Wyandotte, 4/1-2: D9s, Locals and the Conrail Heritage Unit

[Burb8145]

Yesterday was a mostly inactive day, but I did see two trains. The first was a CSX YN3 geep pulling Trenton 3 onto the Alkali Spur to work BASF, which I actually saw from Oak Street. The second was 31M, which had 38 loaded autoracks.

1996 NS C44-9W #8939


Now today was a lot more interesting, even despite the rain. The first photographed one of the day was 31M, which, like yesterday, had an old-livery Dash 9 as the sole leader.

2000 NS C44-9W #9423


Next was this local on the Shoreline Sub, led by a GP9R that was rebuilt from a former high-hood GP9, originally intended for passenger service, in 1991.

• *1956 GTW GP9R #4616 (ex-GP9 #1780, later #4905, CN.ca livery, repainted from GT Blue 2007)
  *Seven autoracks
  *Covered hopper
  *Six NS 60' boxcars
  (total: 14 cars)

A while later, while it was raining hard, we headed to Pennsylvania Road. Our first train there was a mirror of our last train at Oak Street, led by #4616 running long-hood forward.


The next train to show up was Trenton 5, returning to River Rouge Yard.

• *1979 CSX GP38-2 #2700 (YN3A, ex-Seaboard Coast Line #6049, later Seaboard System same number)
  *Railbox boxcar (from Materials Processing)
  *NS boxcar (from Materials Processing)
  *Wisconsin Central boxcar (from Materials Processing)
  *Flatcar
  *Two tanker cars (from Jones Chemicals)
  (total: 6 cars)

The rain cleared up not long afterwards. After a while, 39E, the reason I went out today, finally showed up. The consist was something truly unique and it was significant in that it was my very first sighting of an NS heritage unit (NKP #765 doesn't count).

• *2001 NS C44-9W #9682
  *2012 NS ES44AC #8098 (Conrail Heritage Unit)

The date: April 2nd, 2015. Exactly 39 years and a day ago, the US government created Conrail to take control of multiple bankrupt railroads, most notably Penn Central and Erie Lackawanna. By 1987, when it was privatized, Conrail began turning profits. In the late 1990's, in a reversal of the merger of the PRR and the NYC, half of Conrail went to NS and the other half went to CSX. And now, today, the Conrail heritage unit, which was the first of 20 engines in NS' 30th Anniversary Heritage Fleet when it was released from Altoona in March 2012, appropriately enough, makes an appearance on the Detroit Line, which was historically Conrail's main route into Detroit from the East Coast, the portion north of Gibraltar still part of Conrail Shared Assets, which was formed in 1999 to operate former Conrail rails in Metro Detroit and New Jersey.

The past two days certainly provided me with variety, so much so that this had to belong in a separate thread.

[hoborich]

The GTW 4616 most likely pulled into the siding at Ecorse, and ran around their train, and took it back south to Flat Rock.
Nice report. Looks like the snow is gone and I can think about heading back north to Michigan.
Sadly, my train watching activities have been restricted to watching the FEC through Ft Lauderdale, and an occasional CSX freight, and a usually late Amtrak.

[Burb8145]

The GTW 4616 most likely pulled into the siding at Ecorse, and ran around their train, and took it back south to Flat Rock.
Nice report. Looks like the snow is gone and I can think about heading back north to Michigan.
Sadly, my train watching activities have been restricted to watching the FEC through Ft Lauderdale, and an occasional CSX freight, and a usually late Amtrak.

Thanks. Today was very interesting-a heritage unit, CSX power, my first GP9R sighting in about three years and BNSF power on a train I didn't photograph (it wasn't anything special anyway, just one in H3 paint).