Nostalgia & History > Susquehanna Sunday With Signals - Summer 1989 Marion, Ohio

I guess a lucky catch many years ago.
Nice K5LA horn, poor video quality!
Regards, Jim Evans



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/24 20:38 by FiveChime.

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

That is Marion, Ohio on the former C&O.

Posted from Android

Oh I dunno...for 1989 that's pretty decent video quality.
Thanks for posting it.
/Ted

Thanks for posting.  Didn't NYSW sell the B40's to CSX.  I seem to remember reading that somewhare.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

Nice catch! I submit two attachments in support of cnr6776's reply that this video was taken in Marion.

Matthew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/24 13:34 by Roadmaster.

---

---

ntharalson Wrote:

> Thanks for posting.  Didn't NYSW sell the B40's to CSX. 

Not exactly.  According to an old thread by toledopatch, NYSW 4010 was part of "a 20-unit fleet CSX provided to the Susquehanna (NYSW 4010-4048, no odd numbers) for its 'designated operation' of Delaware & Hudson after Guilford Transportation Industries cast the D&H into bankruptcy in June 1988. Once the bankruptcy trustee sold the D&H estate to Canadian Pacific in the summer of 1990, the 20 B40-8s were no longer needed there and they joined the CSX fleet and were repainted, though not before some ran around for a little while in Susie-Q yellow but with CSX numbers (5930-5949)."

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,3357587

That wasn't the sum-total of Susie-Q's Dash 8-40B's, however.  They financed 4002, 4004, 4006, and 4008 themselves, and these stayed on for many years until they went to Providence & Worcester in 2004-2005. 

It was always a treat to catch an NYSW Dash 8 rolling through Cleveland, OH on NS trains 290/291 in the mid-1990's.  Part of the appeal was the horn, which was not an Amtrak-style K5LA, but a sweet Canadian-tuned K5H like the one heard in the video.  For reasons unknown, a number of Dash 8's were built with K5H's in the late 1980's and delivered to railroads that had never used that horn before and never would again - NS Dash 8-32B's, SSW and NYSW Dash 8-40B's, and CSX Dash 8-40C's and some early Dash 8-40CW's.

Thanks, Evan.  I did not have all that information.  

Nick Thralson,
Marion, IA

NS trains 290 and 291, the run-through double stack trains that NS operated with the D&H and NYSW.  They usually ran overnight across Northern Indiana on the former Nickel Plate.  I think I had only one encounter, either with a 291 or an extra I-91.  Got word that one was coming in daylight, so I drove north from Indianapolis on a sunny winter's day, camped out on the State Road 15 overpass at Claypool, with dreams of bumblebees in my head.  The train finally showed, and I got my shots...of a pure NS power consist.  Oh, well!  I used the shot for a Christmas card one year.  

NS and CP also operated a run-through intermodal train between Chicago and the East Coast, and like 290/291, it also used the D&H trackage rights over Conrail between Buffalo and Binghamton.  Wasn't it something like 052/053 or 082/083?  It used Soo Line, CP, and leaser power.  It also tended to be a night-runner through the Hoosier State, but I had slightly better luck with it.   

inrdjlg Wrote:

> NS trains 290 and 291, the run-through double
> stack trains that NS operated with the D&H and
> NYSW. 

That's not the train in FiveChime's video, though, right?  As I recall, that pair of trains started running about 1993-94 and didn't go through Marion on their way to Chicago.

> NS and CP also operated a run-through intermodal
> train between Chicago and the East Coast, and like
> 290/291, it also used the D&H trackage rights over
> Conrail between Buffalo and Binghamton.  Wasn't
> it something like 052/053 or 082/083? 

083 and 084 as I recall.  Halfmoonharold mentioned both sets of runthrough trains in this old thread:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2348811

You are correct in that the train in FiveChime's video is neither NS 290 nor 291.  It's a CSX train on the former C&O through Marion, westbound by timetable, northbound by compass.  Also thank you for helping to jog my memory on those NS 083/084 symbols.

I confess that I got a little off-topic with my comments about the NS 290/291 trains.  Those were fun times during roughly the 1990s as railroads were doing well, and Wall Street interests were mostly elsewhere.  Until the Conrail breakup in the late 1990s, Big Blue still had a near monopoly of the Northeast.  Trains such as 083/084 and 290/291 were efforts assembled by competing railroads to try to chip away at that monopoly.  For the fans, they were fun catches. 

Also thank you for the link to HalfmoonHarold's post.  Interesting that he was covering much of the same territory now visited by Train1275 (but did Halfmoon take or post any boat or wildlife photos?).  Taking a vacation east after 083/084 began running, I found a motel alongside the Nickel Plate several miles east of Bellevue.  Although trying to get some sleep, I mostly stayed awake all night waiting for the two trains to pass, in the dark nonetheless.  I just wanted to see them, and did so.  

Another time, I had to work all three days of Memorial Day Weekend, only to have the Tuesday scheduled off work after the family gathering and holiday-related events were over.  Feeling a little put out at my lousy luck, I drove from Indianapolis up to Fort Wayne on Tuesday to try to halfway make up for it by railfanning the NS; however, I found very little activity on this first day after a holiday weekend.  Quickly becoming bored, I began following the NKP east and surprisingly reached Bellevue, as there wasn't anything out there to slow me down, other than several points on the railroad with intense MofW activity.  Late in the day and still in daylight, the 083 train slipped out of Bellevue with a pair of Soo units, but I never could catch the train on the chase all the way back to Fort Wayne.  Only after the train stopped for a crew change at East Wayne Yard did I get ahead of it.  By the time 083 appeared in my camera's viewfinder at Fort Wayne's Runyon Avenue, the sunlight was pretty well shot. 

Lastly, a few years later the late Bob McCord and I made a trip to Northwest Indiana on a Sunday.  Much to our surprise, we happened to catch the 083 around Valparaiso at midday.