June 1996
C&O Locomotive Gets a Yellow Nose
CSXT has applied a yellow nose to C&O blue SD40 locomotive 4617. This was the last C&O blue unit remaining on the roster.
CSXT's Last Remaining Reading Green Unit Repainted into YN2
CSXT's last remaining Reading green unit, 4316, has reportedly been repainted into the Yellow Nose 2 (YN2) scheme.
CSXT and Tropicana Working to Inaugurate New Juice Train
CSXT has reported it is working with Tropicana to inaugurate a new Juice Train to begin operating between Bradenton, Florida, and Union Township, Ohio (near Cincinnati), early next year. Initially, it will involve at least 30 cars per week.
CSXT Inaugurates New Cumberland-Richmond Trains
New CSXT trains Q414 and Q415 are now operating between Cumberland and Richmond's Acca Yard as part of a plan to improve service reliability and eliminate the need for second sections. The plan included the reroute of 39 cars per day moving between the Carolinas and Chicago, according to the CSXT Employee News Service.
Norfolk Southern Begins Double-Stack Service from Kansas City & Chicago to Northeastern Pennsylvania
Norfolk Southern has begun new daily double-stack intermodal service directly connecting Kansas City and Chicago with Taylor Yard in northeastern Pennsylvania. The service also includes an intermediate stop at Bellevue, Ohio, for traffic originating and terminating in the Columbus area, according to a press release.
Norfolk Southern Replacing Signals Between Hagerstown and Riverton Junction
Norfolk Southern is replacing its old N&W-style color-position light signals with Southern-style color-light signals on its line between Hagerstown, Maryland, and Riverton Junction, Virginia.
A "Vigil" at the Station Inn
[From a feature story] . . . . The renowned Station Inn along the Conrail mainline at Cresson, Pennsylvania, was the setting for a 24-hour railfanning vigil for members of the Cherry Run Railroad Club on Memorial Day weekend. Twenty-one happy participants crammed the 1860's era railroad hotel to partake of games, a cookout, slide presentations, video tapes, train watching, and camaraderie. Sleeping was optional.
Seventy-three trains were counted passing the inn - recorded on a train sheet the same as if the participants were manning a tower - during the vigil period beginning exactly at noon on Saturday and ending at noon on Sunday. This, coincidentally, is more than three times the one-train-an-hour average guarantee offered by the inn's railfan proprietor to guests who get half their money back if this average is not achieved.
Saturday afternoon was spent watching trains from the porch, with games on the lawn, and a cookout in the parking lot next to the tracks. As darkness fell, slides were shown: first on the porch, then in the ballroom downstairs, later in the common room, and finally back on the porch. The skies were beginning to brighten when the last of the slides were shown on Sunday morning.
The Cherry Run Railroad Club enjoys a nomadic presence by staging twice-a-year outings at selected locations indigenous to railfanning. This was the club's first all-night affair.
Conrail Donates MO Tower to Borough of Cresson
Conrail has donated MO Tower to the borough of Cresson, Pennsylvania. The building is slated to be moved to a new location in a lineal park between the Conrail tracks and Front Street in Cresson, about a quarter of a mile from its former working site. The borough will cover the estimated $4500 cost of the move, according to a press report.
MO Tower, which closed in December 1994, dates from an earlier structure built circa 1855 and replaced following flood damage in 1889. Industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who in early years was a PRR telegraph operator, is reputed to have conducted an experiment while working at MO Tower one night about 1860 involving the drawing of current from the aurora borealis to power the telegraph circuit between Cresson and Pittsburgh.
The tower will be placed upon a foundation, and then it will be refurbished by the Cresson Railroad Preservation Society. No date for the move has been set.