While railfanning the Lehigh and Trenton Lines on Sunday (1/27), I happened to catch an NS and CSX train that both had one thing in common. They were both taking out the trash. The NS train was H76 that was heading over to the BRI facility in Bridgewater to couple up to some loaded municipal waste containers. The NS power was NS 2718, NS 9791 and NS 9181. Part of the trio is seen here passing over Manville's Main Street underpass on the LEHL's Royce Runner in Manville. Those cars would then be taken west to a landfill somewhere in the midwest.
Heading down to Belle Mead was where I happened to catch CSX's Q703. This Selkirk (NY) to Petersburg (VA) loaded trash train had CSX 5303 and CSX 7394 for power. According to the Association of American Railroads statistics for Class I railroads, in 2011 the total tonnage of all types of freight carried was 1,885,437,000. Of that total tonnage waste and other scrap accounted for 42,778,000 tons. One has to wonder if business will be picking up even more?
