morrisville/harrisburg/reading line traffic

wondering if anyone knows the approx. train per day count on the Morrisville line out to Norristown/the Harrisburg line east of Reading and the NS Reading line itself

CRR wrote:wondering if anyone knows the approx. train per day count on the Morrisville line out to Norristown/the Harrisburg line east of Reading and the NS Reading line itself

Morrisville to Norristown: Not much here - maybe 2 trains each way per day I believe. And one of them is a CSX detour for stack trains too high to go from Philadelphia to Woodbourne - so they go Philadephia to Woodbourne on the highline over 30th St station in Philadelphia and then the NS line along the Schuylkill River to Abrams Yd (across from Norristown), and then reverse to go over the river and through Norrisville Septa station to get on the line you mention (Trenton cutoff) to Woodbourne to get back on CSX. So it is not traffic on the cutoff west of Norristown. This traffic will go away in a year or so if CSX ever finishes undercutting /raising all the bridges that cause the clearance trouble in the Philadelphia/Woodbourne stretch.

NS Reading-Philadelphia and NS Harrisburg-Reading: Not sure, but I think the Reading-Harrisburg line is busier since this has all the traffic going on to Allentown and then to the northern NJ area - a mainline for NS - maybe 15-20 trains/day? Someone correct me....

JS

pumpers wrote:

CRR wrote:wondering if anyone knows the approx. train per day count on the Morrisville line out to Norristown/the Harrisburg line east of Reading and the NS Reading line itself

Morrisville to Norristown: Not much here - maybe 2 trains each way per day I believe. And one of them is a CSX detour for stack trains too high to go from Philadelphia to Woodbourne - so they go Philadephia to Woodbourne on the highline over 30th St station in Philadelphia and then the NS line along the Schuylkill River to Abrams Yd (across from Norristown), and then reverse to go over the river and through Norrisville Septa station to get on the line you mention (Trenton cutoff) to Woodbourne to get back on CSX. So it is not traffic on the cutoff west of Norristown. This traffic will go away in a year or so if CSX ever finishes undercutting /raising all the bridges that cause the clearance trouble in the Philadelphia/Woodbourne stretch.

NS Reading-Philadelphia and NS Harrisburg-Reading: Not sure, but I think the Reading-Harrisburg line is busier since this has all the traffic going on to Allentown and then to the northern NJ area - a mainline for NS - maybe 15-20 trains/day? Someone correct me....

JS

I think you pretty much nailed it.

Sadly, the Morrisville Line ( I STILL call it the Trenton Cutoff too ) was once a heavily used, electrified two track quasi-mainline. I have fond memories of plenty of E44's and GG1's traversing the line, and even had the luck to catch a string of Metroliners on a shippers special in the late 60's. Once the freight traffic came off of the ex-PRR Harrisburg line and Contrail dropped the catenary, its' importance dwindled dramatically. It is still a very viable welded rail, cab signaled corridor which also serves as an excellent detour route as mentioned, but with the dwindling traffic, one has to wonder how long it will remain.

as long as the steel mill in conshohocken stays open that line will be there

Check out parailfan.com for an extensive train symbol database by RR and line. There's all kinds of goodies on that site. It shows 8 trains regularly scheduled to use all or part of the Morrisville line. There's an additional 15 trains listed, but they're mostly as-required runs to/from Fairless. The ones I tend to see the most are 24K, which is eastbound in the morning between about 8 and 10, and 17G which runs west in the evening and is usually through Dresher/Ft Washington between 5 and 6.

Even though the Dale Secondary only sees the one run from Abrams to Coatesville and back (H83/H84), NS appears to have done some trackwork and fresh ballast recently. And when the 309 rebuilding project was done a few years ago, the new Morrisville Line bridge over the highway was built with room for a second track. So NS seems to be planning for growth regardless of current traffic levels.

From the parailfan site I saw a daily pair of intermodals for Morrisville to/from Chicago, a daily intermodal pair for Harrisburg ( or Rutherford) to/from Morrisville, a daily pair of manifest trains Pittsburgh/Morrisville, and the Coatesville/Abrams yd. steel train each way almost daily. I hope these trains are actually running. Plus you can add the CSX detours I mentioned. In any case, I am glad it is not as bad as I thought. JS