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Trainwatching Report

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Depew, New York - August 8th, 1999

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   For today, I felt like heading over to Depew and sitting at the Amtrak Station, it would end up being somewhat of an adventure getting there as I originally planned on riding Amtrak #64, the Maple Leaf from Downtown, but after not being sure if I could buy a ticket on the train (The downtown station is closed on Sunday) I decided to take the bus over but before I left downtown, I did see something, take a look...

   Heading East on the Niagara Branch, is Amtrak Train #64, the New York City bound "Maple Leaf", about to make its regular stop at the Downtown Buffalo Amtrak Station on Exchange Street.  Today's train is seen at 1:27pm with F40PH #247 on the lead, for some reason, the Amtrak logo on this unit is painted white instead of black, if anyone knows why, please let me know via E-Mail.

   After riding a bus to Cheektowaga, then having to walk about 2 miles, I caught Train SYBU parked at CP-433 waiting to get in the yard as seen in the photo above.  Today's train had 2 renumbered "Ex-Con's" with SD50 #8650 leading GP40-2 #4433, the train is seen stopped on Track #4 at 3:27pm.

   After walking about another mile down a back road that parallels the tracks, I took a peak through a clearing in the bushes to find Amtrak Train #288, the Water Level Express, preparing to make its station stop in Depew less than a mile up the tracks.  This train operates on Sundays and Holidays only in place of Train #284, and features an all-Metroliner equipped consist.  The train is seen near Milepost 432 at 3:38pm heading East on Track #2.

When I finally arrived in Depew, the first train to come by was TV-6 with SD50 #6748 on the lead heading East on Track #1 at 4:22pm.

   Next up was Train TV-304X, with an all Santa Fe Blue & Yellow Warbonnet lashup.  This train stopped at the Depew Station for over an hour, because according to the radio transmissions I heard, the engineer had incorrect paperwork on the train and felt the need to stop it.  Well after 1 hour passed as the train was stopped on Track #2, the crew realized that their paperwork was correct in the first place, and a very angry Buffalo Terminal Dispatcher instructed them to leave.  Leading this train was Santa Fe SD40-2 #5204 and the train is seen parked in Depew at 4:43pm.