Rush hour on the rails in Lehigh Gorge State Park | April 7, 2024 

The NS train was an Allentown to Hazleton local. I live just west of Allentown and there is the Foglesville industrial track near me. NS used to have a train from Allentown to Binghamton, NY called 12T and 13T but I think that is gone now. RBMN has more traffic than NS in the Jim Thorpe area. And NS has no passenger trains, but they did have steam excursions again from Sept 2011 to May 2017 and in late August 2015 the Fort Wayne 765 pulled two excursions from west of Bethlehem to Pittston and back. I was on the Saturday one. 765 and 425 exchanged whistle blasts when 765 was going north on the other side of the river on the NS track, ex-LV, and when entering Jim Thorpe on the return trip. But, R&N has coaches with openable windows and open air cars. NS considered open windows and open vestibule doors on 21st Century Steam excursions a liability. But, sometimes a crew member from NS or one of the museums that participated in the program opened a vestibule door while the train was moving. They mostly used streamlined coaches with roller bearings which are safer than older journal box friction (plain) bearings which can hotbox and trip detectors. RBMN has a bunch of coaches with journal boxes but I read they are converting some to roller bearing. There were a few Lehigh Gorge guys (employees) on the 765 train in August 2015. They must have got on at Bethlehem which was the site of the former Conrail Trailvan piggyback facility on the ex-LV side. We were bused in a school bus to and from the boarding site, and we had to park in a parking lot on the former Bethlehem Steel property. My late father who passed March 8, 1986 worked for Bethlehem Steel. The company went defunct in 2003 and was sold, and the main Bethlehem plant closed Nov 1995 and the coke works 1998.

Thanks so much @bekleidungu.ausrustung7068! The NS H66 has really spiced things up in the gorge this spring, even though RBMN gives us plenty to enjoy.

Thanks for sharing those cool memories @robkrasinski6217!

You're welcome!

Thanks so much!

Thanks Marilyn!

Good evening Dennis! I rushed through reading your comment because the cats are rushing me to dispense treats to them so I'm rushing to finish typing this before they chew off my fingers!

No steam though. Looking forward to the 2102 ride on June 22 which has sold out. it will be my fourth time behind 2102 and first time behind 2102 on the Lehigh Gorge route. I hope nothing goes wrong with 2102 and they substitute diesels. I like the Reading look of R&N diesels though. NS is boring black and white, and so was Penn Central. I grew up mostly in the Conrail era though and patched Penn Central units survived into the 80's and other predecessor railroads like Reading, LV, CNJ. But, Conrail painted a lot of their diesels blue as well. I was born Jan 14, 1974 and Conrail started April 1, 1976. BM&R started Sept. 1983 and tourist operations July 13, 1985. RBMN name Dec 1990 and BM&R name was retired after 1995.

Thanks so much, Scott! It really has been fun having the NS H66 added into the mix of Sunday trains this year.

@robkrasinski6217 I'm looking forward to the June 22nd ride too! It's always a thrill to ride behind 2102 and to go into new-to-me territory on that trip will be a nice bonus.

Thanks Dennis!

Thanks, Ian! And I totally know what you mean about the days blurring together.

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video, and I appreciate you sharing all that info and your memories of SD40-2's running in Colorado.

@@JamieMakin Your welcome! And I enjoyed this train video very much. As you could imagine, I have a lot of HO SD40-2's, some in Conrail, at least one C&NW, a few Burlington Northern and even some Norfolk Southern. The BN SD40-2's were once "ubiquitous", as I saw them just about everywhere back in the '90s. I also have a few Amtrak GE P40 Genesis engines in the "Pepsi Can" scheme, along with matching Amtrak passenger cars and baggage cars. (Mostly from Walthers) I have a roughly 30 year collection of mostly HO trains and locomotives. I even have some European trains in HO in Deutche Bahn lettering and painted beige and blue, which is a German Railway. I rode on the "Duty Train" when I lived in Germany many moons ago, as that was where my father was stationed while he was in the US Army. He was stationed in Potsdam, outside of Berlin, Germany. (My father was one of the "lucky ones" that didn't get sent to Vietnam, but was assigned to the "Liaison Mission" to spy on the Soviets.) My dad retired from the Army in 1992, while he was stationed at Fort Carson, south of Colorado Springs. And so, my interest in trains began as a very young kid.

That's awesome that you've had a lifetime of railfanning to enjoy. I started as a young kid too. Last year I got the Amtrak P42 "Pepsi Can" in N scale. That's always been my scale, but my dad had a huge HO collection and layout.

Thanks so much! Yes, spring ridership tends to be lower than summer and fall, so the trains are usually shorter. The exception tends to be the Easter Bunny trains which are pretty long. The train length is adjusted each day if needed to accommodate the anticipated ridership.