2-28-07 Switcher Returns to Rochester !!!

After I dropped the baby off at daycare today I stopped at McDonald's and got my coffee and took a swing by the yard on my way home. I noticed a flag pole with Old Glory flying high in the Atlantic ave. end of the yard. Is that a new pole? Then I headed down Atlantic under the bridge and right onto Anderson. As I came across the Main st. bridge I got a great surprise, there was a switcher working the yard!!! Finally a break from the GP style carbodied units. CSX, MP 15 T, number 1217 was busy sorting cars. I watched them for about 20 minutes til they went on a coffee break then I came home to shovel the driveway. I have a special place in my heart for the lowly switcher as my first cab-ride was in the cab of PC SW 1500 number 9565, pictured here at Atlantic ave. Ain't she pretty!

February 14, 2007

As the first stack train held at 369 on track 1 another WB stack train came by on 3 main. A few minutes after the train on 3 main cleared an EB mixed freight plowed it's way into the yard on 4 main to make some picks and drops. As the conducter on board conferred with the tower my daughter was impressed at hearing a female conductor on the radio! As the train crept into the yard we were treated to a former BN Cascade Green lease unit!

February 14,2007

Wow, we got snow!!! I mean it ain't Oswego style snow, but it's snow. Just as I pulled up to the yard a WB stack train pulled up to the signal at 369 and stopped. The snow jet was also busy in the yard clearing switches this morning. The snow jet is a piece of machinery that uses a jet engine similar to one in the U.S. Army's CH-47 Chinook helicopters to melt and blast snow from switch points to get them moving again in snowy areas. Also as you can see the Amtrak Genesis is still marooned in the yard. Now her face is covered in snow and the red markers are still lit.

February 12, 2007

"Hey, what the....." That was my reaction this morning when I spotted this Amtrak engine sitting in the yard this morning. I thought, hmmm the local crews aren't going to like switching with that thing. It must have died near Rochester and was set out to be picked up and delivered to a maintenance base at a later date.
After shooting the Amtrak engine I was getting ready to leave when this peddler freight came under the Main St. bridge. This was a fairly short train maybe 30 or 40 cars. The 2 SD-40-2's would handle it with little trouble I'm sure.

A couple of posts ago I posted a photo of a Conrail engine from the early 80's, this is a model this is a model I'm attempting to build of that engine. It's about half finished.
On February 7, 2007 in Rochester, I saw a solid Union Pacific train heading west. The power was 3 UP flag engines and the train was a solid string of UP reefers! I can't say I've ever seen that before.

February 7, 2007

Today at the Goodman st. yard the traffic was hot and heavy for about an hour or so. The first train shown is Amtrak's #48 the Lake Shore Limited followed 45 minutes later by train #286.
While a local, B-790 I think, was getting together in the yard a string of empty autoracks went by on the main being led by an SD-45 lease unit

This is an Alco RS-11 on Rochester, N.Y. in the late 1970's that I have decided to try to build a model of. Unfortunately photos are hard to come by of specific pieces of railroad equipment. I have this one photo of this particular engine and other photos of her sister units. Now, if someone out in the world would possibly have a pic they could scan and send to me I could finish my model and post the pics.