#2102 

You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it! 2102 is strong and loud and such a joy to experience on trips like this.

Good morning Dennis! Russ is a HUGE Bob Barker phone in case his microphone wasn't a giveaway lol.

Thanks Marilyn!

Hey there, thanks so much!

This was a really awesome stretch of the ride and really showed what man and machine could do. Glad you enjoyed the ride too!

Why didn't they need the diesels for dynamic braking from Penobscot to Nesquehoning? It's downhill, too just like from Mountain Top to Pittston. I hope eventually Andy buys the track from Mt. Carmel to Sunbury and Allentown to Hazleton and Mehoopany to Athens (below Sayre). I could see NS selling the Allentown to Hazleton line and the Mehoopany to Athens section if Lehigh Railway pulls out.

@@robkrasinski6217 Penobscot to Pittston is a much steeper grade.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! I would have liked to get a better view of that area too, but I wasn't well set up for it. Hopefully on another trip soon.

Thanks buddy!

425 is still in restoration and they fired it up outside at the steamshop on the turn table. It looked like in the picture I saw the striped the paint.

Thanks so much! 425 is still coming along slowly but surely. At some point later this summer I'll be filming another update video, but I've got to get through some other stuff first. The red RDC (#9164) should be put into service very soon, and I'll be doing a video of that as soon as possible. I'm not sure what's up with the Port Clinton camera, other than it's been down for a while.

@@JamieMakin Thank you Jamie for the info

Hopefully someday they will be!

I noticed the same thing about that connecting track, although the rail did appear to be shiny - I guess it could have been the angle of view?

Unfortunately Norfolk-Southern will not allow passenger trains on their lines, so R&N can't do an excursion to Steamtown. I'm not sure what's up with the connector track as I'm not as familiar with freight operations as I am passenger.

Is R&N's rule now for passenger trains is that they must only run on R&N owned track? That means they won't even run on short lines that are excursion friendly, like the Shamokin Valley to Sunbury which is part of North Shore and operates their own occasional excursions? I guess the only way to do a Steamtown excursion would be to bus people from Pittston station. They have to bus people to the tomato fest in August because it's probably far from the station. In the mid-late 1980's the 2102 (and 425 and diesels) ran excursions over Conrail to various cities and places that will never happen again. You will never see 2102 in the state capital again for example. Most of the Conrail track is NS now. There were chartered Amtrak, PRR E8, and even steam excursions on NS until the Amtrak excursion ban in March 2018. I rode behind 765 twice on NS in PA, Horseshoe Curve Special on May 25, 2013 and Lehigh Gorge Special from near Bethlehem to Pittston and return over NS and RBMN on Aug 22, 2015. And 611 Manassas, VA onto a freight only NS line 104 mile round trip on June 6, 2016 and at Strasburg Sept 2019. Does that mean no excursions beyond Mehoopany unless Andy buys the track to Athens, PA? The upcoming RDC trip is going to Vosburg tunnel which is before Mehoopany. The track from Mehoopany to Athens is leased by NS to Lehigh Railway. Does R&N's liability insurance for excursion trains only cover their own railroad and nobody else's? And NS won't allow open window coaches or friction bearings on its tracks. And PTC is a requirement now on class 1's. I think R&N is exempt being a class II.

It's Norfolk Southern's rule that R&N can't run passenger trains on their tracks. I don't know the specifics and insurance issues, but it is a bummer. Fortunately R&N has over 400 miles of tracks through many beautiful areas for folks to enjoy.

And now it is much harder if not impossible to run any kind of excursion on NS since March 2018, when Amtrak banned excursions. NS had a second steam program from Sept. 2011-May 2017 and even before that they hosted Amtrak charter trains, Amtrak excursions, PRR E8 (Bennett Levin) excursions, etc. but now those are no more and basically there are no excursions on NS at all. That means that it's impossible to ride the freight only NS lines now unless you get a job with them. I rode on the NS track from Bethlehem area to Old Penn Haven on Aug 22, 2015 behind 765 from New Haven, IN. The excursion was to Pittston and back. The train turned on the Pittston wye while we were on board. That excursion wouldn't be possible now because of PTC requirement on NS, and NS not really willing to host excursions after May 2017 and CEO changes. A different CEO can view excursions as a liability.

I haven't heard any news about 5022 since two years ago when it was moved to the dead track. At the time the word was they were going to scrap it, however that hasn't happened yet. Not sure what the future holds for it now.