Two Days of EPIC Railfanning on the CSX River Line 12/30/11-12/31/11

The last two days on the River Line in 2011 were great. Seeing 5 trains in an hour and a half on Friday and 2 in 2 hours on Saturday, you coundn't have asked for more. With two leasors, one switcher, a great engineer, notched out smokers, and more this is a much watch video.

12/30/11

I ventured off to Bergenfield to see the messed up Q156, (had a hot box and went into emergency) the L010, and the Q410. When I arrived L156 was about reached Automatic 13. TheFlagman2, TheTrainHunters, and waldwickperson were there. L156 had C40-8W 7377 leading, 7907, 7685, and ES44AH 877 trailing.

Next, L010 followed Q156 with C40-8W 7919 and C40-8 7540.

After L010 cleared, Q410 came off the middle siding with an epic lash-up consisting of CSX SD70AC 4830, HLCX SD40-2 7839, CSX ES40DC 5313, and MP15T 1207.

A half-hour later L273 came with CSX SD70AC 4742 and C40-9W 9004.

Three minutes later Q434 came with a great enginee. AC44CW 577 and 588 were leading.

12/31/11

I heard that Q434 was coming, so I waited for it. It was a monster, 151 cars! Leading was AC44CW 593 and 580.

Later on I went out to catch the Q703. Leading was AC6000CW 663 and HLCX SD40-2 7163.

Later on I went up to CP-7 with TheFlagman2 to catch my first ever Magnesium-Sulphate train, K531. Leading was ES44AH 796 and 729 with a friendly engineer. That was my last train for 2011. ENJOY!!!

[waldwickperson]

Awesome Video. i liked the MP15T and HLCX on the same train, the other HLCX you caught the 31st, and the Magnesium-Sulphate train. great catches

[TheFlagman]

Great video and awesome catches!

Also, L156 did not go into Emergency twice, first, he had a hotbox at the automatic 19 detector, then he went into emergency. And another thing, K531 is not a pot-ash train, it is magnesium-sulfate, K533 is pot-ash. I have recently discovered that pot-ash trains only run in the summer.

[JohnMcG]

awesome video! keep up the awesome work!

[joha]

@TheFlagman2 K531 and K533 haul bauxite ore, not magnesium sulfate or potash, they head to ALCOA in Massena, NY where the ore is used to produce aluminum. It totals about three trains a week northbound. Potash can be a byproduct of aluminum production, so it's possible that it is shipped back on K532 or K534, but it's more likely that they are just empties.

[WATWAREHD]

@TheFlagman2 Thanks! Oh, I'll change that.