Delaware and Hudson "Susquehanna Limited" - NRHS 2010

On June 22, 2010, the National Railroad Historical Society ran its first excursion of the weeklong "Endless Mountain Rails" for the 2010 annual convention based at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, PA. This particular special was dubbed the "Susquehanna Limited" which ran on former Delaware and Hudson track (now Canadian Pacific) along the northern reaches of the Susquehanna River from Scranton to Sunbury, PA and back, featuring none other than D&H Lighting Stripe painted locomotives 7312 "Bernie C. O'Brien" and 7304!

This video was made possible in cooperation with Penn Rail Videos.
http://www.pennrailvideos.com/

The start to the NRHS 2010 convention was filled with excitement, but also a lot of frustration. Because the train was powered by 4-axle locomotives off of the D&L tracks in Scranton onto the CP tracks on the south-wye at Bridge 60, the train derailed, simply because the 4-axle locomotives dropped between the gauge of the wye normally used by 6-axle ALCO's. Whew! Well now what? It caused a significant delay and the train had to be pulled back to Steamtown for another go on the north-wye after the re-railing.

A time-stamp navigator and clip description is listed below.

0:00 - In the meantime...we were waiting trackside in Avoca, PA to stage a meet with the Luzerne & Susquehanna SW1 #600 at York Avenue. Well, because of the derailment, Canadian Pacific had time to send their local D11 south out of Taylor Yard to work in Hudson and Laflin. Using the opportunity at hand, we shot the D11 with a GP40-2 and GP9u pair at Avoca. Unfortunately, the brush was fairly bad at this location, as well as many other locations along this trip.

1:25 - After learning the bad news, we head back to Steamtown to catch the train being prepared for another go by Steamtown's NKP 514. The GP38-2's were already re-railed. The train would now slowly back across the north wye onto the CP Sunbury Subdivision.

5:05 - Finally on the move south, D11 returns north to meet the southbound excursion at Taylor Yard.

9:05 - The train makes a surprisingly speedy entry into Mocanaqua. This train was originally supposed to travel around 25-30 MPH, but the heavy delays has it moving fast, which made it difficult to keep up with during the chase.

10:13 - Narrowly keeping up with the train, we just beat it to Wapwallopen along the river with a few seconds to drop the camera down. Once again, the brush was obnoxious, and this shot probably no longer exists!

10:36 - Upon arrival to Nescopeck, there wasn't much time to set up and a photo-line had formed on the opposite side of the tracks. Not wanting a redundant shot, I made it with just enough time to cross over and get a shot of the train rounding the curve at speed, and good call too, because some idiot ruined the photo-line.

11:03 - The train is near the end of the southbound journey as it passes the depot in Riverside.

11:33 - Upon arrival to the north end of Sunbury, the locomotives run around the train on BANKS siding for the Northbound run, which would also be a speedy and challenging chase!

13:40 - The train speeds north past the mill in Catawissa.

14:14 - Alongside the Mifflin-Nescopeck Highway, PA-339, the train speeds north glinting in the sun as it enters Luzerne County.

14:45 - Finally the sun comes out nice in the right location, once again heading through the middle of Mocanaqua.

15:16 - The train rolls into Avoca, near Scranton, just after 8:30, delayed once again after it had to stop for a possible wheel defect, finally returning to Steamtown LONG after it was scheduled to arrive back north. Unfortunately it was too dark to get shots of it coming back into Steamtown.

Well, that's all, thanks for watching!