Railroad Forums 

  • Yellow Jackets are Back!

  • Discussion related to New York, Susquehanna & Western operations past and present. Also includes some discussion related to Deleware Otsego owned and operated shortlines. Official web site can be found here: NYSW.COM.
Discussion related to New York, Susquehanna & Western operations past and present. Also includes some discussion related to Deleware Otsego owned and operated shortlines. Official web site can be found here: NYSW.COM.

Moderators: GOLDEN-ARM, NJ Vike

 #533644  by SusqTrek
 
Hello All,
Allow me to introduce myself. I am a new member here but I have been reading alot of the threads here for a long time. I am a longtime NYS&W fan out of Garfield.
I pay particular attention to the activity around Passaic Junction - Elmwood Park area. I pass the Marcal plant and PJ yards on a daily basis and constantly scan for trains. The yards are packed with parked cars that seem to get daily rotation and the Marcal plant gets switched out it seems like everyday. I hardly see any actual trains though. I guess it's just my schedule or whatever. The trains that I have caught recently have been the leased NS & CSX engines. I did catch one switching the cars out of Marcal on a recent Sunday morning. That was interesting.
So driving home on Friday night(5:45), I get stopped at the Marcal Plant. Gates go down, and I'm about 8 cars back.
The train was lead by 3 NYS&W engines, 30??, 3022 & 3014. These are the first yellow jackets I've seen in North Jersey for many, many months. The third appeared to be brand new, with a bright flawless paint job! It was great to see. The whole train was about 50 cars long. A nice mix of hoppers, Union Pacific train cars, tall rubbish cars, 3 Golden West boxcars and NS & Southern cars.
Anyway, thought I would share this sighting. Hopefully they will stick with NYS&W power.
I also have some amateur questions, if you will bear with me.
Is this Friday night train a normal weekly scheduled train?
When is the best time to catch trains around Passaic Junction?
Are there any other good spots to view/ photo trains in North Jersey?
Thanks
Ken

 #533709  by Steve F45
 
sunday,tuesday, and thursday nights the su-100 leaves binghamton for jersey. the su-99, which is what you saw leaves jersey on monday,wednesday, and friday anywhere from 5pm the earliest to as late as 9pm. All the road power is painted yellow jacket,except 3020 which is still the high nose sd40 former ns engine. local power is leased ns/csx which some are still in cr paint. some blk/ylw local power is still used up in binghamton area.

 #533928  by nysw3636
 
NYSW 3020 is OOS

 #534102  by the missing link
 
yes! those were a nice suprise saw them leaving ridgefield park. was debating a little chasing, but fri was kinda nasty(rain)
what are the departure times from bingo or pt.jervis? any feel for a general timeframe to catch s. bounds in upper n.j./lower ny?
thanks for the info!

 #534124  by SusqTrek
 
Thanks for the info Steve, now I know.
These trains must travel at very low speeds passing through Paterson. The tracks in some sections look like they haven't been maintained in years it seems.