Eastern Railroad Discussion > Chasing Q22K on Pan Am

On Saturday 4/21/18, a relatively rare event occurred as a genuine CSX locomotive led NS/PAS intermodal 22K freight from Chicago to Ayer, with a bonus of a 2 year old CN ET44AC trailing. PAS intermodal/autorack trains operate quite often with foreign power with BNSF, CN, CP, and UP being fairly common. Less frequent are locomotives from KCS, Ferromex, ex-IRR, PRLX ex-BNSF leasers, and others such as CSX (although a couple of faux CSX leased C40W units trailed on a 22K/23K a week or so ago). And, as per usual, no speed limits were broken chasing "Q22K" the 30 or so miles over the course of 2 hours from Gardner to Ayer, MA.
#1: Charging upgrade at a solid 25mph around the bend at Gardner yard
#2 & #3: Departing down grade past a tied down 28N at Wachusett (CPF-333) after meeting an outbound MBTA train



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/18 04:51 by JPB.

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#4: Running at 40mph on good MBTA track at Shirley
#5: Accelerating away from CPF-AY at Ayer after dropping the conductor who will ride the tail when 22K clears the interlocking and starts shoving into the intermodal pad at Hill yard
#6: 22K pauses to make a double as inbound MBTA 1406 shoves past on track 1 at CPF-AY

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#7: 22K has finally cleared the Groton-Harvard Rd crossing after blocking it for about 50 minutes (!). Fortunately the locals know that when 22K arrives Ayer, they should seek detours (although I did see a school bus trapped at the crossing one morning for good 30+ minutes).
#8: Yarding is just about complete as 22K pauses at the dwarf signal on the east wye finally clear of the main line
#9: It's a wrap as 22K parks the last cut at the intermodal pad.

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Picture #4 is fantastic!

Nice shots!

I wonder where the CN unit was added to that train. When NS #22K went through Toledo on April 19, it had the CSX and NS units but those were its only power. Given the prodigious smoke from that NS motor, though, it wouldn't surprise me that another loco was needed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/18 17:07 by toledopatch.

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Thanks for posting this excellent capture at Toledo on 4/19/18 (looks like it was morning)! NS 9620 was still smoking it up at Gardner heading upgrade.

Apparently it takes about 48 hours to go from Toledo to Ayer with a stop to drop Taylor IMs at Binghamton (the block of green EMP double stacked/spine loaded containers on the head end) and a filleting stop at Mechanicville. I'm guessing Chicago to Cleveland is about a 12 hour ride so it takes 22K about 60 hours to run end to end (add about 8-9 hours for origin container cut-off time and destination availability (backing 22K into Hill yard takes an hour)). Interestingly, per CSX's current on-line intermodal schedule, Q020 runs from Bedford Park (Chicago) to Worcester MA in ~59 hours cutoff to availability (prior to 8/1/17, scheduled time was 47 hours - I wonder how UPS feels about this schedule lengthening in this lane?).

Lastly, according to chatter on the NS radio at Binghamton this AM (4/26/18), CSXT 5209 is once again leading 22K eastward waiting for 23K to clear the Southern Tier to D&H connection (the "Buffalo track") as of 0430.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/18 01:54 by JPB.

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