First off,
Happy July 4th!
Hope you have a nice day today!
On Saturday June 14, 2014, I ventured up to the
CSX River Line to what the River Line is actually named for; the
Hudson River, (it's not all about trains in scenic
Bergenfield, NJ believe-it-or-not
...) I wanted to get to
Stony Point, NY by about 7:30
A.M. to catch the Q003 in perfect light. However, I got there at about 7:50 A.M. and as a result I missed Q004, Q162 and Q159; all stack trains, 1 for
Kearny, NJ and the other 2 go to and originate in
Port Newark, NJ. I was a little disappointed since I like catching stack trains, especially the one's with global containers, but I had to get some sleep too...
When I arrived at
Stony Point, Q003 pulled to a stop at the new CP38. The
Haverstraw siding (CP33-CP35) had recently been extended throughout April and May into a "super-siding" from CP33-CP38 with what
I believe are double-crossovers at the new CP36. This super-siding proved very useful on this
Saturday morning. (When I got to Stony Point, Q003 pulled up to CP38 and stopped. Q004 was sitting at CP33 waiting on Q161. Then Q010 came by me and held at CP36 because of the Q004 ahead of them. When Q161 cleared the interlocking at CP33, Q004 and Q010 continued south. Q003 and Q161 would've never been able to fit together in the old Haverstraw siding from CP33-CP35 so, the super-siding proved itself useful. And that wasn't the only time either.
It's constantly used as a place to tie down trains too...)
Shortly after Q003 came to a stop at CP38, Q010 came by with a short train. And after well over an hour, finally Q008 came rolling through. I found it amazing that they held Q003 (a very hot
UPS train with dozens of UPS trailers on it on this given day) for Q008 which only had 1 single UPS trailer on it.
And I'm pretty sure they could've easily gotten Q003 up to Newburgh at least without even interfering with the Q008's trek to and arrival in
Little Ferry, NJ. But that's CSX logic... After Q008 cleared the interlocking at CP38, Q003 and Q161 came north. Q161 put on quite a smoke show as they were working hard.
We then relocated to
Fort Montgomery (CP43) where we caught Q273 and K649 coming north. Q273 had a friendly crew and then K649 with a NS/CP combo. Then we see 2
Amtrak trains (P280 and P233) accross the river on the
Hudson Line. Then we see our target train of the day; K408 snaking around the curves and knocking down CP43 with a
DME SD40-2 leading a CP SD60 and 2 CP
GP38's... That's a lashup that is extremely rare in 2014 on the CSX River Line. And the fallen flag DME leading topped it all off. After K408 we went to lunch and missed Q156 (nothing special).
Then we moved down to
Iona Island. I fell asleep and by the time I woke up it was too late....Q702 was already going by.
Again nothing special though. Q702 met K060 (crude oil for
Eddystone) at Fort Montgomery. Then K060 met Q434 in the Haverstraw super-siding. Q434 caught me off-guard but I got the camera rolling just in time...
We then relocated to the footbridge over the
Popolopen Creek that connects Fort Montgomery to
Bear Mountain State Park. I would've gone to the south end of the trestle but I didn't have enough time to get there... Q254 had called CP43 when I wasn't even on the footbridge yet so I barely made it as it was...
After Q254, we headed down to CP22 (
Blauvelt, NY) to meet up with some friends. I also met CSX2731 (
Brett) there along with another friend
Dave. At CP22 we caught Q433, then got screwed over by the only cloud in the sky for over 3 hours that only blocked the light out for like a minute but just enough to cover the lead engines. Q418 brought up a SD50-2/
SD60M lashup which was nice. Then Q268 came down in and out of the siding at with a
SD70MAC smoking it up leading. After Q268 we all went to dinner. While waiting for a seat, we headed down to the tracks for CSX Q710 which had an Ex.
LMS leader with an awesome sounding RS3L horn. Then we had dinner at
Bailey's Smokehouse in Blauvelt, NY. While at dinner Q163 and Q157 went by. After dinner we got outside and we heard the screaming
of some GE's nearby. I raced to the car, grabbed the tripod, raced to the crossing and got the camera rolling with time spare... Then we bid our farewells and I headed back home with my dad.
On the way home we caught one more train; Q438 and that concluded our day.
For the best quality watch in 1080p and I hope you enjoy!
08:00 Q003 comes to a stop at CP38. Q161 is right behind.
08:07 Q010
09:27 Q008
09:32 Q003
09:47 Q161
11:24 Q271
11:35 K649
11:41
AMTK 280
12:27 AMTK 233
13:29 K408
14:05 Q156 (
Missed it while at lunch)
15:15 Q702 (Was taking a nap and woke up too late...)
15:52 K060
16:08 Q434
17:12 Q254
18:56 Q433
19:39 Q418
19:56 Q268
20:38 Q710
21:30 Q157 (Missed while at dinner)
22:10 Q163 (Missed while at dinner)
22:36 Q004
23:07 Q438
- published: 04 Jul 2014
- views: 1052