Ken Buckman's Best of the Mohawk Sub-2006

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The Best of the Mohawk Sub -2006-

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and then it rained...

"A once in a lifetime event" as many of the locals called it occurred when the Mohawk
River, normally controlled via a man-made system of locks, suddenly went out of control.
CSXT's "Water Level" route was only one of the lines in the Northeast to be affected by
a 5-10 inch rainfall on top of an already saturated earth. Loss to personal property
in the towns of Saint Johnsville, Fort Plain, and Canajoharie was tremendous.
CSXT did an amazing job of stopping its trains and moving them to track one
(the north track). Sure enough, track two ended up being washed out in several
locations. The railroad proved they had a plan in place for such an event when
just 2 days later was operating trains, including several detours from the D&H/CP
which had suffered even worse damage along its' line.

	June 28th The power had gone out at work, so I opted to punch out and leave. I decided to get some photos of the "event", but had no idea of how bad it was going to be. My first clue was seeing Q116 at Fort Plain being moved at walking speed from track 2 to track 1 after it crossed over at CP 198.
		About two hours separate these photos of a west view taken from the Rte. 10 bridge linking Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge, NY. Q167 had to back up in order to give enough clearance for opposing train Q116 to cross over to track 1. The short train canned at Spring Street.

June 28th

The water rises at the automatic signals
at MP 201.1

June 29th

Another shot of MP 201.1, this time taken from
across the river. The relay box and track 2
took quite a beating.

July 6th

Thanks to Mother Nature, the historic
New York Central signal bridge at MP 201.1
is being replaced.

June 29th

Stranded trains... Q351 just east of
CP 196. Route 5 was still closed, and I
opted not to go beyond this point. At right
is the Q167 from the previous day, tied
down at Spring Street, MP 198.3

June 30th

With work still out of the question, I decided to go find out how one of my favorite spots had faired.
I was amazed as I exited the NY Thruway to the Lock 13 entrance. The grounds were so flooded|
that it just looked like a lake. A school of minnows had found its way to what days earlier was a
manicured lawn over 200 feet away from the river bank. A large fish, likely a Carp, kept making an appearance
swimming upstream on what was supposed to be a paved entrance road. But despite the entertainment that
nature was providing, a man-made show was unfolding. Track two had been washed away, and as men
and machines dumped and spread truckload after truckload of trap rock, trains were running again on the
mostly unscathed track one.

Q254 eases past on track one
at a speed of 10MPH, making
"lots of noise" as requested by
the track gang foreman.
Shortly afterward Q268 repeats the process.

July 1st

A day later the water had receded
quite a bit. Track two was back in
place using loads of trap rock, ballast and temporary panel track. Q156
at left and Q380 at right are still on
track one, due to #2 being repaired
at other locations.

June 30th

Nothing seems out of
the ordinary here, but
Q264 is about 12 hours
later than it usually comes
through. It is also restricted
to 10MPH.

July 1st

NS "Stealth #9924 leads a Selkirk-Buffalo Q627 at MP197.9.
At right is a humongous 592 axle K697 train. (empty ethanol)

Detours..
	June 30th The D&H/CP line was in worse shape, and it wasn't long before a few of their trains were running on the Mohawk Sub. This is CSXT symbol Z704, which would normally run from Buffalo over the NS on the Southern Tier, then north/east on the CP to Albany as #168.		July 2nd Even better was this trio of CP/SOO engines running west on CSXT symbol Z705, which is CP's #252 train. This train would make it to Binghamton, NY by diverting to the NYS&W at Syracuse.

July 26th

On a beautiful mid-summer early evening, Q381 is seen
at CP 196 with a classic
Santa Fe "yellow bonnet".

August 4th

Two nice ones at MP 198.3...
Q377 with 3 UP's and a NS
"elephant style" at left. Q380, with
the newest BNSF paint scheme
applied to the leading C40-8W,
while trailing SD40-2 remains in
BN Cascade green.

August 11th

The longer days of the year provide
excellent light for late afternoon
westbounds at CP 188. Here is
Q381, unfortunately it's without the
common BNSF power.

August 24th

As I departed work on this day, I heard Q156
call the signal at CP 198. I was heading the
same direction, and took a quick glance
toward the tracks as I drove by Spring Street.
"What the heck was that" as I saw the Iron
Road paint scheme. The chase was on, and
once I could confirm the sighting, I had to get a photo. I finally had a few seconds for a
grab shot at MP 189.8.

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