Westbound SU 99 at Maywood, NJ Sept 2014. MARCH 2015 Ok kids, here we go again. Time for another update on the goings on around the railroad. This time there is a plethora of news to report on, current to when this was typed out. So sit back, relax, while I attempt to disseminate the activities of the past few months. OPERATIONS In the first area of news, there is plenty to report on. The past several months have seen the NYS&W called up on numerous times this summer to provide crews for CSX detour trains. There were several reasons for the detours, including track work on the increasingly busy River Line south from Selkirk, NY, as well as track work on the Selkirk-Buffalo Chicago main line. The track work was compounded by the increasing amount of crude oil traffic to and from Philadelphia via Selkirk and Buffalo to/from Chicago on an already busy artery of traffic. So while I can’t recall each and every detour, I will summarize by noting a few of them. Starting back in May, the first detours started to show when CSX needed maintenance windows to place into service new interlocking at Stony Point and Haverstraw NY on the River Line. As in the past, CSX chose to reroute intermodal trains Q156 and Q004, both eastbound stack trains that terminate in South Kearny NJ. The twist this time was that westbound trains also detoured via the NYS&W to Binghamton-Syracuse-CSXT. These included empty ethanol trains K635 on May 9 and K637 on May 12. In one instance, 20 freight that would have been on the SU 99 was added to the empty ethanol train, and as this was traffic already blocked to go to Syracuse to CSXT, it didn’t run on the SU-99, thus killing two birds with one stone. The SU-99’s still ran, as did the 100’s, although there were instances of NJ-bound traffic added to the CSX detours for movement to NJ, again, killing two birds with one stone, continuing a practice that has long been established with the detours. Two other detours ran in July, both on July 18, when a Q004 and A Q156 followed each other east. As the Q004 was over tonnage, the NJ destined freight was added to the Q156, along with NYS&W power which would turn on the following day’s SU-99. Overall, it has been a busy summer for the railroad just for the detours alone. As CSX is installing double track at the north end of the railroad, it would be a safe bet that when the new track is ready to be placed in service, along with the signals and interlockings related to the track age, there will likely be another round of detours at that point as well. As for other news in the operations department, Westbound SU 99 along Route 23 Oak Ridge, NJ September 2014. 13 traffic is up overall, and it’s pretty plain to see to even the casual observer that there is more and more traffic. The WS-5, the job that handles the work east of Little Ferry to North Bergen and Jersey City has seen its traffic grow quite a bit since this time last year. It is not unusual for the crew to return to Little Ferry after a nights work with 30, 40 and sometimes more cars. This is NOT including the traffic that they interchange with the NS at the extreme east end of the railroad at the three track Marion yard, just east of Resources. There have been times when the NS has delivered over 50 cars in one drop at Marion, and the NYS&W has returned the favor with moderate to heavy interchange tonnage. As for the trackage east of Little Ferry yard, there are several customers, all requiring daily (and sometimes more than that) service. The track age just south of where Amtrak crosses over the railroad, just to
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