Eastern Railroad Discussion > Scranton area activity 7/15-16 - DL, NS, RBMN

Made an overnighter to the homestead just outside of Scranton a couple weekends ago, and was able to get in a bit of rail-activity in-between projects. 

Friday afternoon I caught up with Delaware-Lackawanna SC7 job delivering sand hoppers to the Linde facility in Carbondale.   First shot was taken from the Meridith St Crossing in Childs just south of Carbondale, as the job apparently pulled a bunch of empties from the facility, then tied them onto the loads they had brought up with them which they had placed on the siding here, then were prepping to shove the loads back to the Linde facility at the old D&H Carbondale Yards.  The 2nd shot shows them shoving across 8th St (wish I had the video camera on the record the Alco sounds here.

Later that afternoon the NS 11Z train out of Binghamton made it's daily appearance, seen here from the Lackawanna Ave overpass in downtown Scranton at MP 671 approaching Taylor Yard. 

---

---

---

The 11Z had stopped at SP-672 at the north end of Taylor Yard, as local K-81 was clearing up in the yard and still had the track occupied ahead.  That gave me an opportunity go go down below and grab a couple shots of the north facing rear DPU

Saturday morning the DL was running a PO74 job on the former Lackawanna Pocono main line with some of the big 6-axle power.  Here they are seen heading out of Scranton from Ridge Row (just behind the University of Scranton and just east of the former Lackawanna Station.)

---

---

---

Now seen coming thru Moscow...

---

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

I wound up getting stuck behind a dump truck full of firewood as I was trying to get to Gouldsboro, so I couldn't get across the grade crossing to the location I wanted.  I settled for this shot out my Jeep window of the fans at Gouldsboro.

Last shot of my DL chase was from the long-unused lead to the Tobyhanna Army Depot.

Before heading back to the homestead, I opted to get a shot of a Steamtown excursion departing Scranton with one of the privately-owned Lackawanna-painted F units leading their ex-NKP geep.

 

---

---

---

Early afternoon saw NS 10Z heading north thru Clarks Summit just north of Scranton with an unusual power consist of 8128, and 6983 and 6951, a pair of the NS SD60E rebuilds, which don't often get out on road trains anymore.

The Reading and Northern came up from Pittston Yard to Taylor Yard with a set-off, so I scooted back down below Scranton to grab a couple photos of them working. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/22 19:41 by sscannella.

---

---

---

Lastly, we have this photo of the Steamtown excursion returning to the park, then some DL power, probably used for the LL-1 job earlier in the week, sitting just east of Bridge 60 (with the PO74/PO75/DL3 crew walking in the background finishing up their day.  And a quick trip over to the former D&H Green ridge yard sees the SC7 from Friday tied down on the former D&H Line next to the Von Storch locomotive shop from the Marion St footbridge.

Not bad for 24 hours in town and I managed to get a good amount of work done at my Mom's house too.  

---

---

---

All really great photos Sam.  Very good.  Bruce

Sam,
I always enjoy your posts. When I saw the shot of the D-L train shoving back at 8th Street in Carbondale, it pulled up a memory. I had spent a weekend in Syracuse, NY and was returning south to my home in southeast PA. It was a bright sunny fall day and I decided to drive the backroads and enjoy the scenery including the Starucca Viaduct and following the D&H Mainline to the Scranton area. Other than the viaduct this was all new territory for me. With Rand Mc Nally's help I managed to do pretty well following the line despite the lack of railroads being shown on the maps back then. Luck struck at the summit of Mount Ararat where we caught the helpers being cut off a southbound D&H train. Too far across a field to photo with the Instamatic only my memories exist now. As we wandered down the byways of NE PA  we eventually re-encountered the southbound where the state highway crossed over the D&H near the upper reaches of the Lackawanna River. As we drove through Carbondale the gates lowered at the 8th Street crossing. Bingo! Here comes the southbound D&H man at track speed. My one and only encounter with a D&H freight until years later where I saw them frequently on the Conrail Harrisburg Line heading to and from Philadelphia. All long ago and far away, also long before I owned a decent camera. Thanks for digging up that fun memory.
Another memory is when CP Rail ran a special train commemorating the 175th anniversary of D&H. they had a blue and gray D&H unit pulling the CP business train to Philadelphia. Anxious to catch on my video cam, I ran across a wet field and stopped fast to shoot and took a full dive with the video running and missed the train completely. On the return trip north I was much more successful in capturing it. When I completed filling that 8mm casette, I ejected it only to find out the fall had twisted the frame of the camcorder. It was trashed, but gladly the videos were fine. Expensive slide in the mud trying to capture the last of the D&H!
Thanks!
Gonut

Very nice series. Fun to see the rail activity presented here including all that ALCO/MLW goodness.

Great photos and video Sam!

And what a great memory from Gonut1 of how railfanning used to be!!

Dan

Posted from iPhone

Fantastic catches !!!

Awesome. Your work is always top notch.
John

That's one RR I never got to chase while I was back there. Love those Alcos. The D-L must be a classy outfit as I have seen a photo on TO of a dirty Loco even with white paint.

Ed

Very nice..!!