Given that this was done with the looming PTC mandate, and all of the other projects the railroad is dealing with at the moment, they did what they could with what they had available. The railroad is having one of it's biggest periods of expansion in a long, long time. Keep in mind for this time of year it's more than enough also. It's huge being able to do meets without having to get boots on the ground to throw switches, and this is one of the biggest benefits they'll reap from this. Having the option to go back and forth from SH and RPK without having to go through the process of "instead of" is also huge. Having SH and RPK configured like that should be good to handle things like any golf events at Southampton too. Dealing with a summer schedule will be interesting, but at least they have plenty of time to cook something up that will maximize the capabilities of what they now have.
261 is great when it works but presents different issues when it doesn't. With 251 a circuit issue may affect one or two crossings but with 261 it will affect the whole block, so we'll see what problems present itself when they have their first thunderstorm season. While 251 gets a lot of negative press in the media, if everyone knew their job, you could do a lot with it and it served the railroad very well for decades. But it takes a lot of training and can be intimidating if you haven't done it in a while. I definitely have tremendous respect for the crews, operators and dispatchers who used to do manual block when it was from the Y east, not too long before I hired on, with freight going all the out there too. End of an era...