Grinding towards Bergers
One of the first spots I fell in love with on the mainline was this S-Curve near MP149. Once I could see it in sunlight the love affair was put on hold as the 430pm lighting was dead nose-on. However this would be the day that a heavy NRFF lost their 3rd engine and ground their way to White Haven Tunnel on the 1.23% at about 8mph. The snails pace not only made for 4 different photo angles in about 5 miles but also caused an hour delay off the normal which was enough time to allow the light to swing to the side for this shot. It's the 21st of May and the leaves still haven't popped but at least it's sunny.
Keeping with the CNJ theme today we'll take a look at the former CNJ portion of the Lehigh Division. R&N acquired what was kinda referred to as the middle portion of Conrail's Lehigh Line in 1996. A collection of mostly LV track from Lehighton to Mehoopany. The exceptions are the former CNJ for about 40 miles between White Haven and Laurel Run which was kinda folded into the LV's mainline when the CNJ pulled out of Pennsylvania in the 60's. The other exception being the former DL&W from Pittston to Scranton. The LV portion of the line is spectacularly scenic through the Lehigh Gorge and the descent towards Pittston however it has become at times simply hard to access and at other times very, very grown in. Many classic shots along the LV have been destroyed in ways that could only be undone by a massive wildfire and others are currently blocked or otherwise marred by stored oil cars. The former CNJ portion of the line does a whole lot of aiming into the sun for the current afternoon NRFF schedule between White Haven and Mountain Top (Solomons Gap) with plenty of access, a tunnel, searchlights, restored mileposts, a yard and even a signal bridge. So today we'll take a look at that as well as the twice-weekly (Mo-Th I think...) Crestwood Drill which rates a single SW8 and serves the only active customers between Lehighton and Pittston from the yard in Penobscot.
Grinding towards Bergers
One of the first spots I fell in love with on the mainline was this S-Curve near MP149. Once I could see it in sunlight the love affair was put on hold as the 430pm lighting was dead nose-on. However this would be the day that a heavy NRFF lost their 3rd engine and ground their way to White Haven Tunnel on the 1.23% at about 8mph. The snails pace not only made for 4 different photo angles in about 5 miles but also caused an hour delay off the normal which was enough time to allow the light to swing to the side for this shot. It's the 21st of May and the leaves still haven't popped but at least it's sunny.
Keeping with the CNJ theme today we'll take a look at the former CNJ portion of the Lehigh Division. R&N acquired what was kinda referred to as the middle portion of Conrail's Lehigh Line in 1996. A collection of mostly LV track from Lehighton to Mehoopany. The exceptions are the former CNJ for about 40 miles between White Haven and Laurel Run which was kinda folded into the LV's mainline when the CNJ pulled out of Pennsylvania in the 60's. The other exception being the former DL&W from Pittston to Scranton. The LV portion of the line is spectacularly scenic through the Lehigh Gorge and the descent towards Pittston however it has become at times simply hard to access and at other times very, very grown in. Many classic shots along the LV have been destroyed in ways that could only be undone by a massive wildfire and others are currently blocked or otherwise marred by stored oil cars. The former CNJ portion of the line does a whole lot of aiming into the sun for the current afternoon NRFF schedule between White Haven and Mountain Top (Solomons Gap) with plenty of access, a tunnel, searchlights, restored mileposts, a yard and even a signal bridge. So today we'll take a look at that as well as the twice-weekly (Mo-Th I think...) Crestwood Drill which rates a single SW8 and serves the only active customers between Lehighton and Pittston from the yard in Penobscot.