Eastern Railroad Discussion > Harrisburg and the Middle Division 3/31 - 4/14

The first month of spring here in Central Pennsylvania so far has seen it's share of variety temps from the 20s to 80's, rain, sleet, snow, and even occasional sunshine. As usual, the activity on Norfolk Southern's Pittsburgh Line in the Harrisburg area has seen its usual share of variety too. Here's a look at a 2 week sampling of the activity starting on Easter Saturday, March 31.

I spent about 6 hours between Newport and Mifflin and captured 19 movements, (and missed at least 3 or 4 more while moving around), starting with these 67Z empty oil cans at Thompsontown.

Then one of several moves out around Mexico included 10G with a CEFX lease unit.

Then back at Thompsontown at the Rt. 333 overpass we see 23Z heading west.

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Back at track level at Thompsontown we see 24W coming and going with the 40020 DC-AC conversion unit 2nd out.

20W out near Mexico had a pair of BNSF pumpkins 2nd and third (more on those two later.)

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At Mifflin we see Amtrak 43 heading west around 20 minutes or so late this day.

Jumping east to Newport I caught 11V with CN and UP power. This train got stopped close to Thompsontown to wait on a brush fire to be extinguished near Mifflin

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Also at Newport we had 22W heading east past the outfield of the softball field with a UP unit in the power consist.

I was able to then jump ahead and grab another shot of the colorful 11V between Thompsontown and Mexico in early evening low light.

Was waiting on 21T at Mexico which had UP and BNSF power trailing, but other traffic including a 650 coal train which had been setting out overweight cars at Mifflin and 19G had to clear first, so by the time 21T made it out to Mexico the sun had passed behind clouds of an incoming front and then set behind the hillside.

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After a beautiful eater weekend, Old Man Winter returned overnight into Monday Morning, April 2 with nearly 4 inches of snow. The power set from Saturday's 24W was returning wast with 21M, which I caught form the 19th St. Overpass in Harrisburg, just east of CP-CAPITOL.

The main attraction though was the return of the Lehigh Valley unit on 18N, seen here also from 19th St. heading east.

Jumping ahead to Friday, 4/6, the 35A was working west out of Enola at CP-HIP after returning from a short stay on the Delmarva peninsula. Time was short as I was heading into work, but I did manage to grab a so-so shout of the 35A with the PRR 8102 on 'home' trackage, with some other interesting power tucked in behind..

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The heritage unit influx continued on Saturday 4/7, with the NYC unit 1066 leading an eastbound ethanol train seen here from Mulberry St. passing a light power movement off of 26T which was returning from spinning its power on the wye at CAPITOL at CP-PAXTON.

On Sunday morning 4/8 before church I was able to get a couple goodies, the HO02 local from Enola to the steel plant a Steelton appears to have had it's call time pushed back to morning from late afternoon, and allowed me to get this shot of it crossing the Susquehanna River on the Rockville Bridge.

Then downriver on the south side of Harrisburg 36Q was crossing the river on the former Reading bridge on the Lurgan Branch with a trio of BNSF units.

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Not only was it a solid set of orange BNSF units, but each one had a different variation of the BNSF scheme.

In the afternoon I spent a little time at Newport again, where 16N came east with this interesting cut of green Procor tank cars head out.

And then yet another UP flag unit on the east coast, this time in the middle of 19G heading west by the PRR position lights there.

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I'll finish up this installment with NS 16T on Sunday 4/14 coming across the Susquehanna with an ex-CSX leaser leading. Spring is finally in the air as some daffodils can be seen blooming in the lower right corner of the second picture.

And last but not least, a 937 MOW train is seen sitting in Enola Yard. It came up from the Port Road and headed north the upstate New York on Monday 4/15.

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Interesting stuff..!! Thanks for sharing.

Did u see the IC SD70 on 12G (4/18)..??

Real nice series of photos! And yeah, that Easter weather of roughly 70 degrees followed by snow the next really shows how the weather has been this spring.