The Morea Runner
Semi-rare mileage along the R&N is the weekly trip of the 2nd Tamaqua job (YJQA,QADE,QAJT etc...) up the Delano and Morea runners to serve Poly Plastics near Delano. This job usually rates the only SD38 to stretch it's legs on the mainline. The circuitous route takes them north on the Reading from Tamaqua to Haucks then a jaunt on the RDG Catawissa Branch to one of many "Hazleton Junctions" in the area near Quakakke then along a stretch of track built in 1989 (the Lofty connection) to a switch called Delano Junction where the train reverses onto the former Lehigh Valley track now known as the Delano Runner. Before reaching Delano the Morea runner breaks off (at Morea Jct, nee Laurel Jct) and brings the crew another mile or so to Poly Plastics. The Morea runner continues several more miles to an embargoed anthracite load-out in Morea. Got it?
Anywho here's QADE (Tamaqua-Delano) switching out some storage tanks left on the runner past the Poly Plastics switch. Word is a few hundred more tanks are on the way....
The caption above is what I typed a couple months ago. Now I feel almost self conscious posting R&N stuff from my spring trip since a lot of you guys have been doing so much great stuff. Much has changed already. Coal business is rolling heavy again as it was very light while I was there during the peak of the pandemic. The Pittston pups have been split up and one has been leading the southbound NRRB for over a month. The F units seem to be running multiple times a week. The area in front of the station in Tamaqua has been torn up to build a new station platform. The fight with the city of Jim Thorpe has ended and 425 is leading tourist trains north from there into the Lehigh Gorge. Another engine has been painted in the Reading scheme, a black former NS GP38-2 is running around in service and one of the CSx SD50-2s has introduced an entirely new paint scheme. All of that in the 2 and a half months or so since I left the area.
The Morea Runner
Semi-rare mileage along the R&N is the weekly trip of the 2nd Tamaqua job (YJQA,QADE,QAJT etc...) up the Delano and Morea runners to serve Poly Plastics near Delano. This job usually rates the only SD38 to stretch it's legs on the mainline. The circuitous route takes them north on the Reading from Tamaqua to Haucks then a jaunt on the RDG Catawissa Branch to one of many "Hazleton Junctions" in the area near Quakakke then along a stretch of track built in 1989 (the Lofty connection) to a switch called Delano Junction where the train reverses onto the former Lehigh Valley track now known as the Delano Runner. Before reaching Delano the Morea runner breaks off (at Morea Jct, nee Laurel Jct) and brings the crew another mile or so to Poly Plastics. The Morea runner continues several more miles to an embargoed anthracite load-out in Morea. Got it?
Anywho here's QADE (Tamaqua-Delano) switching out some storage tanks left on the runner past the Poly Plastics switch. Word is a few hundred more tanks are on the way....
The caption above is what I typed a couple months ago. Now I feel almost self conscious posting R&N stuff from my spring trip since a lot of you guys have been doing so much great stuff. Much has changed already. Coal business is rolling heavy again as it was very light while I was there during the peak of the pandemic. The Pittston pups have been split up and one has been leading the southbound NRRB for over a month. The F units seem to be running multiple times a week. The area in front of the station in Tamaqua has been torn up to build a new station platform. The fight with the city of Jim Thorpe has ended and 425 is leading tourist trains north from there into the Lehigh Gorge. Another engine has been painted in the Reading scheme, a black former NS GP38-2 is running around in service and one of the CSx SD50-2s has introduced an entirely new paint scheme. All of that in the 2 and a half months or so since I left the area.