September 17th

The American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners (AAPRCO) operated a chartered train to the
Northeast.  Although the train's ultimate destination was the Steamtown RR Museum in Scranton, PA,
the train made visits to several lines on its way.  Here is the train at Lock 13 in Randall, NY.
My attempt to photograph each car and assemble into one picture was tricky.

More detouring, this time it's due to a
landslide at Emsworth, PA, near Pittsburgh,
blocking the vital east-west Norfolk Southern
route.  This is CSXT symbol X703, which
is the 24J train for the NS (S. Kearny, NJ to
Willard, OH).

October 5th

Along with the ballast train, my lunch
break today featured the weekly Q152
with a new UP "ACE" leading, and a
late Q159 with a NS, UP, UP lashup.
These shots are from Spring Street in
Palatine Bridge.

October 22nd

At right, NS #9148 leads another Norfolk Southern
detour, at CP 196.  This time it's X704.  The reason is
a derailment in New Brighton, PA of an.
ethanol train on the 20th.

At left is perhaps the highlight for CSX during
the year.  The first Q090 roars east at CP 196.
The unit train of specially equipped refrigerated
boxcars carries produce from Washington
State to a new modern distribution warehouse
at Rotterdam Jct. NY.  CSXT and the UP
work as one to move this train cross-country
in a minimal amount of time.

Nothing really special about Q620,
but the lack of foliage at this time of
year creates an opportunity to get
sunlit photos from Riverfront Park
in Canajoharie.  This is MP 198.

November 22nd

K651 at Spring Street.
The interesting re-routes were
soon to end, as Amtrak began
allowing the trains to use its'
corridor through D.C. albeit
with restrictions such as using
4-axle power, and only during
a certain time period.

November 20th

A real surprise visitor to the "Water Level Route" was the Tropicana
Juice train.  The culprit was the Anacostia River lift Bridge
near Washington D.C.  Safety inspections determined that the
bridge was in need of immediate attention, so several CSX trains
were re-routed.  The round-about route for the OJ train was
confusing, but this Railfan wasn't complaining!
On this dark morning both K651 and K650 showed at MP 200.7
within six minutes.  K650 also had mixed freight trailing.

A nice one during today's' lunch
break was Q152 with a
GE, EMD, GE, EMD quartet of
Union Pacific power.  The train
is at MP 198.3.

While running an errand in Fort Plain,
the announcement of a clear signal at
CP 198 had me quickly rush to the
Rte 80 overpass for a shot of an
unknown empty grain train.  The calendar
said it was almost Christmas, but the
temperatures on this day didn't agree.