Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS Buffalo, NY Question

Good Evening:

Does Norfolk Southern have a direct connection in Buffalo between the former Nickel Plate and the Southern Tier, or do they have to get on CSXT-controlled trackage?

Also, how many NS trains per day run through Buffalo?

Thank you in advance.

NS enters the CSX main at CP DRAW and then enters the bison runner to bison yard/southern tier.
NS is on CSX tracks for about a 1/4 mile all of is within the limits of cp draw

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Thank you. Any chance of NS building their own bridge at this location so that they do not have to depend on CSXT?

The following are the scheduled road trains through Buffalo:

•intermodal 
205 Mechanicville, NY - Chicago 47th St, IL
206 Chicago 47th St, IL - Mechanicville, NY
22K Chicago 47th St, IL - Mechanicville, NY (PAS)
23K Mechanicville, NY (PAS) - Chicago 47th St, IL 

•autorack
287 Mechanicville, NY - Sterling Heights, MI 
28N Fostoria, OH - Buffalo, NY 

•manifest 
149 Buffalo, NY - Bellevue, OH
14M Conway, PA - Buffalo, NY 
15M Buffalo, NY - Conway, PA
309 East Binghamton, NY - Elkhart, IN
310 Bellevue, OH - East Binghamton, NY
316 Bellevue, OH - Buffalo, NY
36T Buffalo, NY - Allentown, PA 
37T Allentown, PA - Buffalo, NY 

Andrew

The NKP/N&W HAD their own bridge, just north of the present CP Draw (former Buffalo Creek RR.) They may still own it. It has been in the raised position for decades. Can someone tell us why this is so? I forget the story. I'm guessing it needed repairs, and it didn't make economic sense to fix it.

There was some “talk” about restoring the bridge that is in the upright position and create track to that bridge and give csx and ns thier own bridges that was back around 2013/14 if my memory is correct. That turned out to be very expensive and nothing more was brought up again about that. Fast forward to 2016 and the planning of PTC signals at draw between csx and ns was in the talks. Both railroads wanted to increase speed for NS trains to and from the csx main ( more speed less time more capacity you know the drill). In the planning and this became reality in November 2017 csx removes the switch to ns (was a #10 speed of 15) to a #15 (speed to 30) and removed the crossing frog which was maintainace nightmare. NS re-did thier connection to the csx (all this west of the bridge) where 2 tracks used to come into csx and now one (into the new #15 TO)
It’s on google maps
Hope this answers the recent story of draw

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florida581 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The following are the scheduled road trains
> through Buffalo:
>
> •intermodal 
> 205 Mechanicville, NY - Chicago 47th St, IL
> 206 Chicago 47th St, IL - Mechanicville, NY
> 22K Chicago 47th St, IL - Mechanicville, NY (PAS)
> 23K Mechanicville, NY (PAS) - Chicago 47th St,
> IL 
>
> •autorack
> 287 Mechanicville, NY - Sterling Heights, MI 
> 28N Fostoria, OH - Buffalo, NY 
>
> •manifest 
> 149 Buffalo, NY - Bellevue, OH
> 14M Conway, PA - Buffalo, NY 
> 15M Buffalo, NY - Conway, PA
> 309 East Binghamton, NY - Elkhart, IN
> 310 Bellevue, OH - East Binghamton, NY
> 316 Bellevue, OH - Buffalo, NY
> 36T Buffalo, NY - Allentown, PA 
> 37T Allentown, PA - Buffalo, NY 
>
> Andrew

There have been some very recent changes to the NS symbols and their consists that operate on the Southern Tier/D&H between Buffalo and Mechanicville:
- 287 originates in Buffalo so it no longer operates on the Tier/D&H
- Somehow autoracks to/from Mechanicville (including racks to/from Davisville RI via P&W at Gardner and to/from Ayer, MA) are now hauled on 205/206 or 22K/23K (My guess is racks get forwarded on the 205/206 trains).
- A nit: Ayer is the destination/origination for 22K/23K, respectively.

Re: the out-of-service NKP drawbridge at Buffalo. the structure appears to be in place but being it's northwest of the CSX main and drawbridge, its use by NS would be sub-optimal. West of CP-Draw the NS main is south of the CSX main so to use a rebuilt NKP draw bridge would require crossing the CSX main west of the CSX drawbridge and then crossing CSX once again east of the drawbridge to get to/from the remains of Bison Yard that NS uses. There is the single track Compromise branch (with its own drawbridge) that roughly parallels the CSX main between CP-Draw and whatever the Control Point is called that's just west of Central Terminal. I don't know how often that line is used by through CSX trains.

---

After double checking, 287 was actually abolished on 3/19.

Andrew

florida581 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> After double checking, 287 was actually abolished
> on 3/19.
>
> Andrew

Are what were 287's cars handled on another train,
(and if so, which) or is that traffic now gone.

Loaded Auto racks are still delivered daily or almost daily to Mechanicville, P&W (for Davisville) at Gardner, and Ayer, MA but the volume is down (reflecting the currently decreased demand for autos in the US, I'm guessing).

I would guess 28N is likely a healthy sized train of loaded auto racks departing Fostoria for Buffalo. East of Buffalo, the 206 IM train which drops containers at Buffalo, likely forwards the Mechanicville and New England bound loaded racks to Mechanicville, where Pan Am Southern adds the Ayer autos to 22K and the P&Ws are forwarded by manifest freight 16R to E Deerfield and then ED-8 or EDPO to be dropped at Gardner (But I have read that sometimes 22K takes the P&W racks to Gardner, as well). Westbound empty racks from Ayer run on 23K while ED-9 or POED bring the P&Ws' empty racks to E Deerfield, maybe to manifest 11R to Binghamton or Mechanicville for 205? I'm guessing a bit here and wouldn't mind being corrected. if this is wrong. What I do know is there is now one less daily train pair operating on Pan Am Southern with the removal of the dedicated auto trains (ie, there are now only 3 daily road train pairs operating across PAS District 3).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/19 11:44 by JPB.

Davisville RI also originated Subaru import traffic.

Is that still the case?

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I’m not aware that Subarus coming off ships from Asia get shipped out of Davisville by rail. I do know that domestically produced Subarus (in Indiana?) are regularly brought into Davisville by the P&W. Back when VW had its diesel emissions problems, there were a few racks of said VWs shipped out of Davisville - to Mexico, it was rumored.

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