The Grace Shuffle
Previously relegated to working overnight under the cover of darkness, thanks to pandemic reduced train frequencies on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor NS local H04 has been working on days starting at 0900 at Baltimore's Bayview Yard. Normally they seem to work to the big Clorox plant in Perryman daily and as far north as Havre de Grace at least once a week.
Here they are seen having just finished working Plastipak Industries and starting back south. The old line is a 1 3/4 mile long stub of the old main line through town that lead to the original 1866 bridge. After the mainline was realigned slightly on the approach to the new and higher 1906 structure still in service the old line into town was retained and more than a century later it still has three rail served customers located on it. They are doing the Grace shuffle as they call it to get from main 2 to main 4 (the side they need to be on going south to access the Channel Lumber spur up to Clorox). Due to the track layout to accomplish this they pull south off the old line at OAK Interlocking down Main 2. Then they reverse north as seen here passing beneath the signal bridge with the color position lights. They will back out of sight around the curve 1.5 miles north clear of GRACE interlocking then reverse south and cross from 2 to 3 at GRACE and 3 to 4 back here at OAK.
NS 5620 is a GP38-2 that was rebuilt with a chopped nose in 2005 from a Southern high hood GP38AC oroginally blt. Aug. 1971 as CNOTP 2871.
Havre de Grace, Maryland
Friday April 2, 2021
The Grace Shuffle
Previously relegated to working overnight under the cover of darkness, thanks to pandemic reduced train frequencies on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor NS local H04 has been working on days starting at 0900 at Baltimore's Bayview Yard. Normally they seem to work to the big Clorox plant in Perryman daily and as far north as Havre de Grace at least once a week.
Here they are seen having just finished working Plastipak Industries and starting back south. The old line is a 1 3/4 mile long stub of the old main line through town that lead to the original 1866 bridge. After the mainline was realigned slightly on the approach to the new and higher 1906 structure still in service the old line into town was retained and more than a century later it still has three rail served customers located on it. They are doing the Grace shuffle as they call it to get from main 2 to main 4 (the side they need to be on going south to access the Channel Lumber spur up to Clorox). Due to the track layout to accomplish this they pull south off the old line at OAK Interlocking down Main 2. Then they reverse north as seen here passing beneath the signal bridge with the color position lights. They will back out of sight around the curve 1.5 miles north clear of GRACE interlocking then reverse south and cross from 2 to 3 at GRACE and 3 to 4 back here at OAK.
NS 5620 is a GP38-2 that was rebuilt with a chopped nose in 2005 from a Southern high hood GP38AC oroginally blt. Aug. 1971 as CNOTP 2871.
Havre de Grace, Maryland
Friday April 2, 2021