The last few weeks in August of 1999 were prime railfanning
time, the weather was great and the action was hot. Chris and Vince met
their friends the Tofani's from New Jersey. It was a fun day watching trains
at Klines lane about 1 mile east of the Emmaus PA.
The group met at Phillipsburg NJ at the site of the future New Jersey
Railroad museum. The train action was slow but this interesting MOW movement
came through at 9 38 in the morning. This old Burro crane just proves you
can see anything at any time.
The action at Klines lane and the Allentown area was very slow in the
morning because of an outlawed train on the Eastbound number 2 track. After
the train was recrewed at Emmaus it worked its way to Allentown and the
action began to heat up. Here is Conrail SD60I 5613 leading the TV-10 which
was the outlawed train.
Following right behind TV-10 is this eastbound led by NS 5404, the
train is TV-218. The 5404 is a SD50 that is rated at 3500 HP, following
the 5404 is an NS widecab.
Just a short walk up the road from the Klines lane crossing of the
NS mainline is the road crossing of the East Penn RR The line runs a few
engines but the largest of the engines is this for Conrail GP10. The engine
is very rare to catch as the line doesn't run that many trains, here is
a photo of the 7554 one of its switching runs.
Continuing the parade of eastbounds is another TV train. This one is
led by a former conrail C30-7A, which is rated at 3000 horsepower. There
was a noticeable difference in the traffic on the Reading Line since NS
took over, the line was seeing more but shorter trains.
Completing the parade of eastbounds is this PIAL-6Y. The train is traveling
from Pittsburgh to Allentown and the 6Y means that it left on a date with
a 6 as the last digit, in this case August 26th, the train is running a
whopping 2 days late. The surprise was the lead engine of the train in
the form of the NS C40-9W 9297, at this time NS was having a major power
shortage so they were releasing locomotives for duty with out painting
them which is the case on the 9297 which is will in primer.
After the PIAL passed the usual and predictable mid day lull around
Allentown and Emmaus came in. This lull is usually from around 12 to 3
PM when no trains come in or leave the yard bound for western destinations,
the time is used by making up 3 of the main westbound trains in ALRO(ALNS),
ALCS and ALHB. This is TV-204 and the lead engine is a former Conrail Sd60M
and the second engine is an leased EMD GP38.
In the middle afternoon things would start to pick up again, here is
PIAL-7 passing through Klines lane. This train is on schedule but the PIAL-6
is really running late, another C40-9W leads this train.
Here is another eastbound passing through Klines lane and Emmaus. The
train TV-20T and it is led by a renumbered Conrail 8-40CW. Emmaus is MP
30.1 on the Reading line which heads west towards to Harrisburg, there
is a dragging equipment detector to the west of Emmaus at MP 29.9.
Another NS C30-7A leads ALHB passed Klines lane. The engines were mostly
found up in the New England area working on the B & A but with the
NS and CSX take over they can be found anywhere over the system. The train
is heading for Harrisburg and is running reversed on the 2 track and will
switch back to 1 at Alburtis.
The last train of the day would be this mixed freight moving through
Klines lane. The locomotive is a CSX lead engine indicating that it is
probably CSAL which arrives at Allentown in the mid to late afternoon.
The cab door is open to get some ventilation on this muggy day.