I was cruising through an industrial part of town last weekend when I saw a train riding down the middle of the street. At least that is how it appeared at first glance. CSX 2715 (MOPAR Powered) was shuffling some cars around on a siding that is directly parallel to the road. Both the street and the rails couldn’t be closer if they tried. I’ve passed this set of tracks numerous times and always assumed they had been abandoned long ago. Maybe there is an economic revival taking place?
Not knowing much about trains when it comes to make, model, and year I turned to the wonderful resources that is RR Picture Archive. You wouldn’t know it (or maybe you would) but CSX 2715 is nearly 33 years old. In fact its birthday is next month! Number 2715 is a EMD GP38-2 and started life working for the Seaboard Coast Line. Amazing. It would be cool if such a resources existed for old trucks. Check out RR Picture Archive to see this train throughout the years.
Bonus Video!
This past spring and summer I had plans to capture various locomotives as they passed through my home town. I live near a busy set of tracks with multiple vantage points to shoot some good video and photos so the plan was to put together a compilation video. Sadly I never got around to shooting more than a handful of videos and of that collection I deleted all but one in a horrible soul shaking mistake. So now the project is on the back burner until next year. Enjoy the sole surviving video which stars three Burlington Northern Santa Fe locomotives as the head west through East Syracuse, NY.
I was down on that stretch of Hiawatha years ago and stopped to watch them do some switching. One of the breakmen yelled out “go find something better to do”
They have switched the small chem. co. back behind the loco for years… They haven’t crossed 7th North in some time though.
One place “you” always cross and “never” see any activity is the crossing out front of Tracey’s Equipment. 84 Lumber still gets regular rail deliveries.
I saw them switching it last year on a Saturday morning. They had traffic backed up all the way back to 690. The switch is just north of the street. The crew stopped traffic 4 times for various lengths of times. Each time the loco never actually going completely through the crossing…
Hahaha, railmen. The Kirkville Road crossing used to also see a fair amount of activity but that may have changed with the passing of NPG. Maybe if the intermodal factory opens there will be a greater need for that stretch of rail.