Hello, everyone. Time again for another installment of the Midweek Photos. I am fortunate to live close to several railroads and rail yards, which allows for many chance encounters with trains. Unlike many of the rail fans locally, I don't follow the trains so closely that I know the train symbols, but I like what I find.
March started off great for me with an encounter of the locally assigned units at Norfolk Southern's railroad yard in Taylor, PA, about a mile from Scranton. Two 9000- units. We are looking at 9111, an C44-9W in the late afternoon sun, around 4:30. These are the units used for local switching.
Taylor used to have a nice little train station in this location. Now a couple of trailers and a pole barn garage serve as offices for the railroad. This yard was mostly used By the Delaware Lackawanna & Western RR for sorting coal.
Signs galore telling truckers where to go, and everyone else keep out. However, this is the road giving access to a rail trail along the former Central RR of New Jersey route, which is only a few hundred feet away.
A few miles west of Taylor is this former Lehigh Valley yard in Pittston. Reading & Northern is the railroad there, now, and I caught them assembling a train that would head over the LV Mountain cutoff to reach Lehighton, PA where NS takes the cars from that point. Two SD40s, 3055 and 3054 were drilling the cars Sunday afternoon, March 1.
When this yard was run by Conrail, this location was overgrown. Some are not pleased with the view of the yard from Main St in Pittston, but trains that are moving are more interesting than birch trees and sumac bushes.
Signs at the entrance of this yard, too.
Okay, so that is my weekend. What have you encountered? Display locomotives? Working trains? Subways or light rail? Whatever you like and want to share, we want to see. Thank you to all who keep this weekly look at the real world of railroading so compelling.
