Trainwatching Report
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To start off Y2K, I decided to head over to one of my favorite railfanning spots from the "20th Century", so I took Amtrak over to Syracuse, New York for a day of railfanning in the freezing cold!!!. The trip to Syracuse would be of the usual type, as I would head up to Buffalo and take Amtrak from the Downtown Buffalo Amtrak Station, here's the photos from one of the coldest days of railfanning that I can remember...
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I arrived in Downtown Buffalo and awaited the arrival of Amtrak Train #286, the Empire State Express. Today's train had P32AC-DM #712 on the lead as it arrived 6 minutes early at 8:39am.
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The train arrived in Syracuse at 11:22am, a few minutes late, but not bad. I ran down the platform to get this pic just before the train left on its way to New York City. It would end up making stops in Rome, Utica, Amsterdam, Schenectady, Albany, Hudson, Rhinecliff, Poughkeepsie, Croton-Harmon, Yonkers and would terminate at New York City. The train runs 7 days a week and usually has 4 Amfleet I Coaches and a Snack Car.
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And now to the trains... First up is this Eastbound Manifest with CSX SD50 #8524 on the lead on Track #2 at 11:51am.
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At 12:10pm, this Eastbound Manifest arrived with solid CSX power, now the norm on the Chicago Line. With AC4400CW #9041 on the lead, this train heads past the station on Track #2.
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Next up is Amtrak Train #63, the Toronto-bound "Maple Leaf" still sporting F40 power. Today's train had unit #265 and its standard 4 coach 1 cafe car consist but with 2 Heritage coaches. The train is seen pulling into Syracuse at 12:34pm.
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Next up is CSX Train Q364 with Renumbered SD50 #8672, Former Conrail #6764. Heading East on Track #1at 1:00pm, the train will make arrive in Selkirk later on today. This is former Conrail train INSE.
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On Track #2 heading West is Local train B769 with B23-7 #3150, which is former Conrail #1925 at 1:12pm.
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At 2:01pm, at the Carousel Center Entrance on the On-Track Commuter train, we see an RDC waiting at the platform minutes before departing for Downtown Syracuse and Syracuse University. This train service is operated by the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway and operates Wednesday through Sunday.
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At 2:10pm, we see the On-Track RDC stopped at Armory Square in Downtown Syracuse, the RDC will head down to Syracuse University after departing here and then make its return trip to the Carousel Center.
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And Finally, here is the Armory Square On-Track station, at the time this slide was taken, you could buy your tickets for the train here as well as visit the gift shop inside. Sadly, the station is no longer selling tickets and the gift shop has closed. This would be it for me as far as photography goes in Syracuse because of the shortened winter days, I rode home on Amtrak Train #281, another good ride on Amtrak. This is the first of what should be several more stories I'll have this year. Syracuse is still a great place for trainwatching now that CSX is running things and the On-Track is a nice ride if you like old RDC's. Until next time, Happy Railfanning... |
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