Jackson Alexander
U-boats on the Valley
One of my favorite railroads to follow around in NY was the Lehigh Railway. A property that has since fallen victim to corporate shortline railroading, the Lehigh had plenty of personality for an all-black railroad while it lasted. Using old CP SD40-2s, some Geeps, and most importantly a pair of U23Bs of Penn Central origin, they had a pretty good roster as well.
They ran two jobs, one daily job out of Towanda heading north to interchange with NS, usually running sand and some chemicals, and a job out of Wyalusing heading south to Mehoopany. I preferred the Wyalusing job due to having more photos and historically being the home of the U23s, but multiple attempts at it yielded one single chase on my birthday in 2020. I'll take it.
The job to Sayre used the 40s, and while cool they certainly could get a little old quick. I had chased to Sayre and back a few times by the time my old man joined me for a shot at the area. My father is a Lehigh Valley nut and passed that curse onto me, so we started in Pittston to get PIME on the Reading and Northern. A successful northbound run gave way to a fat rainstorm so we drove up to Sayre to see what might be happening there.
We were given the exact thing I wanted, the U-boats ready to pull a hefty train of sand cars south. While waiting for them to pull over the bridge in Athens we heard a second horn and got a new-to-the-railroad SD40-2 leading a second train into town. At this time RJ Corman had already taken over but hadn't made it very obvious yet. They must have been radio blocking and had a customer anxious to get all their cars, because not long after the 40-2 departed with its own cut of sand cars and the U23s were hot on their tail.
This line is still very much LV track. They don't exceed 10 mph, so it wasn't very high stakes. They were running south at times with no more than 15 car lengths between the trains and it was an absolute blast to follow. The second train was the one we focused on, seeing as how the leader was the best U-boat this system had to offer. The unit wears white plow stripes, a more ornate form of the company logo on the nose, still has its marker lights, and a white K5LA adorns the roof. I had only ever gotten 2300 leading light power before so it was great to shoot it this day with my father along for the ride.
These boys are going under the PA-199 overpass in this photo and barely putting out any effort to keep their train rolling. These tired old boats have since been put in timeout last I knew, but I'm not sure if they're gone for real at this point.
U-boats on the Valley
One of my favorite railroads to follow around in NY was the Lehigh Railway. A property that has since fallen victim to corporate shortline railroading, the Lehigh had plenty of personality for an all-black railroad while it lasted. Using old CP SD40-2s, some Geeps, and most importantly a pair of U23Bs of Penn Central origin, they had a pretty good roster as well.
They ran two jobs, one daily job out of Towanda heading north to interchange with NS, usually running sand and some chemicals, and a job out of Wyalusing heading south to Mehoopany. I preferred the Wyalusing job due to having more photos and historically being the home of the U23s, but multiple attempts at it yielded one single chase on my birthday in 2020. I'll take it.
The job to Sayre used the 40s, and while cool they certainly could get a little old quick. I had chased to Sayre and back a few times by the time my old man joined me for a shot at the area. My father is a Lehigh Valley nut and passed that curse onto me, so we started in Pittston to get PIME on the Reading and Northern. A successful northbound run gave way to a fat rainstorm so we drove up to Sayre to see what might be happening there.
We were given the exact thing I wanted, the U-boats ready to pull a hefty train of sand cars south. While waiting for them to pull over the bridge in Athens we heard a second horn and got a new-to-the-railroad SD40-2 leading a second train into town. At this time RJ Corman had already taken over but hadn't made it very obvious yet. They must have been radio blocking and had a customer anxious to get all their cars, because not long after the 40-2 departed with its own cut of sand cars and the U23s were hot on their tail.
This line is still very much LV track. They don't exceed 10 mph, so it wasn't very high stakes. They were running south at times with no more than 15 car lengths between the trains and it was an absolute blast to follow. The second train was the one we focused on, seeing as how the leader was the best U-boat this system had to offer. The unit wears white plow stripes, a more ornate form of the company logo on the nose, still has its marker lights, and a white K5LA adorns the roof. I had only ever gotten 2300 leading light power before so it was great to shoot it this day with my father along for the ride.
These boys are going under the PA-199 overpass in this photo and barely putting out any effort to keep their train rolling. These tired old boats have since been put in timeout last I knew, but I'm not sure if they're gone for real at this point.