NS taking over part of D&H, fate of Bangor & Slateford??

Hello, is anybody out there? Two weeks ago saw two hoppers at Slateford. That was it. Have they re-routed anything yet? I have been stuck inside all winter so I didn't see what the local brought up on Tues.,Thurs. and Sats. I do know that one of the Saturday locals had BOTH CNJ and DL&W Heritage units on it.

The DL/NS interchange has not been moved as of yet and likely won't be until at least the middle of this year at the very earliest (if at all). Nobody really knows how the NS takeover of the D&H is going to effect operations, but we do know NS plans to utilize Taylor Yard near Scranton much more heavily than CP currently does for Freight Operations.

The current grumbling is that NS service to Taylor Yard and car/interchange availability will far outpace the 3 day per week service to Slateford that NS/DL currently have. I have heard that NS will have a nearly daily to daily train arriving and departing Taylor Yard handling local/interchange cars. The Grain for Mt. Pocono will likely be moving in Unit train form via the D&H and Scranton as well.

I have a feeling the interchange will eventually be moved to Taylor for the following reasons:

1.) It would be far easier for NS to do the interchange at Taylor with having an existing yard job and a local based out of that yard each day.
2.) DL currently only has 3 day per week interchange with NS and by doing interchange through Taylor, they will gain nearly daily to daily interchange.
3.) DL currently has to travel nearly 50 miles in either direction from Scranton to Slateford with grades in both directions to access NS interchange.
4.) Quite a bit of DL's Freight business is on the Western Side of the Pocono Route, Carbondale and Scranton proper with easier access to Taylor as opposed to Slateford.
5.) General cost savings and operational improvements for both railroads.

It's going to be interesting to see how everything shakes down. But only time will tell!

I should also add that I have heard grumblings the Grain Mill on the Portland Secondary will possibly be shut down in the next couple of years with a pending major expansion of the Mt. Pocono Grain Facility supposedly getting off the ground shortly. But it sounds like the Portland Secondary will see a new usefullness hauling Crude Oil to the Portland Power Plant which is rumored to be coming back online in the near future burning Bakken Crude Oil. The significant work NS just did on the infrastructure at Portland seems to support that as well, but again we shall see.

Jim Cerulli

Any updates?

Saw NS in Portland yesterday.

That is SOP. They drop off cars Tues.,Thurs., and Sat. Might head over there Saturday after attempting to get NKP 765.

Would that be H74? H76? or something else?
Also, slightly off topic, but what days do they run to Belvidere?

Usually H76 but can also be the 74. 74 goes to Belvidere Wednesday nights.

So has NS still been interchanging with DL at Slateford since NS took over the D&H from Schenectady to Sunbury PA (incuding the Scranton area) a few days ago? there were rumors on another forum that the DL/NS interchange might have moved to Taylor yard near Scranton. JS

Didn't see any trains in the yard at Slateford yesterday, but I was on I-80, so it is within the realm of possibilities that they were hiding in the trees.

NS was there about 3:00 on saturday. They didn't go all the way to Slateford.

Thanks. I forget what days the interchange at Slateford is (was?). JS

Any further news on the fate of this interchnage?

So my sons and I were coming back frm the railroad museum in Strasburg and we happened to catch a DLRR train heading towards Scranton at the grade crossing in Tobyhanna. The train had, along with some grain and plastic hoppers, both empty lumber cars and loaded ones as well.

I suppose they must still be interchanging at Portland in order for them to be pulling lumber loads west.

Here is some video I shot earlier this month.
The last half features PT-98, and PT-97.
So at least on March 10, they were interchanging with NS at Slateford and Portland.
Quite a good number of cars in either direction!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znhbVfkOjdk

Enjoy,
Lee

Heard cackle on my buddy's scanner a few weeks ago that NS had a hefty load of empties they picked up in Portland. Must still be taking a fair amount of cars up there.