Finger Lakes Scenic Railway Fall Foliage Tour 2009

Follow the Finger Lakes Scenic Railway's Fall Foliage Tour from Camillus to Cayuga, NY with stops on the return leg in Skaneateles Junction (missed the train there) and Martisco Station. Power for the double-ended train of 5 coaches (3 in NYC grey) on the way out was 2301 (GE B23-7) and on the way back 1751 (EMD GP9). Below are images of the power and stations in Martisco, Skaneateles Junction, and Cayuga along the way as well as a nice truss bridge, an RDC railcar, and a small crane car.

More about the Finger Lakes Railway (FGLK) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_Lakes_Railway and http://www.fingerlakesscenicrailway.com.

View a chaser's-eye video of the trip at YouTube

2301 (GE B23-7) and 1751 (EMD GP9) in Camillus at the boarding point

The station at Cayuga, NY along the shores of Cayuga Lake. It is now home to the town clerks office...

1751 (EMD GP9) viewed from above with Cayuga Lake in the background
during the stop in Cayuga, NY

Truss bridge at Cayuga

Station at Skaneateles Junction (aka Harlot). Missed the train running by...
The station is now used by the
Central New York Model Railway Club for their layout.

Martisco station, one of the homes of the Central New York Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. They have an RDC and the small crane car here among things.

Train Action in Syracuse (again)

Two new videos shot in and east of Syracuse, NY. The first is a tripfrom the West end of the CSX yard in East Syracuse to the a bit west of the grade-level crossing in Kirkville, NY. Action filmed on August 24 and 25 shows an engine move along Track 2, some Amtraks, and a SD40-2 switching on the South Runner (all in East Syracuse). Next we see 2 short silent clips of westbound trains passing under the pedestrian overpass in Minoa, one of an autorack whose power included CSX 1191(MP15AC) and the other of a UP-powered reefer train. Finally we see yet two more Amtraks along the straight at CP 280.5 near Kirkville and a stack train.

View it in better quality at Papphausen2 on YouTube.

The second video was shot at milepost 280.5 along the straight of Saintsville Rd showing a westbound CSX stacktrain, the eastbound Amtrak Lake Shore Limited pulled by two Genesis units and stills of another (eastbound) CSX stacktrain.

View it in better quality at Papphausen2 on YouTube.

GG1 4933 in Syracuse Vandalized!

Well, maybe not quite vandalized, but not sure how else to describe it...

Was at the New York State Fair in Syracuse today and went to check in on the Central New York Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society's display at the back near the CSX mainline. One of my favorites was GG1 4933 of the Pennsylvania RR that had been a beautiful tuscan red...


But, what did I see there instead... Yes, this was also once its color. Yes, the tuscan red was worn and needed some maintenance... But Amtrak? Even Penn Central black would have been preferable... Blech! I suppose I should see the upside to it all – the engine had received some tlc this summer, and Amtrak is a "brand" people today recognize... More about the repaint can be found here.

GG1 ELECTRIC 926 / 4926 / 4933
GG1 electric locomotive 926 was built in 1943 by the Pennsylvania Railroads’s Juniata Shops in
Altoona, PA, as number 4933. It served electrified territory on the PRR from Penn Station in New York City to Harrisburg. When the PRR was merged into the Penn Central, the road number 4933 was retained. The locomotive operated under catenary, picking up power through roof-mounted pantographs. It could reach speeds of 100 mph in passenger service. It was famed industrial designer Raymond Lowery who urged that GG1 bodies be welded to improve appearance and who designed the famous PRR pinstripe paint scheme (left photo). In 1971, #4933 was transferred to Amtrak ownership, where it was first renumbered as 4926, and later, 926. Amtrak retired the GG1s in 1981. CNY NRHS member Ollie Kenyon purchased the 926 and donated it to the CNY Chapter. For many years, it was displayed here in classic PRR livery

LENGTH: 79.5 feet
WEIGHT: 238.5 tons
BUILT: 1943 – Pennsylvania RR Juniata Shops, Altoona PA

From the historical marker. Below a view from above via Google Earth still showing the tuscan red.


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Trainspotting with the Syracuse Chiefs

Footage of TRAINS shot during the Chiefs August 18, 2009 game against the Buffalo Bisons at Alliance Bank Stadium in Syracuse. The CSX mainline runs behind the stadium with a nice view from behind the visiting team dugout. The Chiefs won 1:0 with the winning run driven in at the bottom of the 9th. An unfortunately dull game with dull train action. Interesting was a rather short autorack. Also shown is Pops, one of the Chief's mascots, who does a dance to a choo-choo song on the visiting team dugout roof. We close with some 0-gauge Chiefs collector's cars sold by J&R Junction in Syracuse. See also Baseball in Syracuse for a report from last year.

