Eastern Railroad Discussion > Ithaca Central Power Has Arrived

Power for the WATCO new start up Ithaca Central Railroad has arrived in Sayre, PA. Two SD40-2 SD45 car bodies WAMX 4247 and 4248. Operations to start December 7th taking over the NS Ithaca Secondary nee-Lehigh Valley between Sayre, PA and Milliken, NY. Operations to be based out of Ithaca, NY.

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Nice.  Can just make out the LV caboose at the station in the distance.

Cool power.  It would be great if they added the name of the RR to the side of the units.

Even tho LVRR never had these beasts, they would look great in Cornell red with big
yellow ICP lettering and LV white wide cheron strips on the front. 😁

Which clients remain active on this line? I know the Milliken-Cayuga electric plant has been on corporate welfare for years

Old coal plant. Modernized in the 1970s NY blocked conversion to gas. Multiple bankrupt owners.

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Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Which clients remain active on this line? 

I think this salt mine north of Ithaca is an active client   https://www.cargill.com/industrial/winter-road-maintenance/cayuga-salt-mine

Certainly the highest volume shipper on the new Ithaca Central is the Cargill Salt mine at Lansing NY but the Trains Magazine article re: the lease says there are three additional customers on the line that ship/receive coal, plastics, and magnesium chloride. The Cayuga Power Station has received very infrequent unit coal trains, a few as recently as January 2018, so Watco is perhaps thinking of the owner of the plant, Heorot Power, a subsidiary of energy giant Beowulf Energy, as the coal customer. And re: the future of the Cayuga Power Station, Heorot Power is planning on converting one turbine to gas-fired operation while retiring the second boiler altogether.

https://www.ithaca.com/news/tompkins_county/lansing-power-plant-to-re-power-with-natural-gas/article_a119c6e6-7e0c-11e8-8e81-9b84140f4ca3.html

But many citizens as well as the Tompkins County legislature are planning on blocking any such transition to gas. Not only are there concerns about continuing to burn fossil fuel at the aging plant but some residents fear the risks and highway impact of 25-60 incremental trucks per day delivering compressed natural gas to the plant:

https://www.ithaca.com/news/tompkins_county/county-legislature-opposes-natural-gas-at-cayuga-power-plant/article_e8babe86-f5a0-11e8-8fd6-1790ab499744.html

Thanks for the info.

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Ithaca Central operations started up yesterday 12/8/18 with its pair of UP-schemed SD40 rebuilds departing NS at Sayre headed for Ithaca.