Morning rush at Old Forge
R&N PISB charges past the former station at Old Forge PA along the former DL&W heading for customers in the Keyser Valley area on the west side of Scranton. We're near milepost 3 despite the Conrail and DL&W mileposts here stating otherwise. Also, why is there a lawnmower to the right of the mileposts? This was attempt No. 4 at this angle.
In this R&N storyline today we'll go after what I showed up looking for. The GP38-2's painted in the Reading Co's last scheme which was applied to their GP39-2 and GP40-2's.
I think I photographed 9 or 10 trains on the Scranton Branch during the trip. I fought clouds for much of it, though never on cloudy days. The branch is fantastic for photographers. In it's 7 or 8 miles between Pittston and Taylor there's side-by-side running with the former Lehigh Valley, a flyover, former DL&W mileposts, a through truss bridge, a former station, a cut, an S curve, and an iconic easy to do elevated shot. Traffic and timing are very consistent, Monday through Friday the PISB (Pittston-Scranton Branch) is pulling into Taylor between 830 and 9am. Weekends are a little different with the PISB doing double duty and handling the interchange with NS at Taylor. On these days they also usually split their power instead of keeping both engines on the head end. During my stay this job was the nearly exclusive domain of a pair of the RDG painted* GP38-2's.
The surprise was the Pittston yard job. When I showed up to Pittston for the first time since probably 2006 (Pittston back then had been my only experience with the R&N) I wasn't surprised to see a Caboose there. I was surprised to see it used the next day and then absolutely flabbergasted when I figured out that the normal move for the yard job was to shove the entire way up the Scranton Branch to Taylor! Every now and then there will be an exception where supposedly the hitch a ride on the rear of the PISB up there but it didn't happen while I was there watching (Though once or twice I would see it mentioned in John Cudo's post to the Friends of the Reading and Northern Railroad Facebook group).
Anyway usually late morning the YJPI1 shoves to Taylor Caboose-first and returns with it tucked in between the locomotives and the inbound interchange. The line orientation is more east-west than north south so the PISB is aiming into low sun in the morning and coming back towards the sun in the afternoon. The yard job makes itself a mid-day affair.
Morning rush at Old Forge
R&N PISB charges past the former station at Old Forge PA along the former DL&W heading for customers in the Keyser Valley area on the west side of Scranton. We're near milepost 3 despite the Conrail and DL&W mileposts here stating otherwise. Also, why is there a lawnmower to the right of the mileposts? This was attempt No. 4 at this angle.
In this R&N storyline today we'll go after what I showed up looking for. The GP38-2's painted in the Reading Co's last scheme which was applied to their GP39-2 and GP40-2's.
I think I photographed 9 or 10 trains on the Scranton Branch during the trip. I fought clouds for much of it, though never on cloudy days. The branch is fantastic for photographers. In it's 7 or 8 miles between Pittston and Taylor there's side-by-side running with the former Lehigh Valley, a flyover, former DL&W mileposts, a through truss bridge, a former station, a cut, an S curve, and an iconic easy to do elevated shot. Traffic and timing are very consistent, Monday through Friday the PISB (Pittston-Scranton Branch) is pulling into Taylor between 830 and 9am. Weekends are a little different with the PISB doing double duty and handling the interchange with NS at Taylor. On these days they also usually split their power instead of keeping both engines on the head end. During my stay this job was the nearly exclusive domain of a pair of the RDG painted* GP38-2's.
The surprise was the Pittston yard job. When I showed up to Pittston for the first time since probably 2006 (Pittston back then had been my only experience with the R&N) I wasn't surprised to see a Caboose there. I was surprised to see it used the next day and then absolutely flabbergasted when I figured out that the normal move for the yard job was to shove the entire way up the Scranton Branch to Taylor! Every now and then there will be an exception where supposedly the hitch a ride on the rear of the PISB up there but it didn't happen while I was there watching (Though once or twice I would see it mentioned in John Cudo's post to the Friends of the Reading and Northern Railroad Facebook group).
Anyway usually late morning the YJPI1 shoves to Taylor Caboose-first and returns with it tucked in between the locomotives and the inbound interchange. The line orientation is more east-west than north south so the PISB is aiming into low sun in the morning and coming back towards the sun in the afternoon. The yard job makes itself a mid-day affair.