Eastern Railroad Discussion > RBMN to and from Jim Thorpe

Videoing the arrival and departures from Jim Thorpe while being on the arriving and departing trains limits what can actually be captured!  I lumped these two operations together because of TO's time limits - there will also be videos of operations during the day at JT, including the LGSR movements.  So here is what I caught...
Clip 1 - the RBMN Pittston to JT train at White Haven.  My wife and I got on here so we could see the entire Lehigh Gorge State Park.
Clip 2 - arriving at Jim Thorpe.  A couple of yard engines (I think) attached to an old set of RBMN cars - don't know if they are being refurbished or retired.  With the new shops in (name of town starting with N that I won't even try to pronounce or spell!), these may be held here until they can be relocated and rehabbed or scrapped.
Clip 3 - Departing Jim Thorpe that afternoon to return to Pittston.  Passing the RDCs (to Reading) which leave about 10 minutes after the Pittston train departs.  The Pittston train used the big crossover to access the main line, since the LGSR train was returning to Jim Thorpe using the long lead.
Clip 4 - The Pittston train passing a "mystery" set of cars, that showed up sometime during the day (they weren't there when we arrived).  Obviously in good shape, and they resemble the LGSR train, but with a generator car.  Dinner train?  Special?  RBMN did run a special from Reading to Pottsville on Saturday (video was taken on Sunday), so this may have been that set.  Any guesses from locals are much better than mine.  After passing that set, the timing was near perfect to pass the arriving LGSR train coming back from the State Park.  
Clip 5 - Further on leaving Jim Thorpe - a view of the old tower that controlled the junction, the new Wye bridge that was recently completed, and the old bridge over NS's Lehigh line.  I had to speed up this clip to 1.7X actual to meet the TO time limits...but it doesn't look too bad because we were running on the block of the NRFF so we were actually just creeping along.  We dropped down to 5 mph three different times approaching signals on the trip to White Haven - I suspect the engineer was hoping the signals would clear before he passed them.  When we got to White Haven, the conductor confirmed that was why we kept slowing down.  I told him I was disappointed because I was hoping the NRFF was behind us so I could record it through White Haven, and he laughed and said they too were disappointed because it made a long day longer.  He also confirmed that most of the time, the passenger train was allowed to run ahead of the freight train, but for some reason, that didn't happen that day.  The engineer was in no hurry to high ball White Haven after my wife and I stepped off (we were the only passengers at that stop).  I guess that was why the conductor (and train assistant) were both quite chatty once we had stepped down.   

Again, thanks to all who provided suggestions for the trip.  And thanks for watching.

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Nice video!  What day/date did you ride?

Thanks!  Sept 14 from Reading, Sept 15 from White Haven.  LGSR on Sat.

Thanks. A friend of mine and I rode from Pittston to Jim Thorpe and teturn on August 24th. Fantastic trip!

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