Filmed on: 10/17/22
No TLDR, sorry!
On the morning of October 17th, 2022, our cameras are located in Salamanca NY, along the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad’s main line. Me and a few friends had picked out this date a few weeks in advance to chase Salamanca to Puxatawny manifest train SIRI, and when we arrived, we were more than delighted to find ourselves a trio of orange and black SD60 wide cab locomotives. Built in the mid 1990s, the SD60 locomotives are a rare treat to see, as most were thrown off of the Class 1 rosters and sold to leasing companies during the Precision Scheduled Railroading frenzy. The B&P acquired these locomotives in early 2020 from LTEX and have been operating ever since. As of recently, these workhorses are starting to show their age and the rumor of replacements coming is in the air. At 0900 the crew gets onboard and at 0910 they pull forward to begin their work in the yard. As they do this, we jump to Carrollton, NY; to get our shots set up. Carrollton NY is where the Buffalo & Pittsburgh railroad goes overtop of the Western New York & Pennsylvania railroad. B&P 3883s Leslie RS3L breaks the silence and lets us know that SIRI is on its way through town. B&P 3883 was built in 1995 for Conrail, originally numbered 5630. Second in the lineup is B&P 3888, built in 1993 as Conrail 5521. CSX removed this locomotive's marker lights in early 2009, making this the only SD60 that does not have marker lights on the nose of the unit. Last but not least is B&P 3889, built in 1993 as Conrail 5543. Racing the train on State route 291, we cross into the state of Pennsylvania. We set up again south of Tuna Cross Road as SIRI flies into town to make its pickups at Foster Brook. After cutting away from its train, the locomotives pull forward to the end of the switching lead in order to reverse into the oil refinery. Still standing here are vintage Baltimore & Ohio Railroad CPLs, although their heads are turned as of now. After making its pickups, SIRI gets his track warrant to continue south as he passes over Main Street. Starting in Lewis Run, the Buffalo & Pittsburgh mainline ascends into a steep 1.5 % grade that lasts all the way to Mt. Jewett. Trains can usually make it up this grade, but today they would just so happen to stall. Not once, not twice, FOUR times. There were multiple reasons for this to happen. The major one being mother nature. With the skies being wet and gloomy, and fall leaves on the ground and rails, it would already be a tough tackle up the hill. To make matters worse, of the three units, they only had one operational sander. These mechanisms drop sand on the rails in front of the wheels in order to increase traction when going up grades. We have our cameras set up just north of Droney Road, In Lewis Run Pennsylvania, where we can see SIRI just barely peek its nose around the corner. After the first stall, the crew cuts the engines away to run light up the hill in order to sand the rails without a heavy load behind them. After sanding the hill, the crew would move to the third unit, 3889, and run the power back to their train. Once the power is re-attached, they would reverse a short distance then proceed to take on the grade again. Alas, Attempt number two would once again be unsuccessful. Attempts Three and Four went similarly, as they backed down and started up again. The problem was resolved by the crew doing a maneuver known by railroaders as “doubling the hill,” where the train is cut into two halves, and is taken piece by piece up the hill, until it can be re-assembled. We move to Mt Jewett Pennsylvania, at Control Point Boyer. This is home to one of the few remaining active CTC blocks on the B&P system, being installed in the 1950s and still going strong in late 2022. Once at the other end of the siding, SIRI will drop its cars into the siding, and then reverse down the hill back to Lewis Run to grab the rest of its train. On our return, we stopped back in Bradford to get some lunch, where we found the Bradford local, BR-1, returning from switching out Georgia Pacific’s location on the south end of town. Leading the train north would be B&P 3119, originally built for the Penn Central Railroad, and on the rear would be B&P 2177, originally built for the Southern Railway. After BR-1 glided past our cameras, we headed back west for home.
Mason: / @westernpennsylvaniara...
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Ron: / @ns_5350
Sebastian: / randomrailadventures
Joey: www.flickr.com...
Paul: / norfolksouthernmodel
Aidan: / acvtrain
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