No Trains?

I drive by the Rochelle Park station frequently, yet I never see a train there...I hear the NYSW mainline is heavily used, so what's up with that?

Susie-Q's through trains, the SU-99 (westbound) and the SU-100 (eastbound), are predominately night trains.

I live just north of the Susie-Q mainline through Pompton Lakes and can hear them blowing for the various crossings through Pompton. The SU-99 usually comes through between 9pm and 11 pm. The SU-100 usually comes through between midnight and 6am. I just recently caught an SU-100 at the Wanaque Avenue crossing in Pompton, but that seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Both 99 and 100 will always call clear of Butler, so that can help you if you are chasing.

As for the locals, the locals run day or night as needed. I've noticed that the bulk transfer on the Pompton Industrial in Riverdale normally gets service at night, usually between 11pm and 1am.

I'm sure you have a scanner with the NYS&W Southern Division frequency programmed in it, as well as the frequency for the end-of-train devices. If not, here they are:

NYS&W Southern Division: 160.485 MHz.
End-of-train telemetry device: 457.9375 MHz.

NYS&W is a fairly busy railroad but you need to be a bit of a nightbird to
see all the action.

Joe P

To amend my previous post....the SU-100 I caught at the Wanaque Avenue crossing in Pompton Lakes was just after 6am. That was what was unusual, it is usually a nighttime event. I was on the way home from work when I heard them call clear of Butler and got caught by the gates coming down.

Joe P

BTW, can you go in those train carss that are sitting next to the station?

just because there is a rail line, doesn't mean you'll automatically see a train.

I get alot of this along the Lehigh Line in Phillipsburg, which is much much busier then the NYS&W. Guys pull up and ask when the next train is comming. I tell them they aren't really on a set schedule so they could be now or an hour from now. You can't believe how huffy and pissy they get before they tear out of there.

But when you drive by the line at least once a week if not more, you'd think you'd see a train at least once...the only thing I ever saw on the line was a work truck once!

I've seen the SU 100 at least twice in Franklin Lakes on my way to work this week. Figure around 8:15 or 8:20.

The only time i see a NYSW train these days is when im chasing. And when im not i never really expect to see one since i know they usually run at night. However sometimes i will get very lucky and catch one by suprise.

When I used to live up in that neck of the woods I recall a SU-99 and WS-4 meet at Pompton Junction. IIRC the SU-99 had SD45s, the WS-4 was running that night with a gigantic B40-8. It was a boring night and I figured I take a sspin and see what was going on with the trains.

I can rmember just several years ago that you could see the NYS&W here in Spartaa in the mornings around 7:30 - 8:30 and sometimes during the afternoon between 3:00 or 4:00. Oh, well

I was in my car in Maywood at around 4:30PM last Thursday when I heard a train. I saw a string of hoppers, but there was no place to stop and watch them. This was the first time I ever saw a train there, and it was going westbound. Which one was this? And also, I didn't see the locomotive but it had a S3L horn. Do any NYSW locomotives have an S3L, and if so which ones do?

The three GP20's have S3L's as far as I know. Last I heard they were all up on the northern div leaving only lease power HATX 504, HATX 516 and RMDI 2214 as the local power.

R44 5308 A Train wrote:I was in my car in Maywood at around 4:30PM last Thursday when I heard a train. I saw a string of hoppers, but there was no place to stop and watch them. This was the first time I ever saw a train there, and it was going westbound. Which one was this? And also, I didn't see the locomotive but it had a S3L horn. Do any NYSW locomotives have an S3L, and if so which ones do?

No, they have P5's. I've seen them from about 50 feet away. IIRC the only ones that have 3 chime airhorns are the leased locomotives.