Southern Tier - West of Binghamton

sallenparks wrote:There's a FerroMex ES4400 siting in the Elmira yard right now about the Fourth different FerroMex engine or so on the tier. The autos and stacks are good size trains some times solid with a refill for locos right behind the newish Walmart it makes for easy grab shots off filo road. always fun on the tier.

Lucky.... now i miss STML more and more.
Pittsburgh line stinks

Btw West Philo Rd is where they refuel (behind W*M & NYSEG)

In following the reports of the S&A heritage unit the other day, I noticed the train was held at Gang Mills due to MOW east of Corning. Was that just a 1 day project?

Got a lucky view today. As I crossed over the line in Lancaster, I looked up at the signal on my left. It was solid green so I immediately looked right and there was the lead unit with the triangle of lights flashing away coming towards me. I pulled over and waited. It was an interesting bunch. 2 NS locomotives, 1 Yellow Susquehanna and 1 small gray switcher. They were pulling a variety of cars and they were inbound to Buffalo.

You saw 309, the daily mixed freight that runs from Elmira to Bellevue. I saw the NS locos from that train while they refueled at Gang Mills on Friday 10/24. The gray switcher came from GE Railcar in Sayre, PA. Local H12 brought her to Elmira on Thrusday 10/23 and the switcher was trailing the widecabs at Gang Mills. The Suzie Q unit had been set out previously at Canaseraga (for an unknown reason) so 309 must have made a rare stop there.

Passed by Baker Street yard today and noticed that it was almost full (four of five tracks) for a change with a large number of sand hoppers as well as tankers and auto racks. Also appeared to be a very long mixed freight parked on the Corning Secondary main waiting for power before heading out on the Tier. Gang Mills also looked full (mostly hoppers) much like it did a few years ago. Just speculation but I would say that the volume of sand hoppers has grown significantly since early to mid September.

Poppyl

When did they start originating a train at Elmira? Nice to see an increase in traffic, instead of the other way around like usual!

Also, has anything actually started at Portage yet?

The eastern terminus for 310 and departure point for 309 was moved from Gang Mills to Elmira about 3 years ago. NS did this because the rising traffic level was causing congestion at Gang Mills.

Assuming NS acquires the D&H south end, I wonder if manifest traffic between the Midwest and New England will be re-routed via the Southern Tier (once again) instead of the current routing via Enola Yard? Perhaps acquiring Binghamton Yard will make this possible.

Too finish with GE in Sayre their now using a black GMTX SW1500 number when I get the pic. My dad took it he doesn't use digital so I wait.

NS is having their third hiring session in as many months next week in Binghamton. They're gearing up for something good in the area. Many have been hired already.

Hello,

NS I believe has hired a total of 16 Conductor Trainee's thus far in Binghamton Terminal. 8 or 10 are already on the road qualifying North and South of Binghamton on the D&H and the remaining 6-8 are either in Georgia getting their book training or scheduled to go shortly for book training. Almost every NS train running on the D&H has had trainees lately, sometimes both a conductor and engineer trainee!

NS has also promoted at least 2 current conductors and sent them to engine school. They are now out on the road qualifying and at least another 8-10 current conductors are supposed to promoted and sent for engine school/qualifications in the coming months.

The third hiring session has a target goal of at least an additional 8 Conductor Trainee hires on top of the 16 that have already been hired. As more and more trainees qualify, there is supposed to be additional promotions of current personnel and more engine school classes being hosted. When all is said and done, NS will have created over a dozen additional crews just from these recent hires. And there is rumors that more hires are still to come!

One thing is for sure, big things seem to be coming with this massive pumping up of the crew pool!

Jim Cerulli

Jim I assume this is on top of the roughly 150 D&H employees that NS says they will be offering jobs to?

Hiring session number 4 this Wednesday in Binghamton for anyone interested! They're going to have a whole army up there soon.

they might be having this many sessions cause they can't get anyone to stay or pass the classes.

How many crews does/did CP have on the former D&H? I'm thinking NS may have to hire alot of new employees to replace them.