Eastern Railroad Discussion > Delaware-Lackawanna BR1 Saturday 11/27

While in Scranton, PA on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I spent a couple hours in the morning, and then again in the early afternoon photographing the usual DL Saturday crew working as the BR1 symbol.  Typically, the Saturday crew is the focus of railroad paparazzi as the often run the former DL&W Pocono Main with the PO74 symbol, but on some Saturdays they do a myriad of duties under the BR1 yard job symbol.  When I got to the yard (shared with Steamtown), they were doing some switching of their Friday inbound train from NS and prepping for a run about half way up the remains of the former D&H Penn Division (their Carbondale Line) to spot some plastics cars in Archbald at the Laminations plant, then pick up an empty centerbeam at the Brojack transload siding.  They first had to stop at the new engine house in the remains of Green Ridge Yard to swap out some power.

The three photos show them doing their air test with the 7 plastics loads in front of Bridge 60 tower with 2461, 3007, 2045 and 414 as their power set.   Then they are seen coming through the County of Lackawanna Transit System (COLTS) parking lot adjacent to yard.

Next, after some power jockeying, we see the 3007 shoving the 414 into the Van Storch shop building at Green Ridge Yard.
 

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Seen outside the shop were two of the DL's 6 axle Alco/MLW units, the 3643 and 3000.

Once the new power set (4 4-axles - 2461, 2045, 2457, 2452) was tied onto the cars. they headed north, seen here departing the north end of the former D&H Green Ridge Yard crossing the Lackawanna River at Depot St. in Scranton. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/21 16:38 by sscannella.

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Next up was again crossing the the Lackawanna River from Dickson City into Olyphant.   It was at this point that I broke off for a little while to grab some lunch. 

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After about an hour break, I headed up to Archbald.  I knew they had some work in the small yard there to reposition cars and power so the could then shove up the main then pull up the switchback to the unloading tracks for Laminations, which is essentially inaccessible for photography.  I could have taken another 45 minutes when I broke off, but no big deal.  The flurries had stopped by this time, and the clouds started to clear out allowing for some sun to break through.  When they shoved back down, they then backed up past me to grab the empty lumber centerbeam.  Once they did their air test, It was back south toward Scranton for the crew, and for me, I headed down to Olyphant again where I wanted to work the relatively new passenger station there into the shot.

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Here's the video from Olyphant, which is where I ended the chase this time, as I wanted to pick up the pooch from my mom's and get on the road for the 2-hour ride back to Harrisburg, which I get to before nightfall.

For the crew, when they got back to Scranton, they added these cars to the cars accumulated from Friday's jobs, to bring over to NS's Taylor Yard and pick up their next round of interchange for Sunday's work. 

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Nice stuff... Two questions...

First, do you know if 3000 and 3643 are expected to return to service? Second, where is the turning facility on DL? I notice the engines are often facing different directions after several days but I'm not sure where they turn them...

Thanks...

MC6853 Wrote:
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> Nice stuff... Two questions...
>
> First, do you know if 3000 and 3643 are expected
> to return to service? Second, where is the turning
> facility on DL? I notice the engines are often
> facing different directions after several days but
> I'm not sure where they turn them...
>
> Thanks...
There's a wye at Bridge 60.

Personally, I'm wondering why they need 4 units for a handful of cars.  2 units should be more than enough for 1000 tons.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/21 19:53 by pdt.

MC6853 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nice stuff... Two questions...
>
> First, do you know if 3000 and 3643 are expected
> to return to service? Second, where is the turning
> facility on DL? I notice the engines are often
> facing different directions after several days but
> I'm not sure where they turn them...
>
> Thanks...

Don't know what the immediate plans are for 3643 and 3000, but they cycle power on a regular basis.  3643 had a seized traction motor earlier this year, and I do not know if that has been repaired yet.  But I had seen 3000 in service back in May, so it could be out on the road sometime soon again.   As for the power facing different directions, there is a wye with the connection to the NS Sunbury Sub.  They usually pull north thru the north leg of the wye then shove a mile or so down to the north end of the yard to drop off empties, then they usually come back thru the south leg, so some of the power gets turned almost daily.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/21 22:17 by sscannella.

pdt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MC6853 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Nice stuff... Two questions...
> >
> > First, do you know if 3000 and 3643 are
> expected
> > to return to service? Second, where is the
> turning
> > facility on DL? I notice the engines are often
> > facing different directions after several days
> but
> > I'm not sure where they turn them...
> >
> > Thanks...
> There's a wye at Bridge 60.
>
> Personally, I'm wondering why they need 4 units
> for a handful of cars.  2 units should be more
> than enough for 1000 tons.

As I noted in the last post, they then had to interchange with the NS.  I didn't stick around for that, but they may have had 30+ loads to pick-up, so they would neeed the four units.   DL does not just run power lash-ups just for the sake of doing so.