UP Power on Riverline in NJ

Hi all;
I don't know if this is a rare thing I saw today, or if it's a common (like, weekly) sight.
I was on my 1st lap running at the Votee Park, Teaneck bike path when I heard the horn at New Bridge rd, Bergenfield. A few moments later, the southbound shows up. Two UP locos (can't tell you what numbers or type, just normal road locos I guess) and fewer than 50 auto van cars.
I am thinking this is a run-through from UP territory, or was it pool power from Selkirk?
In any case, it's the first time I've ever seen pure UP power on the Riverline. I've seen lots of leased former UP locos, but these were the real thing!

Would have loved to be in a position with my camera, but the only camera I had on me was my cell phone, and I was running, so there wasn't even a chance to grab a photo with it.

FW

when leaving the model railroad shop in piscataway, a n/b or e/b stack train flew by with a conrail sd60 leading and BNSF blue and yellow long nose sd40-2 trailing.

Run-thru UP power is pretty common up here in Western NY State as well. Many of these trains come from or go to Jersey.

There were two Southbound Autorack trains on the Riverline on Tuesday.....If you were out jogging around Midday or in early afternoon, you likely saw a Southbound Q232.....A Q268 came down the Riverline earlier on Tuesday, but that was well before dawn.....UP power is not a rarity on this line....I have caught pure UP consists on several occasions up around Iona Island on anything from ethanol trains to hotshot intermodals...I have also caught pure CN consists on ethanol trains as well as Autorack trains.

Hell, up here in Rochester, I see a UP consist pretty much every time I go out. I I had to estimate, I'd say maybe 4-5 trains come through here every day with solid sets of UP power. Many of these terminate at Selkirk, and it's not uncommon for them to go South on the River Line.

Last night's Q157 was heard over the scanner calling with a UP leader...

CPSK wrote:Hi all;
I don't know if this is a rare thing I saw today, or if it's a common (like, weekly) sight.
I was on my 1st lap running at the Votee Park, Teaneck bike path when I heard the horn at New Bridge rd, Bergenfield. A few moments later, the southbound shows up. Two UP locos (can't tell you what numbers or type, just normal road locos I guess) and fewer than 50 auto van cars.
I am thinking this is a run-through from UP territory, or was it pool power from Selkirk?
In any case, it's the first time I've ever seen pure UP power on the Riverline. I've seen lots of leased former UP locos, but these were the real thing!

Would have loved to be in a position with my camera, but the only camera I had on me was my cell phone, and I was running, so there wasn't even a chance to grab a photo with it.

FW

These were likely to be SD70M's, since they're commonly used on auto trains here in the midwest...

While foriegn power usually shows up on dedicated trains like Q380/381 with BNSF power (most of the time), Q390/351 with UP power. Occassionally UP power and BNSF power wheels in on another train and gets sent out on the next train requiring power to somewhere. From Dewitt it has been unknown for Q625/624 Road switchers, to end up with a pure foreign power consist. Once on the RR, CSX will throw engines foreign or not into the power pool and away they go on the next train needing power.

UP units have been common in former Conrail territory for as long as I've been railfanning - solid sets, individual units, heck they used a UP SD40-2 as a Dewitt Yard switcher one night. I've seen them go north out of Syracuse once in a while, as well as east and west.

Here is a shot that I took about a month ago of a Southbound Q164 at Fort Montgomery, NY with pure UP power in consist ...as seen from the top of Anthony's Nose Mountain http://www.flickr.com/photos/30144616@N04/2971179685/