View it in better quality at Papphausen2 on YouTube.

Back along the tracks...

After a long break, spent time along the tracks at the west end of the East Syracuse CSX yeard... When I arrived there on this very hot and hazy day, CSX was hard at work on the tracks...

First there was the ballast tamper...,


Then the ballast regulator...



These were followed by a truck removing old ties, but there are no images of that. I do have some video though that I will upload in the next week or two...

Once these were gone, the cork popped and all sorts of trains came through.

Finger Lakes Live Steamers, 2009

Took advantage of a beautiful day head out to the Finger Lakes Live Steamers' annual open house in Marengo, NY (near Clyde). Lots of action and happy faces as folks got pulled around by live steam and faux diesels.

View it in better quality at Papphausen2 on YouTube.

Trainspotting off the Willis Ave bridge in Solvay (Syracuse), NY

After a four-week break decided it was time to go trainspotting again and this time headed West to the Willis Ave bridge in Solvay, a part of greater Syracuse. This location in interesting because there are great views of downtown Syracuse through the trees, Onondaga Lake (our local Superfund site and beautiful in spite of it), as well as some larger local industries and a power plant. 5 trains in almost 3 hours isn't bad (The first train arrived as I was parking - a boring westbound stack train) and the Finger Lakes Railway GE B23-7 with a (very) short freight was a treat. Below an overview of the location.

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And here some stills...

Here a video of the morning... from my YouTube site
Click here to watch video with better quality

Steamcourse and Video Digitization

Been spending lots of time converting old VHS based tapes to digital, among those from various railfan trips to Germany, Maine, and elsewhere. Also gathering various silent clips shot with a plain old digital camera and uploading them to YouTube as well.

A big theme was the steamcourse I took at the Boothbay Railway Village in Maine during the Fall of 2003. A complete report is here.

There are six videos total of the experience starting with introductions and firing up and going all the way to parting shots as I had to head back to Syracuse after what would be an amazingly long, wonderful experience... The smell of anthracite followed me all the way home and still lingers in the gloves and lumps of coal I grind up to use on the layout.

Below video 1... Click to view the video at YouTube and see all the rest too. Several other videos from Boothbay and the Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railway (WW&F) there too.

Some more Syracuse views from the summer...

Some more pics from this summer at the East Syracuse CSX yard. No CSX among this batch... An eastbound ethanol train with UP and SP power, UP caught with flash in daylight showing the reflective paint, and a westbound BNSF powered manifest.

The videos below were shot from near the Willis Ave Bridge in the Solvay part of Syracuse.

Westbound CSX power with empty coal hoppers.



Westbound CSX power with construction debris / trash.

And some noses from the Central New York Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society's collection. The GG-1 of the Pennsy and an E8A of the Lackawanna. The diesels were operational until recently.

Ethanol and AutorackTrains in East Syracuse

And another video... 2 engines, one protection car, and 100 tankcars loaded with ethanol. Video was taken in the East Syracuse CSX yard this past August.

Und noch ein video... 2 Loks, ein Schutzwagen und 100 Kesselwagen mit Ethanol... Aufgenommen im August in der East Syracuse CSX Yard.

And one of an empty westbound autorack train... Most of these seem to move around the rails empty...

Und einer von einem Autorackzug mit leeren Wagen. Die meisten scheinen einfach leer durchs Land zu fahren.

A train you can model | Ein Moba gerechter Zug

Seen heading east on October 26th from Syracuse NY's CSX yard towards Kirkville. A nice short freight that would work as a model.

A trip to Binghamton, NY to the Canadian Pacific/Norfolk Southern Yard

On October 12, I headed to Binghampton Yard with a trainspotting buddy where we caught some different action than our usual CSX stock. Our location was at the west end of the yard, in the middle of the map where the entrance to the yard forks off of Holmes Pl.

Am 12. Oktober fuhren ein Kollege und ich zu den Bahnanlagen in Binghampton (ca. 100 km südlich von Syracuse) wo wir mal was Anderes als die üblichen CSX Sachen sehen wollten. Wir waren am Westlichen Ende der Anlagen wo die Einfahrt zu den Anlagen links von Holmes Pl abbiegt.

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First in was this manifest freight heading south headed by this Norfolk Southern and four others including one still in Conrail paint. Shot some video too.

Als Erstes sahen wir diesen Zug der in südlicher Richtung fuhr, angeführt von dieser Norfolk Southern Lok und vier Anderen, darunter eine noch in Conrail blau. Habe auch ein Video gemacht.

Then, coming the other way was this manifest pulled by two Canadian Pacific units. The first picture is by my friend Scott.

Aus der anderen Richtung kam dann dieser gemischte Zug angeführt von diesen zwei Canadian Pacific Loks. Das erste Bild stammt von meinem Kollegen Scott.

