Yesterday was such a nice day, my friend and I departed from Lancaster and headed south. Lancaster airport sits along the CSX mainline and while preflighting, the line was active. In the 10 minutes or so on the ground, several trains went by in both directions. A great place to have an airplane stored.
So off we go to our destination of Bradford, PA. We followed the BR&P on the first leg. Nothing to report most of the way there. Once over Bradford, there were several tank cars around the area at the “traditional” spots. But saw no movements. We landed, had lunch and I convinced the pilot flying to head to Keating Summit. 20 miles to the ESE of BFD. We departed BFD and flew the route to just north of the summit. It looked like we flew over some abandoned ROW but I don’t know who they were. I’ll have to dig out a map some time and check it out. Upon arriving at the line we turned south.
On my aeronautical chart, Keating Summit is shown as a little tiny town. As we flew over it, it isn’t really even a town. More like a couple of houses clustered along the road. Visibility was excellent as I could easily see Port Alleghany. Anyway, we flew south along the line but it was difficult from the air to really get a feel for the grade. But I did see the summit before turning northbound. Fuel was limiting.
I’m glad we flew to Keating Summit because it changed our routing back to Lancaster. Basically we followed the line all the way back through Arcade which allowed me to make some interesting observations. First thing I noticed was no activity. I did see a few covered hoppers at Port Alleghany. It looks like the PADOT has just finished a major road repair/replacement of bridges.
Eventually we crossed back into NY and passed to the east of Olean. No movements noted. As we flew north along the line I began to see snow covering the rails. Even if there is no activity the snow usually melts over the rails. I took a long hard look and there are sections south of Franklinville that are still covered by snow. Anywhere along the line where the line bends to an easterly heading, and with a hill on the south side of the line [sun block] the snow is covering the rails. I’m thinking this line is inactive.
As we approached Franklinville, I could see railcars on the line north of the town. As we got closer I could see that these were covered hoppers……then I noticed that there were no locomotives hooked up to them. Their are two sets of cars sitting on the line. One is about 50 or so cars….the other is maybe 30. I guess they are there for storage. That explains the snow cover to the south.
Then we came upon Machias. No movements but signs of activity. There were several hoppers parked in the area and no snow covered rails. We passed Arcade but it was out of my view so I didn’t see much and then headed back directly to Lancaster.
Looks like part of the Olean Line is on the inactive list for a while.
So off we go to our destination of Bradford, PA. We followed the BR&P on the first leg. Nothing to report most of the way there. Once over Bradford, there were several tank cars around the area at the “traditional” spots. But saw no movements. We landed, had lunch and I convinced the pilot flying to head to Keating Summit. 20 miles to the ESE of BFD. We departed BFD and flew the route to just north of the summit. It looked like we flew over some abandoned ROW but I don’t know who they were. I’ll have to dig out a map some time and check it out. Upon arriving at the line we turned south.
On my aeronautical chart, Keating Summit is shown as a little tiny town. As we flew over it, it isn’t really even a town. More like a couple of houses clustered along the road. Visibility was excellent as I could easily see Port Alleghany. Anyway, we flew south along the line but it was difficult from the air to really get a feel for the grade. But I did see the summit before turning northbound. Fuel was limiting.
I’m glad we flew to Keating Summit because it changed our routing back to Lancaster. Basically we followed the line all the way back through Arcade which allowed me to make some interesting observations. First thing I noticed was no activity. I did see a few covered hoppers at Port Alleghany. It looks like the PADOT has just finished a major road repair/replacement of bridges.
Eventually we crossed back into NY and passed to the east of Olean. No movements noted. As we flew north along the line I began to see snow covering the rails. Even if there is no activity the snow usually melts over the rails. I took a long hard look and there are sections south of Franklinville that are still covered by snow. Anywhere along the line where the line bends to an easterly heading, and with a hill on the south side of the line [sun block] the snow is covering the rails. I’m thinking this line is inactive.
As we approached Franklinville, I could see railcars on the line north of the town. As we got closer I could see that these were covered hoppers……then I noticed that there were no locomotives hooked up to them. Their are two sets of cars sitting on the line. One is about 50 or so cars….the other is maybe 30. I guess they are there for storage. That explains the snow cover to the south.
Then we came upon Machias. No movements but signs of activity. There were several hoppers parked in the area and no snow covered rails. We passed Arcade but it was out of my view so I didn’t see much and then headed back directly to Lancaster.
Looks like part of the Olean Line is on the inactive list for a while.
