CSX Train Q-004 detours down the NYS&W

On Monday, October 24th, 2011 CSX detoured a "hot" intermodal train, Q-004, down the NYS&W Syracuse dvision, the NS/CNY Southern Tier, and the NYS&W Southern Division. The detour was account of bridge repair outside of Selkirk, NY which closed the line for 24 hours on Sunday night.

The power was CSXT #7738, CSXT #9018, and CSXT #5473, followed by 11,000 feet of intermodal traffic (I counted 56 individual cars, but many "cars" were sets of 3 or 5; the train was well over 2 miles long).

This movement was riddled with problems, however. Upon leaving Syracuse, the train made the hill northbound out of town at 4mph. Once in Binghamton and on the NS/CNY Southern Tier, the train stalled going over Gulf Summit. Then, the first crew outlawed account of the slow transit time. A relief crew was called in and the train again moved east.

Once on the NYS&W Southern Division, the train again stalled going over Sparta Mountain and it took a few hours and multiple attempts to get over it. Once it got over the mountain, that crew then ran short on time and had to be re-crewed at Stockholm, NJ.

Once that relief crew came on board, the train continued east again. About 30 minutes after getting underway, the train took out a utility pole in Butler, NJ. The cause is unknown, but either the stacks were loaded too high, overhead wires were hanging to low, or the tree branches were sagging so much due to the extremely wet conditions of the soil, that one of the stacks caught a tree branch, which then eventually got snagged on some wires, which then took down a pole. 30 minutes later, a similar situation occurred in Franklin Lakes, NJ. This time the train was stopped and inspected, blocking 4 major crossings for about 40 minutes (Franklin Ave, PV Well, Shelter Lane, and Ramapo Valley Road-Route 202).

Finally, at 12:05pm the train was on the move again, but there were concerns about height clearance under the NJT bridge at Passaic Junction (Midland Ave), so the 2+ mile long train was to be walked "underneath" the bridge just to be safe.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• NYSW
• trains
• Susquehanna
• Q004
• Q-004
• New Jersey

[ns3010]

Woah, what a monster! Great catch!

[ELSD45801]

Nice! Once again the good stuff happens while I'm at work :(