Current D-L operations

How far from Scranton does the D-L currently operate? Do they serve the old Tobyhanna army depot at all? What are track speeds/conditions like? Also does anything move west of Scranton Yard?

DL runs to Slateford to interchange with NS roughly 3 times a week with it's PT98/PT97 job. There are also grain trains (SPG) which run a couple times a week to Mount Pocono. They serve the army depot occasionally, but it's rare. What do you mean by "west of Scranton Yard?"

What I mean is does anything go the opposite direction of Moscow, PA the other direction when starting at Scranton Yard.

The army depot now has only 1 spur but if you look at old overheads it has a track between each building. I guess it was busy during WWII and 'Nam.

Gotcha. Directly to the west of the yard is CP's Sunbury Subdivision, which generally sees 8 or 9 through trains day. DL runs transfers to CP's Taylor Yard almost every day too.

There is also the Carbondale branch that used to be the D&H Penn Division. This track has seen a recent increase in activity due to the re-building of the yard in Carbondale. These tracks go right by my house.

Mike

Tobyhanna is presently inactive when it comes to rail. A gas company and I tried worked together to try to lease the yard for our rail operations but the commander of the base is apparently VERY anti-rail. With the defense budget being as large as it is and with the deficit being a large concern one would have thought that a base commander would like to see a few hundred thousand on the bottom line in income for an inactive rail yard but apparently not.

My two Senators and my Congressman have the issue on their desks and I expect a reply sooner or later...

The line up to Carbondale is going to be seeing a lot more activity soon. Linde did a heck of a job rebuilding the place and there's a lot of capacity up that way now for pipe/sand/brine etc.

SemperFidelis wrote:Tobyhanna is presently inactive when it comes to rail. A gas company and I tried worked together to try to lease the yard for our rail operations but the commander of the base is apparently VERY anti-rail. With the defense budget being as large as it is and with the deficit being a large concern one would have thought that a base commander would like to see a few hundred thousand on the bottom line in income for an inactive rail yard but apparently not.

My two Senators and my Congressman have the issue on their desks and I expect a reply sooner or later...

I hope you are successful. My understanding is the commander of the base wants to tear up all of the track at the depot and he has apparently done this at his last two posts. Even if you can't get a lease to use it let's hope he is at least stopped from tearing it up. Someday it might make Tobyhanna move up on the base closing list.

The yard is around 8 tracks - all rusty rails. There were historic pax cars parked there 10-15 years ago in storage. You can tell on the old arial maps the place was once full of tracks. Between each warehouyse building there was a rr track. You can still make out the ROWs if you look hard enough.

I don't know what the base would get shipped in by rail, but the 3 spurs that remail into the place are all parked over by trucks or in the weeds. In fact the whole place looks like a car lot full of jeeps and trucks. Based on the color I'd say for Iraq.

The 1959 arial shows the yard empty too and no cars spotted on any of the sidings. I guess it was busy during WWII but after that it sputtered.

I have been told that for a while in the early 1960's Pullman stored a lot of heavyweight sleeping cars there. The military had a lease on a number of cars in case there was a wartime emergency and they needed to be able to run troop trains on short notice. These contracts ended in the mid to late 1960's as it became obvious these kinds of troop movements would be done by air (or bus).

DL 4103 has been out in road service for a month and no one noticed? No pictures? She has been out MU'ed with the 414 and 405...

Last picture I saw of 4103 it looked really nice
How often would u see the other Rs3's
Because I live here in Connecticut and I will see an Rs1 in Danbury, Connecticut