Eastern Railroad Discussion > Problems on the NS Port Road Branch Yesterday

The Norfolk Southern Port Road Branch was a big parking lot on Saturday afternoon as trains were having to be re-crewed to get into or out of Enola. There was a Westbound 15A stopped behind my house near Shocks Mill Bridge, a Westbound 33A stopped at Wago Junction, and a Eastbound 36A stopped at Cly just East of York Haven, PA. I don't think these problems were related to the Altoona wreck yesterday because if the Port Road Branch was flowing freely these trains would have been into Enola early Saturday morning before the wreck in Altoona.

Photo 1: The 15A train stopped behind my house at mile post 47.6. The new crew reported to the dispatcher that the leader only had 650 gallons of fuel in her.

Photo 2: The dispatcher had frustration in his voice as he could not find the new crew for the 366A that had been called at 11:00AM even though it was already after 3:00PM. If I understood what I think I heard the new crew was being bussed in from some distant hotel and it took that long for them to get there. The new crew reported to the dispatcher that their marker was working intermittently but the dispatcher said it was probably because of the extreme length of the train. The train was 120 cars long (including 82 auto racks) and was over 10,000 tons. I figured the length of this train at over 1.75 miles long!

Video: I had to edit the third train, the 36A, because the original video was over 5 minutes long for the 1.75 mile long train to pass by my location at York Haven, PA. The other two trains in the video, the 33A and the 15A, were also shot at York, Haven, PA. (continued in next post)

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Photo 1: There was a old Southern high nosed GP38 in the 36A consist.

Photo 2: After the passage of the delayed re-crewing of the 36A train a Westbound 19R was dispatched out of Enola behind them.
Note how old the hotel/pub is at the rear of this photo shot at York Haven, PA.

Photo 3: The 19R train up close as she crossed the road that leads to the PPL Breuner Island steam generating plant that is
still idled for maintenance.

Tom

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Something wrong with the video? I get a warning note saying it is invalid! Help.

Jim

Probably was from the Altoona mess. They probably held WB's at enola till they knew what was going on..since
they cud send WB up the buffalo line from there if needed, if the delay was going to be long. Those port road trains are all close enuf to enola that it is easy to send out a dog catch crew as needed.

Where does the 15A and 19R originate?

CSXT_8437 Wrote:
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> Where does the 15A and 19R originate?

Good question! I am 90% sure I heard the train called out as 15A but I also know that the Dupont tankers of titanium dioxide were in the train mix which means it was one of the Delaware trains soooo having said that I wonder if wasn't a 37A train that was renumbered after a Enola puller crew maybe took the controls to bring her into Enola which might explain the train number with a 15 in it. I heard the dispatcher let a 19R train go out of Enola behind the 36A that finally got on the move. Dozens and dozens of the cars up front were bottom dump ballast cars but mixed freight was tacked onto the back of the train also. My only guess is that the 19R train had a MOW train number attached to it? Anyone with more knowledge of the train numbers can add to the discussion here please! Tom

Tom

19R originates out of Chrysler Yd (Newark, DE) for Enola. I believe it moves local freight out of Reybold that used to be picked up by 37A.

-Sean McCaffery