CP on the Southern Tier

A half dozen yellow and black units roll west with a 73 car MEBU, about to pass under NY 427. NYSW must have been expecting a couple of stacks to show up in Buffalo, and was sending power west.

MEBU behind six NYSW units passes the Agway plant just east of Waverly, nose into the setting sun.

CP power started to show up on D&H trains on July 26, when an acid train ran from Montreal to Baltimore. Before long, it was showing up on the Tier as well, as we see with this BUME going east along NY 17C.

The late afternoon sun has come around and lights up the bright red of the CP units on BUME as they approach the NY 17C overpass.

As CP took over operation of the D&H, it moved in its own power and operating people, but time was needed for the transition, so NYSW power was still common on many trains, now mixed with CP units. This MEBU is rolling under the NY 427 overpass at Chemung behind two of each to power its 90 cars.

Now that CP has started to run the D&H, its power is mixing with the established power arrangements. Thus we have a pair of yellow and a pair of red units on this MEBU at the stone arch bridge in Barton.

MEBU meets a coal train stopped to throw the switches for its trip down the Lehigh Secondary to Sayre. Waverly could get busy at times.

MEBU rolls west behind an NYSW B40-nothing unusual there-and three CP units, a new development that was about to become a standard sighting in the Tier. I was at the Hess station on NY 17C in Endwell, figuring this would be a good place to get gas, so I could see the train if it showed. I was right on. The station is now a used car lot, taking it off the must stop places for gas and goodies, though there is a Valero a couple of blocks west, that allows you to see a train passing, but theres no shot there.

Stack trains were most likely to have solid NYSW consists, and todays NY 9 does not disappoint. An SD 45 and a pair of B boats have the 200 platforms(!!) rolling west at Chemung late on a summer day.

NY 9 with 200 stack platforms behind a trio of yellowjackets, rolls past a pale yellow Fruit Growers Express reefer, as it passes under the yellow blade of the semaphore guarding track 2 at Waverly.

BUME rolls past the hayfield at Hiawatha Rd behind a couple of lightning stripe rebuilds and a unit from newcomer CP.

BUME rolls through the semaphores at Tioga Center, the late afternoon sun lighting up the blue and gray of the newly painted D&H power.

BUME rolls east as a Conrail train holds on the Lehigh Running Track in the distance at right. Hell come onto the Tier for a ride to Gang Mills once BUME clears.

KL 1 rolls west behind a single NYSW B40. The NYSW would continue to provide power on Tier trains til CP got enough units on line to run the trains, though Suskie power would continue to run through on stack trains. The original four B40s would stay, but within a few months, CSX would take back the units they financed, 4010-4048.

Where NYSW would run the MEBU and BUME trains up the Buffalo Runner into Bevier St for a crew change most of the time, CPs practice was to run them into East Binghamton to be worked and repowered. We see BUME passing BD on its way to the yard to be switched. This was a practice CP followed its entire time running the D&H.

D&H rebuild 7312 leads this 72 car BUME at west Endicott, the first of four D&H units on the train. The 7312 was notable for being named in honor of legendary D&H engineer Bernie O'Brien.

BUAB rolls across the Chenango River as it slows to a stop at QD, where it will line the switches to go up the Buffalo Runner into Bevier St as it prepares to tackle Belden Hill with a heavy train.

KL 1 rolls out track 3 past the old DLW station, avoiding Conrails WABH 11, which was working its train on the Erie side. Three CP units have todays K Line stacks well in hand for the trip to Buffalo. The train will get onto the Tier a mile to the west, at CP Johnson. We get a good look at remaining DLW facilities in this photo. The station is at right, behind the power. The cars behind the train are in the set off tracks, where sleepers were spotted in and out of through trains. The cars there now belong to the Susquehanna Valley NRHS. The small building with the stack is the station powerhouse, which provided power to the station complex, and steam for the set out cars. The steel tower is one of the earliest radio installations in the country, done by Marconi himself when DLW was testing the viability of radio communications in the early 20th century. It is now an engineering landmark.

Another one of those "if I had said ten years ago..." shots. Who would have figured NYSW running new, high horsepower diesels, and in combination with CP power, yet?? Here it is on a 74 car MEBU rolling west at Hiawatha Rd. The power combinations would get even stranger by the end of the year.

A pair of CP SD40-2s roll MEBU west under the NY 427 overpass at Chemung, the late afternoon sun lighting up the red diesels. Just like the Erie and EL who ran this line for many years, there's a high and wide right behind the power.

MEBU rolls through the classic signals at Tioga Center, the newest power to pass through this portal, as the faithful record the event.

MEBU rolls east of Waverly, where EL had a center siding. Conrail removed it early on in their ownership of the Tier, but never realigned the tracks. There was an identical situation at Canaseraga, west of Hornell, where there was also once a center siding.

While the semaphores here got almost all the attention-justifiably-there was also another Erie relic in town. Unbeknownst to many, there was an Erie station still standing here. It was in pretty bad shape by 1990, but still up. NYK 6 passes with 60 stack platforms behind a pair of yellowjackets.

NYK 6 rolls through the Erie semaphores at Tioga Center. Theyd be gone in another six months.

One of the irregular but frequent trains was BUAB, a loaded grain train that went to the Port of Albany to be loaded on ships for export. One of those trains reflects the late afternoon sun as it passes Hiawatha Rd on its way to Binghamton and a crew change with 84 cars to go north.

