Eastern Railroad Discussion > Binghamton questions

I've been contemplating a taking a weekend trip out to Binghamton lately, to shoot some NYSW operations and explore some of the D&H and Southern Tier. Since I find myself wide awake at 3am for some reason, I'm on Google Earth trying to figure out what track goes where out there, and I have a couple questions.

The depot at Bingo is ex-DL&W. Was the yard in front of it DL&W or Erie trackage? What are now NYSW to Utica and Syracuse were DL&W, right?

Any regular daylight moves on the Southern Tier? I know SU-99/SU-100 run at night, but I think the NYSW turn to Syracuse runs during the day, right? What about south on the D&H towards Starucca viaduct?

thanks in advance

http://www.railfanguides.us/ny/bingo/

pennsy3750 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> The depot at Bingo is ex-DL&W. Was the yard in
> front of it DL&W or Erie trackage? What are now
> NYSW to Utica and Syracuse were DL&W, right?
>
> Any regular daylight moves on the Southern Tier?
> I know SU-99/SU-100 run at night, but I think the
> NYSW turn to Syracuse runs during the day, right?
> What about south on the D&H towards Starucca
> viaduct?
>
> thanks in advance

DL&W's primary freight yard was in Conklin, NY, east of CP-BD across the Susquehanna River. This is currently used by CP as its East Binghamton Yard. Thus the two yards in front of the DL&W station were formerly D&H's and Erie yards. The current NYS&W lines heading north from Binghamton were DL&W's Syracuse and Utica lines (Utica line lies moribund due to washouts from a couple of years ago). Here are links to maps on an excellent local resource, the Susquehanna Valley RR Historical Society:

1958 RR map: http://www.trainweb.org/SVRHS/Map1958.pdf
2009 RR map: http://www.trainweb.org/SVRHS/Map2009.pdf

The NYS&W line east is ex-Erie and utilizes Starucca Viaduct to get to Port Jervis. NYS&W train frequency to/from NJ is nocturnal with 3 RTs per week, IIRC. The CP's D&H line south utilizes DL&W's route over Nicholson Viaduct (ie Tunkhannock Viaduct) and features about 4 daily manifest train pairs (Binghamton-Enola and Binghamton-Allentown) with all but one (CP's Binghamton-Allentown train) using NS power. Here's a useful scanner feed link for CP's Binghamton to Sunbury line:

http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/14648


Southern Tier sees ~5 train pairs per day that include a daily pair of CP haulage trains to/from Toronto/Buffalo, 2 pairs of NS intermodal/multilevel trains, an NS manifest pair to/from Buffalo, and an NS local turn between Binghamton and Elmira/Gang Mills.

Many of these trains run in daylight. Unfortunately there is no single spot to sit in Binghamton to capture all the activity especially if you desire to take well illuminated photos (bring plenty of sunlight and cloud filters with you!). You'll need a scanner and familiarity with train #s and RR mile markers to get into location as each train appears.

Lastly, these Yahoo RR group URLs may come in handy in planning your trip to get an idea of typical train operating times and locales:

NS Southern Tier: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TierSightings/
CP Sunbury Line: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cprsunburysub/
D&H: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dandh/
NYS&W: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Susquehanna/



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/13 04:05 by JPB.

I second the recommendation to bring Sunlight and cloud filters! lol. Been skunked many of times there with clouds.

Otherwise the information posted above is excellent.

CV the civil E

pennsy3750 Wrote:
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> What are now
> NYSW to Utica and Syracuse were DL&W, right?
>

That is correct.
The line to Utica (north of Chenango Forks) has been out of service since the early 2000s.

In the area...

The Lehigh Railway and Owego & Harford have been active in the pipe and sand hauling business for the frac industry. Although NY hasn't generally allowed frac, PA is creating a lot of rail business.