Westbound SU 99 on the former L&HR at Lake Grinnell, NJ 7/8/13 . Ralph Bonnano the train north of the washout was moved north, and the result was that this now closed the NYS&W main artery between Syracuse and Binghamton. What to do…Well, as they say, one hand washes the other, and now it was Cooperstown’s turn to call CSX and request to operate a detour. The train would be the SU-100, operating on CSX as Z224-03. It would consist of 4 NYSW SD60’s and 90 cars. It would be the first NYS&W detour over CSX in many years and the first trip for the SD60’s to REALLY stretch their legs. The CSX crew was on duty at 205pm in Buffalo to taxi to Syracuse to pick up the train. They arrived at about 6pm, and after waiting on some traffic, got the OK to open up the hand switch onto the CSX main. Once on the main, the conductor restored the derail and switch, reported that fact to the dispatcher, and once on the head end, the train started east for Selkirk. The crew that would take the train to Jersey was on duty in Selkirk at 130am on July 4. As suspected, the lower half of the run on the River line was after daybreak, which occurred as the train neared Newburgh, NY. As with the K40, this train garnered significant interest, and arrived at CP-5, Ridgefield Park NJ and on to home rails just before 10am. Now the next question was, what to do about westbound traffic? That answer came on Saturday, July 6th, when a NYS&W crew was taxied to Little Ferry to take rest for an unusual Sunday SU-99, and in daylight no less! The crew was called for 9am, and as word spread, an audience was on hand for the departure. The train with 4 SD60’s and 98 cars, was westbound at about 1015am. Then it happened… As the train was going through Midland Park (MP 25), the train went into emergency. The dispatcher was notified, procedures were adhered to and the conductor started his walking inspection of the train. Approx. 30 cars deep, he 16 found the problem. A separation had occurred when the draft forces had become too much, and the entire draft gear (coupler, knuckle, drawbar and drawbar housing) was ripped out of the end of one car. This presented a problem, as on-site repairs were beyond anyone’s abilities at this point. So, after consultations, the SU-99 would take the damaged car to Campgaw and set it out with an addition car (for handbrake purposes), and then figure out the next move. As there was a WS-2 on duty and was planned to go service a customer in Paterson, it was decided they would grab the remainder of the train (60 + cars), pull it east and set out the other car damaged in the separation at the Hawthorne runaround. It soon became apparent that the single GP-38 the WS-2 had was insufficient power for the move, so they ran light back to Little Ferry and grabbed additional power. In the meantime, the head 30 cars (or so) of the SU 99 were shoved east to Wortendyke to await the return of the WS-2. Once notified they were en route and getting close to the rear of the train, the SU-99 and the WS-2 communicated their plan. The WS-2 would set the car out, return to the main, couple to the SU-99, and then pull the entire train back to Little Ferry. As the WS-2 crew was about to outlaw, the SU-99 crewmember was taxied to the east end of the train, by Hawthorne station at this point, and then pulled the train back to the yard. The road crew then returned to the hotel, to try again the following morning, July 8th. The SU-99 was finally on its way west the following morning, departing Little Ferry at about 430am. The crew was rested at 4am, and was marked on their rest. The rare daylight 99, with 4 units and 90 cars operated without incident, and hit daylight just west of Butler, NJ. And the other odd part to all of this? One of the crewmen was slated to start vacation upon arrival after the Sunday trip, but instead he got held back a day (but still got his full vacation when he got back to Bing(Continued on page 17)
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