Eastern Railroad Discussion > Portageville Trestle question

How many trains a day use this line now and are there certain times of day that are better than others?

Gary
 

The trains I can think of are 12T, 13T, 14T, 287, 206, 205, 22K, and 23K.

Nolan Majcher
Broadview Heights, OH
Nolan Majcher Photography

309 310 12T 13T 38T and 39T too.

I said 12T and 13T Steven!

Nolan Majcher
Broadview Heights, OH
Nolan Majcher Photography

IRP Wrote:
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> I said 12T and 13T Steven!

yeah he did STEVEN !!! ... anyway is the once public walkway on the bridge closed ... i thought i read somewhere NS considered it a liability and restricted public access

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/15 11:43 by Out_Of_Service.

The walkway might have been "public" by default, but I believe gates close the bridge off now until a train approaches.

Additional trains include the occasional empty/loaded coal trains for PSNH plant at Bow, NH and empty/loaded ethanol trains for Motiva at Providence, RI.

My bad that would be 533 West 532 East and 66N East and 67N West.

Posted from Android

The walkways on the bridge are not and never have been public. Anyone on the right of way can be consider as tresspassing. 
NS police from Buffalo should make more trips to the bridge as profits from tickets would pay to cover their cost.

Yes - never heard of public walkways on that bridge.....
It was secured pretty well with fencing a couple years ago.
RWJ

PCCRNSEngr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The walkways on the bridge are not and never have
> been public. Anyone on the right of way can be
> consider as tresspassing. 
> NS police from Buffalo should make more trips to
> the bridge as profits from tickets would pay to
> cover their cost.

The fence along the tracks on the west approach to the bridge did not stay secure for long. There are numerous places where people can crawl through. On Sunday there were trespassers all over the bridge in the afternoon and about 5 p.m. or so some park police came by and ran them off.

It's tough to specify a best time for trains across that bridge because the NS operation there is somewhat erratic. For the easy westbound angle, 12T is a decent afternoon bet, but its actual time of passing varies from day to day depending on when the train is recrewed out of Binghamton, how long it takes working at Gang Mills, and whether it has to wait for opposing traffic.

Yesterday afternoon would have been an excellent time to be there had the weather not clouded up in the early afternoon. 23K with BNSF power, 205 with the NYC heritage unit, and 12T with an ex-Conrail SD70 (2579) all came out of Corning in the early afternoon, and I was in position to get them on the bridge. But the rapidly building cloud cover sent me down to the Canisteo Valley instead; I got 23K and 205 there but got hosed on the 12T. I had shot the previous afternoon's 12T on the bridge, also under cloudy skies, so I had my safety shot and didn't see any value in doing that again.

If you're interested in foaming this bridge, get there this week. Supposedly the Portageville entrance to Letchworth Park will close long-term next Monday for the start of construction of the new bridge. You'll still be able to see it from the Upper Falls viewing area, of course, but that angle is only useful in the first few hours of the morning during the longer days (like now) if the sun is shining.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/15 05:38 by toledopatch.