Eastern Railroad Discussion > Some URR and NS Action along NS Pittsburgh Line

My Dad and I took a little adventure to a new spot along the NS Pittsburgh Line to do some trainwatching today. Looking at the map to pick the spot, I figured we would have a good deal of NS traffic, and maybe, possibly, we might see some URR traffic. This would have been the first time I've had a chance to grab some photos of the URR in action, so that would be neat. 

Well, it turned out that the NS Pittsburgh Line was really, really quiet today. We hung out for almost two hours before we saw anything, and that was just a set of helpers headed west. Even the Port Perry line coming from Pitcairn/CP Wing on the other side of Turtle Creek was quiet (during the several hours we were out, I think we heard/saw two stack trains on that line). Patience paid off, though, and soon we had several westbounds come through, including a trash unit train, two unit tanker trains at nearly the same time, a mixed consist, and a short local. We got a nice treat towards the end of our day, though, with several URR moves happening simultaneously on the bridge behind us that carries the URR over the NS Pittsburgh Line and Turtle Creek. First was a reverse move east with a long cut of B&LE ore cars (assuming ore--they were short gondolas) to clear the crossover on the bridge (or the switch west of the bridge, I couldn't tell from our vantage point), then west back across the creek. That was followed shortly thereafter by another set of URR swichers pulling empty slab cars west across the creek past the switch on the eastern end of the bridge over the NS line, then east down the line that drops into the yard along the creek. While they were on their way down into the yard, that same cut of ore cars we saw earlier comes back across the creek, this time with the power on the front end pulling hard. It was about time to leave at this point, and we caught our first eastbound on the NS Pittsburgh line, in the form of another short local headed towards Pitcairn. 

I only have a few photos that I really liked out of the set I took. I was experimenting with a new camera (Fuji XT-30), and I don't yet have a telephoto for it. Hopefully, my Dad will wander in here and post some of his photos, where I think he had better vantage points and better lens choices! 

 

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And a couple of the NS westbound action...

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The Union photos are great-Thanks

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON

A few more

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Both of you did an excellent job. Your patience paid off. 
Here's hoping we see more from both of you. You both have talent. Learn from your dad. Try his ideas. Some you will keep, some might come in handy later on.
Bob
P.S. Compared to film, a memory card is inexpensive. Grow in skill, but remember this - You show true potential. Refine your photography. You'll surprise all of us.

A little action on the NS line at East Pittsburgh.

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Very nice photos.  My favorites are the black and white photo of 4213 and the last photo of 7247.  Sorry it was such a slow day for you.

Well done. This is one of my favorite spots in the area. Keep shooting and have fun!

The various URR moves with the ore train were as follows:
-shove the empties up  from Dexter Yard onto the main at MO
-Pull south down the main across the river, and wye the entire train at J Interlocking
-Now properly facing, pull the empties to North Bessemer for interchange to the B&LE.

They usually pull straight up from Dexter to North Bessemer (at least when I've seen them do it), so there must have been some reason they couldn't leave Dexter that way.

The other crew would be the 76 Crew coming back from Irvin and then shoving down into the Rail Yard with the empty slabs.

Its pretty common to see the ore loads come down in the mid AM and then see the same crew head the empties back to North Bessemer in the afternoon. The 76 crew can shuttle back and forth between ET and Irvin every few hours if there are slabs to move.

Mid afternoon can be a slow time on the Pittsburgh Line, especially on Mondays. Once 22W comes east in mid morning, there often won't be another eastbound for a good long while, since most eastbounds take the Port Perry or the Conemaugh.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/20 18:41 by DJ-12.

DJ-12 Wrote:
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> Well done. This is one of my favorite spots in the
> area. Keep shooting and have fun!
>
> The various URR moves with the ore train were as
> follows:
> ...

Thanks! We didn't know much about the common URR moves there. That's great info. 
 

What are all of the "spots" on the caboose?  It looks like someone opened up on it with a machine gun!

lynnpowell Wrote:
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> What are all of the "spots" on the caboose?  It
> looks like someone opened up on it with a machine
> gun!

IIRC they are hand prints of employees families as part of a safety reminder of what is waiting at home and why they need to work safely each day.

Posted from iPhone

Those former B&LE cabooses soldier on!