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The Philadelphia Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society Established in 1936
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Railfan Pictures of the Week - 03/09/2008
| Like just about everyone else, CSX has an SOP, or standard operating procedure, for most of its trains: when the crew is called, when they pull out of the yard, where they stop and where they finish. Railfans get used to these routines and get a little complacent after a while, so when there is deviation from the norm, it's news. The news is that CSX overnight locals out of Lansdale gave us a little variety this week. To follow the operations around of Lansdale, check out the Lansdale Rails Yahoogroup. |
| First the standards. CSX C746 runs from Lansdale to Philadelphia Sunday night through Thursday night, returning Monday morning through Friday morning, normally using a pair of former Conrail SD40-2's due to the requirement that all units operating on the SEPTA Main Line be equipped with cab signals. B745 with GP38-2 or GP40-2 power works the Doylestown and Warminster Branches Monday night through Thursday night and almost always returns the next morning before 6:00 AM. Key words are normally and almost ..... |
| Sunday March 2 2008: C746 takes CSX 8885 and 8864 along with 22 cars down the SEPTA Main Line and returns via the Stony Creek Branch. Ok so far. |
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Monday March 3 2008: C746 takes CSX 8885, 8864, 6150 and 6318 along with 15 cars down the Stony Creek Branch. No B745 run obviously. C746 returns light with 8885 and 8864. While they have been known to have as many as seven engines on C746, not bringing back the four axles is unusual as, due to the track conditions, six axles are prohibited from working the Bethlehem Branch on the daylight job B738 except under special circumstances and permission from the train master. Evidently the four axles had mechanical and signalling problems that they were unable to fix in time for the return trip, and instead stayed in Philadelphia for the day. |
| Tuesday March 4 2008: B745 uses the two six axles to work the Doylestown and Warminster branches but does not finish before the 5:00 AM curfew SEPTA imposes on it and outlaws in Warminster on the New Hope and Ivyland. C746 crew returns with 6150 and 6318 apparently via the Stony Creek Branch, but for some unknown reason makes a run down to Jenkintown and back to Lansdale on the SEPTA Main Line around 03:00 AM. |
| Wednesday March 5 2008: C746 using 6150 and 6318 takes a pair of tank cars to Philadelphia and returns with 20 cars. B745 with 8885 and 8864 finally returns from Warminster. |
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Thursday March 6 2008: C746 with 8885 and 8864 take 12 cars down to Philadelphia. B745, which normally heads down to work Warminster just after midnight, does not get down there until 3:45 AM and does not make it out before the curfew. BUT since they are only a pair of light engines, SEPTA makes an exception and sneaks B745 out between MU's, departing Warminster around 8:00, arriving Glenside around 8:20 and heading directly up to Lansdale, arriving before 9:00. |
| Friday March 7 2008: Everything is back to normal. |
| And now, some pictures ..... |
| New Hope and Ivyland Railroad Warminster PA March 5 2008 |
| B745 sits just north of Street Road on the Warminster Running Track (and the siding switch), forcing New Hope and Ivyland 7087 to take the day off. When B745 outlaws on the New Hope and Ivyland, it is usually parked farther north where they interchange at Ivyland. |
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| When they depart in the evening, CSX 8885 and its mismatched number boards will lead. From information provided by Wayne Toy, CSXT 8885 is an SD40 (dead giveaways are short rear porch and rear nose brake wheel) rebuilt to SD40-2 specs. Built by EMD in 5/1967 for the Baltimore and Ohio, before becoming CSXT 8885, it was CR 6999 when rebuilt from CR 6290, and before that spent time as Central of New Jersey CNJ 3066 after it left the stable of the Baltimore and Ohio where it toiled as B&O 7487. |
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| On the other end of B745 is the more pedestrian CSXT 8864 which, as CR 6518, was part of the last order of Conrail SD40-2's back in 1979. |
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| New Hope and Ivyland 7087 is a distance relation of the two visitors, as it was born in Family Lines colors before getting successive coats of Seaboard and CSX paint. |
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| SEPTA Glenside Station Glenside PA March 6 2008 |
| Rich Pattison caught B745 making its quick turnaround at Glenside with 6150 stopping at the station after clearing the signal at South Carmel. |
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| Moments later they get the signal to head north .... |
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| and off they go, back to Lansdale. |
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All pictures from March 5 2008 Copyright © 2008 John P. Almeida All pictures from March 6 2008 Copyright © 2008 Rich Pattison Photographs for personal use only. All rights reserved by original owner of image. Reproduction or redistribution in any form without express written permission is prohibited. |
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Last Updated March 9, 2008
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Website created June 12, 2002
Website copyright © 2007 John P. Almeida
