certainly wasn't with me on this St Patrick's Day weekend when I headed track side. On Saturday, after spending the whole morning shoveling the ice-encrusted snow that fell on NJ, I decided to head out towards Three Bridges to see if anything was running on the Lehigh Line.
Caught Black River & Western's crew shuffling cars around for Sunday's pickup by NS at the Three Bridges interchange. The engine they were using was BR&W 752 (GP9, ex-CLP 752, ex-BN 1879, ex-NP 256)).
From there it was on to Flemington Jct (CP 51) to see a crew less NS 18N sitting on the siding. Motive power was NS 9963 (C40-9W) and NS 6594 (SD60).
Under Sunday's sunny skies, I headed back out hoping to photograph some winter railroading scenes. From 8:15 until 10:58, not a single train was seen on the Lehigh Line. Had me wondering where NS's intermodals were?
The drought was broken when NS 18N was seen taking the siding at CP 64. Motive power would be NS 9150 (C40-9W) and NS 8569 (C39-8). It would hold there for a westbound that fell into the unseen but heard category. After that WB'er passed, 18N would pass by Stanton Station with its forty-three autoracks at 11:37 and take the siding at CP 51.
Deciding to munch on the buttered bagel I brought along while waiting, that also became a problem. The cold morning temperatures had frozen the buttered bagel halves together! A frozen bagel and no trains showed that the luck of the Irish certainly wasn't with me on this St Paddy's Day weekend.