(top) Back in the good old days, the New York Central's Charlotte Branch and the Baltimore & Ohio paralleled each other for a short time as they both headed north out of Rochester for Lake Ontario. The tracks have changed a little as have the players. Now the owners are CSX and the Rochester & Southern. This shot was taken at McCall rd. in Greece NY. The R&S units are on the former B&O taking a break after delivering cars to the Eastman Kodak plant. The crew has just gone to a corner store for lunch on this cold February afternoon.
(center) This westbound Amtrak at 367 in Rochester showed up just in time for me to catch a shot of an eastbound light power movement. The timing was just about perfect.
(bottom) For a short time after the Conrail split we had an EMD GP-15 assigned to Rochester, it was a nice change from the larger Geeps usually assigned to Rochester.

(top) We're back at the Howard rd. overpass again looking east at a westbound MF, mixed freight. It was early February 2004 and there was a nice mix of power on the point. CSX, HLCX and CP Rail.
(center) Frontier Yard in Buffalo,NY had the dubious distinction of being Conrail's snowiest terminal. Luckily in this shot it's late spring and the snow has melted. Here we see an ex-Conrail Ballast Express facing west at MP 432 along with another CSX freight awaiting clearence into Frontier Yard.
(bottom) Two ex-Conrail SD-40-2's have just gotten the signal at 369 and are continuing west towards Buffalo in June of 2004.

(top) An eastbound approaches Pixley rd. in the town of Gates, N.Y. at mile post 376. This ML, or multi-level autorack train, is lead by a former UP and CSX EMD.
(center) The town of Lyons lies east of Rochester about 35 miles. This eastbound manifest freight is passing the Agway plant just east of the town center.
(bottom) One thing I have found myself missing are the once common switchers. One night on my way home from a "B" shift job I spied this little engine sitting in Rochester Yard. I got some decent night shots for being moonless and midnight!

Conrail 71's rail pics: June 2006

Conrail 71's rail pics: June 2006

(top)This train outlawed, the crew worked to the legal time limit, and was shot while waiting for a new crew at CP 369. Quite a few trains through Rochester feature a diverse mix of power such as this train here with BNSF heritage, NS black and AT&SF blue and yellow on the point.
(center) On another day we see a BNSF GE unit waiting for the switch job to clear before making a drop at Rochester. In the foreground we see a westbound Amtrak just minutes from Rochester station.
(bottom) This is a local I caught on my way to work Friday morning at 5:45am. The locals that work this job carry a locomotive on each end of the train to facilitate switching the opposing spurr into the industry.

West of Rochester is the town of Gates, New York. The first photo is of a short local switching an industry at Pixley rd. or MP 376. The second two photos are of an eastbound TOFC from the Howard rd. overpass. In the "going away shot" you can see the large quarry at the corners of Buffalo and Howard rd.

These pictures were taken at mile post 367 just east of the Goodman st. yard. The first photo shows one of the last remaining units painted in Chessie System colors in a consist headed east with a manifest freight. The second shot shows two freshly painted HLCX lease units on the tail end of a west bound light engine movement. The last shot has 2 CSX GE units speeding a UPS train towards Buffalo, Chicago and points west.

These photos were taken at Rochester, N.Y.'s Goodman St. yard. Once part of New York Central, the yard was passed to Penn Central and then Conrail in 1976. The yard came under CSX's control in the CR split in 1999. (top) Taken from the Main st. bridge looking east we see a BNSF GE and a ex-Trona Railways SD waiting on 3 main to make a drop in the yard. (top, right) From the Main st. bridge looking west we see the 369 signal bridge and 3 west bound sets of power. On the left are 2 of CSX's 6 axle GE units, in the center are UP and ex-SP units on a hot TV/container train and on the right are the 2 CSX GP's that are assingned to yard duty. (bottom) The third photo shows 2 of the yard engines shacked up with a pair of visiting 6 axle GE's during a light flurry on a COLD January night.