After hanging out at the CP/NS yard we came by the New York Susquehanna and Western yard where there was no action but some engines, including the black SD-40. Pics by my friend Scott.

Nachdem wir einige Stunden dort verbrachten fuhren wir zu den New York Susquehanna and Western Anlagen wo nichts los war, aber wir einige geparkte Loks sehen konnten. Mit dabei diese schwarze SD-40. Bilder stammen von meinem Kollegen Scott.

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Minoa end of the East Syracuse CSX yard

Decided to try out some new venues for train-spotting in the Syracuse area and discovered the pedestrian overpass at the Minoa end of the East Syracuse CSX yard. Nice view of the trains even if through a chain link fence. The warm air from the diesels was also welcome on this chilly day. Foliage is past peak, but still nice.

Hatte Lust mir mal an einem anderen Ort Züge in der Syracuse gegend anzuschauen und entdeckete die Fußgängerbrücke in Minoa am östlichen Ende des CSX Rangierbahnhofs in East Syracuse. Guter Blick auf die Züge wennauch durch einen Zaun. Die warmen Abgase von den Loks waren auch gut an diesem kühlen herbst Tag. Die Herbstfarben klingen ab, sind aber noch schön.

Location of pedestrian bridge | Ort der Fußgängerbrücke

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Stacktrain heading east | Containerzug nach Osten raus fahrend

The same train on the other side of the overpass | Der selbe Zug auf der anderen Seite der Brücke

West-bound manifest freight | Gemischter Güterzug in westlicher Richtung

Eastbound UP manifest freight in East Syracuse | Gemischter Güterzug in östlicher Richtung mit Union Pacific Loks

Baseball in Syracuse

Went to a Syracuse Chiefs yesterday (Sunday) even though I'm not a big baseball fan. They even have a steam loco in their logo and an engineer as a mascot. As I said, I'm not a big baseball fan, but the tickets were free, my daughter brought a friend the the stadium is right by the main CSX east-west line here in Syracuse, NY. About a 1/4 mile west of the stadium a line down from Canada merges into the mainline in an 18" h0 radius turn. Very tight and they go real slow. Although the line is CSX one can also see engines from other lines such as UP, BNSF, and NS. During the 2.5 hours of the night game (Syracuse won 5-4 after a homer with one on in the bottom of the 9th) 13 trains with an average car number of 90 passed by. Lots of stacktrains and intermodals but also two Amtraks and a few mixed freights. The view from the stadium, behind the visiting team dugout is best, allowed for slightly less than the length of a Dash-9 between the trees, not a lot. Distance to the tracks from our seats was about 450'. Pics were taken with a 2.1 megapixel... Here an overview via Google Earth.

Bin gestern (Sonntag) zu einem Baseballspiel der Syracuse Chiefs gegangen... Haben sogar eine Dampflok im Logo und einen Engineer als Maskot. Baseball mag ich eigentlich nicht so, aber die Karten bekammen wir gratis, meine Tochter hatte einen Freund dabei, und das Stadion ist direkt am Bahndamm von der CSX Ost-West Hauptstrecke in Syracuse, New York. Ca. ein halber Km westlich (von links im Bild, sieht Ansicht unten) mündet das Gleis von Kanada in einer Märklin R1 Kurve in die Hauptstrecke. Obwohl CSX sieht man dort auch Loks vieler anderer Firmen, z.B. Union Pacific, BNSF, und NS. In den 2.5 Stunden die das Spiel dauerte (Syracuse gewann im 9. dank eines Homeruns 5-4) fuhren 13 Züge dabei. Durchschnitts Zuglänge war um die 90 Wagen, viele Stacktrains und Intermodal, aber auch 2 Amtrak und Sonstiges. Das Blickfeld vom Gleis hatte ganz knapp die Länge einer Lok, was Aufnahmen erschwerte. Distance von meinem Platz zum Gleis, ca 150+ Meter. Kamera ist eine kleine Olympus mit 2.1 Megapixels. Hier mal eine Übersicht mit Google Earth.

In the image below the train on the left is eastbound, train on the right westbound.
What a lucky shot!

Der Zug unten links kommt vom Westen, der von rechts von Osten. Glück gehabt!

Two videos. The speed of the game was synchronized to that of the trains!

Zwei Videos. Das Spiel hat sich dem Tempo der Züge angepaßt!

The regional farmers' market is also directly by the tracks, next to the stadium. Hard to get a clear view of the tracks, but lots of action.

Der Wochenmarkt ist auch direkt am Bahndamm, neben dem Stadion... Hier ist es wirklich schwer klare Sicht vom Gleis zu haben.

Werde demnächst noch ein Spiel fest einplanen.

p.