Eastern Railroad Discussion > My Easter Saturday trains with the DL, CP, and NS

Spent Easter Saturday up In Scranton visiting the family and had several hours to get trackside. My goal was my usual three suspects on a Saturday morning - The Delaware Lackawanna's PT98 and CP's 259 and 458.

I started off a bit after 8:00 am checking out the Bridge 60 area and found 4 DL Alcos sitting on the main, and three Lumber cars and a covered hopper sitting on the other track just east of the Steamtown loading platform. Knowing that the Steamtown yard shuttle was supposed to start operating this weekend, that gave a good indication the a 98 would be running and coming on duty soon.
So I headed down to CP's Taylor Yard - 259 was already in the yard and had some pick-ups to make, and I learned on my way down that 458 was close by and would be making a set-off before departing south. 458 had a UP / CN duo (6343/8920) for power for the second time this week (caught and posted a shot of them leaving Enola earlier in the week as NS 12R.)

458 was the first out, and I grabbed a shot from the Davis St bridge just south of the yard, and then at the Main St. Crossing three mile south in Moosic. The sun angle is not the best that early in the morning here, but I dared not go any further south as I wanted to be nearby so I could get in position for the 259 when it was ready to depart.

---

---

---

No sooner had I gotten to the south end of Taylor yard and the 259 was calling for permission to head north after picking up a cut of intermodal cars and DL and CP local empties from the north end of the yard. I battled traffic to get to my desired location, the Lackawanna Ave bridge at the north leg of the wye from the Steamtown Bridge 60 area. I never get tired of the red CP EMDs, and both of these girls were working hard as they were beginning the climb up Clarks Summit grade.

The DL PT98 had come on duty and had already split the power set which I saw earlier taking just the Lehigh Valley 414 and the DL 3000, which was more than enough power to handle 4 cars up out of Scranton. After they tied on to their train and got their air test, I got these two shots approaching Ridge behind the University of Scranton.

---

---

---

The 98 was running quite lite due to the derailment they suffered a week ago at Slateford Jct, the interchange point with the NS. They made pretty quick time up the hills into the Poconos, but I was able to get a few photo locales including the Rt 435 overpass at Elmhurst (a difficult shot when their are leaves on the trees), then passing Snag Pond in Gouldsboro, then starting their work on the siding at Tobyhanna.

---

---

---

Often the 98 will work Keystone Propane at Tobyhanna, but today they just had one additional load of lumber for Bestway in Cresco to pick off of the siding there. They also set off the covered hopper, I wasn't sure what the reason was for that.

They then departed Tobyhanna with 4 lumber loads. Cresco was my next stop as well as the crews, there they pulled out 6 empties and spotted the four new loads as well as re-spoted several loaded cars which hadn't been touched yet. I then took a leisurely ride to East Stroudsburg, made a quick BK stop for lunch and then set up on the Ridgeway St overpass to await the 98's arrival, which didn't take long.

---

---

---

From East Stroudsburg I got on I-80 and then Rt 611 into the Delaware Water Gap where myself and a couple others nabbed him coming around the curve into the Gap. It was then down to Slateford Junction, where the crew had a bunch of crazy moves to make their set-off and grab three engines - 2403, 405 and 2045 - which had been sitting there along with empties they had earlier set off. The 98's crew's first order of business was to get the power started, the results of firing up the 405 are seen below.

As noted earlier, they derailed and tore up track (this is the old Lackawanna Main Line) which crews had just been starting to relay. NS delivered at least once if not twice since last weeks derailment, their were cars extending down the old road (lots of fracking sand hoppers) all the way past the bridge for the cut-off over the Delaware and nearing the old station in Portland. You can see some of the work started and the trackage out behind the Slateford Diner here, no doubt the crews stopped for Easter weekend abut will certainly be hard at work starting Monday.

---

---

---

Back to the small Slateford 'yard', the crew had gotten the three units moved over into the middle track with the 6 empties, they would then make some other moves so that all 5 units could be tied together and return light from here back to Gravel Place just west of East Stroudsburg and grab a bunch of frack sand hoppers stored there and bring them back to Scranton and eventually the fracking facility in Carbondale.

I called it a day here and headed back to Scranton for a bit more family time before heading back to Harrisburg. I got back home to Harrisburg and had a bit of time to make a quick tour of the area before needing to be somewhere at 7:00. There were a couple of westbound trains sitting at the Harrisburg fuel pad, so I headed over to the west shore to wait on at least one of them. While doing so I took a quick spin by Enola, and this power set was sitting by the office, with a now all-to common BNSF unit leading. Finally headed up to the billboard at the west (Marysville) end of Rockville Bridge, where I3Z (extra 23Z) came off with a train of baretables that jim6300loco had seen earlier between Allentown and Harrisburg.

---

---

---

Nice coverage and photos, love those smoking Alco's

Great series! A trip to remember...

Nice pics!!!!

Just what I wanted Easter Alco's!