Groundhog Day Railfanning

dschlegel · February 02, 2014, 05:12:12 PM

I spent the better part of the day watching trains with my dad (jim6300loco) and brother (beertrain). We started off in Topton along the Reading Line to catch the NS 8100 leading the 67J. Here it is rolling eastbound near MP18.

Next we hauled some butt over to Phillipsburg, NJ and were blessed with the 67J pausing at Easton for the M9G to head towards Allentown yard. We got to Phillipsburg just in time to see the power roll by for the M9G, but without enough time to get a shot. The next two photos though were of the 67J coming across the Deleware river into NJ near the Black River and Western ticket office.

dschlegel · February 02, 2014, 05:13:44 PM

From the BR&W parking area we headed over to the Phillipsburg railroad museum to catch the NS 212 without any autoracks rolling east.
From there we missed a couple of other trains to eat an awesome steak sandwich and chili dog lunch at the Brass Rail in Allentown, then dropped Pop off before beertrain and I headed to the Reading area.
Here's today's 38G being lead by a trio of pumpkins at CP Laurel.
After the 38G, the 20K rolled east but I didn't get a decent shot. We then headed to Reading yard and caught most of the local power hanging around outside of the Spring St. yard office.

dschlegel · February 02, 2014, 05:14:30 PM

One of the NS local units that has been working out of Reading for years is the 3001, which started life as the Reading's 3674. Here she is with beautiful Mount Penn in the background and the local landmark Fire tower on the ridge.
Finally a shot of the 3001 and 3338 with Mount Penn in the background, the Fire tower, and on the far right the famous Reading Pagoda. By this time the cloud cover had been getting thick so unfortunately the colorful rooflines of the Pagoda aren't showing very well.
Thanks for looking, and Heilliche Grundsau Daag (Happy Groundhog Day)!
Dan Schlegel
Topton, PA

Matt L · February 02, 2014, 06:04:43 PM

Nice job! How warm was it?

dschlegel · February 02, 2014, 06:46:24 PM

We were up around 47 today which felt awesome!
Dan

Matt L · February 04, 2014, 08:41:36 PM

Good! It rained in Rochester on Saturday- first time that happened in a while.

dschlegel · February 05, 2014, 02:30:03 PM

I think the weekend weather was an evil taunting. Sunday night into Monday we got another 8"+ and today we had a few inches of snow and sleet topped with a half inch of ice. The temps today though are up around 34 so the roads are clearing off quickly.