sent to my email address at the end of this column. As for the Southern Division, however…… Things here are (or seem to be) going gangbusters. There are now six jobs on duty every day. WS-1 and WS-3 seem to be the CSX intermodal jobs, primarily handling the stack/TOFC traffic for the inbound and outbound traffic that operates via CSX. CSX had recently changed symbols for much of its intermodal traffic, and here’s how this affects the NYS&W: “Bullet train Q153 (outbound) is now the Q001. The counterpart, the former Q100 is now the Q002. These remain once a week trains. The Q108 (inbound) is now the Q008, and it's counterpart, the Q111/Q169 combo is now the Q003. The former Q118, which used to be a daily stack/UPS train, is now the Q006 and runs once a week, and is soley UPS/TOFC traffic. The stacks on this train now move on other trains to Kearny, NJ and Port Newark, NJ". As for other local operations, the railroad still operates WS3, WS-4, WS-5 and WS-6, all of which sign up between 3 and 5 PM daily, Mon- Fri. The WS-3 generally works between Little Ferry and North Bergen, NJ while the WS-4 will work between Little Ferry, Passaic Jct and on occasion to Paterson, NJ. The WS-5 is usually (but not always) the Sparta turn, and is now traveling to Sparta 5 nights a week, up from 3 nights in the past. Traffic and customers in Sparta have increased significantly since this column last appeared, and its not uncommon for this job to make close to 12 hours on a regular basis. The WS-6 supplements the WS-4 on local work east of Butler, though the WS-5 may also switch customers as well between PC and Butler. In any event, traffic is up, and there is plenty of work to go around these days and the railroad has in fact hired several employees for both divisions within the past couple of years. And on that note, I would like to refer to two specific employees, one from the Southern Division, one from the Northern…. On the Southern Division it is with regret I note the passing of retired engineer (and friend) Robert Aschoff, from cancer earlier this year. Bob had retired a few years back, only to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which took his life after a lengthy battle earlier this year. Aside from this writer, a sizable delegation from the NYS&W paid their respects. Bob hired on in 1974 and had 35+ years of service when he retired. He is missed by all who loved him, lived with him, and who worked with him. Requiscat en Pace. On the Northern Division, long time engineer/conductor Jim Ferrell retired in the fall of 2011. Jim had over 30 years of service, having started on the Penn Central in Crestline, OH. In August 1986, after furlough from Conrail, he began his
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