WABH 11 is on the DLW bridge over the Chenango River as BUAB, a grain train for the Port of Albany, crosses the river on the adjacent Erie bridge.

Actually, one big one. The area along the fence line to the left of oncoming MEBU was approximately where the DLW main line ran prior to 1959. Consolidation of facilities with the Erie that year eliminated it. The line would regain its right of way a few miles to the west at Gibson, near NY 414. Now its a cow pasture. The Southern Tier Line itself will change yet again in a few years. Conrail will single track this segment, eliminating the small bridge here in favor of a set of corrugated metal culverts. How things change...

I didnt do the shot here at Wellsburg often, mostly because I could not race down NY 427 from Chemung fast enough, or, alternately, on NY 17 to the Lowman crossover, which was a mile from the tracks, to beat a train here after shooting it at Chemung. The dimensional load behind the power has restricted the trains speed, so today I get lucky, and we have MEBU rolling into the afternoon sun.

A late SLN 3-the train usually showed in the morning-rolls through Owego on a mission to get to Buffalo. A pair of GEs and a pair of 45s have the task today for the 65 Sea Land platforms, 6 COFC and 7 freight.Note the 40 MPH speed sign. Conrail allowed certain frieghts 50 here, as did EL in days past, so this is a speed restriction, most likely due to work being done in the area.

NYK 6 arrives with 65 stack platforms behind a pair of B 40s. The view is from the stairway of the Derby Knitting Mills, a large building that was a Binghamton landmark on the Chenango River. The GEs, train, and building are now gone from this scene, and the DLW bridge in the foreground is now single track. Such is progress.

KL 1 was usually a short train-rarely more than 50 platforms-and typically got a single unit, one of a very few trains to be so lightly powered. So this KL 1 with four units for 13,000 HP for its 25 platforms was a surprise.

BUME rolls into the morning sun at Kinney Rd in Campville with 53 cars. The shrubs at left will soon be tall enough to block the view of a train from the side.

BUME passes the famous semaphores, knocking down the eastbound blade as it passes.

BUME rolls past the Erie station at Tioga Center, an overlooked part of the railroad scene in that town. The station was in serious disrepair-it's a wonder Conrail left it up so long. Indeed, it would crash under its own weight in a few years. To look at Tioga Center now, it's hard to believe such a small town had a station at all.

ABBU, the empty grain train returning west from the Port of Albany, rolls past the old Erie station, now privately owned at Chemung.

ABBU rolls along the rock wall adjacent to NY 17 at Gibson. Its a nice photo spot, but you take your life in your hands to stop there on the shoulder of a 65 MPH highway.

ABBU, the empty cars returning from the Port of Albany, get a move on as they approach Lester Avenue in Johnson City. Were looking down the former Erie through the west side of Binghamton-you can barely see CP Johnsons home signals in the distance. The large building in the far distance is the Binghamton State Office Building, a structure with a colorful history of its own.

ABBU behind a pair of CP units roll between the twin blades.

SLN 5 behind a quartet of NYSW units, but with a CP crew, rolls 120 platforms and 3 freight west at Endwell, along the George F Highway. Hell ease up here for the 45 MPH curve under Hooper Rd, then open it up for the trip to Elmira and Buffalo.

The first grain train to run on the D&H rolls west at Big Flats, an event the fans had been foaming for ever since CP started running the D&H. JJ Young even brought out his inflatable cows for the occasion.

The sun is a some time thing in the Tier. We had chased this ABBU from Binghamton, with hardly a cloud in the sky, then got dinked at Hornell. Even on the good days, clouds!! I'm standing on the site of the one time Allegany Division yard, now becoming a strip mall.

The new crew is on, and ABBU is ready to open up at QD and get out on the Tier. Its 2 PM on a sunny Saturday. The railfan gods were smiling on us this day. If we could have asked for the perfect moment, this was it.

ABBU rolls its SOO units through the twin semaphores at Tioga Center. Well get surprised in a couple of minutes when BUME passes just as the rear of ABBU clears.

The telephoto view from this vantage point homes in on the train and livestock. In this wider view we see how open the valley is here, and why it got to be called Big Flats. The train is on the ex Erie. The DLW here is gone without a trace, 31 years after the line went out of service.

But today. ABBU with the first two SOO units to come to the D&H had just passed westbound, and we were all running to our cars to get on with the chase when we heard the horn. BUME rolls through the semaphores behind a mix of NYSW and CP power. It's a horrible angle for the train, but it does a good job of showing the lenses in the semaphore blades.

The sign says so. A 66 car BUME rolls past the "Historic Owego" sign along NY 17C as it rolls off the last 20 miles to Binghamton.

Not only is the crew on short time-theyll be in Binghamton in less than 30 minutes with this 73 car BUME, but so is the location. The shrubs and trees planted here near Kinney Rd will grow, and in a few years, this shot will not be possible.

Train 310 with a "we ain't mad at nobody" consist rolls through BD, and will shortly be tying up its 102 cars at East Binghamton.

One of those power sets that if you had said this would happen, NYSW and SOO power together, youd have been laughed at. Here it is. BUAB arrives at Binghamton, seen on the Chenango River bridge on a Sunday morning.

BUAB behind as strange a power consist as youll ever see, it sitting on the State St overpass, having just arrived from Buffalo. It will shortly get a new crew and head up the Buffalo Runner to Bevier St, then up the hill and on to Port of Albany.