Railfanning the Essex County Turtle Back Zoo Railroad on March 26, 2023

Perfect weather means a perfect day at the zoo. That means a perfect day for railfanning too! Even though it was extremely windy, it didn’t stop me from taking a visit to see my childhood railroad. So here’s seven clips from the Turtle Back Zoo Railroad. Four of these are from the Lion Parking deck, while the remainder come from the reservoir walking loop. The former location takes advantage of the wide angle feature on my iPhone 13, which allows two trains to be seen at the same time. It was great seeing everyone on this day, including my coworkers, so special shout-out to them!

During winter 2023, the railroad saw a massive amount of work, which I was fortunate enough to check out during a visit prior to this video. 306 finally got its show wheels back after they were taken off in June 2022 for maintenance. It also received a new running board and had its bell fixed after the motor for it died before the 2022 Holiday Lights Spectacular, during which a temporary bell rope was used. 382 had some work done as well, with the primary focus being the rear truck. A silicone grip was recently applied to its handbrake. However, its bell does not appear to be ringing steadily all the time. 199, which was absent for the entirety of 2022, is finally nearing the end of its long overhaul, with the locomotive slowly being put back together. It’s currently waiting for a few more parts, so once they are installed, it should be ready to run this year, and I'm ready to see it in action after a long time; 199 is the only locomotive that I have yet to drive.

In addition to working on the locomotives, the crossing signal near the black gate is finally functional. It becomes active when the gate opens and remains active until the gate is closed. But there’s a problem: because the gate does not close until a train returns to the zoo, this means that the crossing signal will always be active when two trains are running.

For the month of March, the train only ran on weekends, which allowed work to continue during the days it was not running. Daily operation will begin on March 30th. For the year of 2023, the zoo hired a new mechanic. This person will take on the duties of train repairs alongside our two other head engineers and the county mechanics if necessary. As for me, due to the fact that graduation is near, this unfortunately means that I may not return as a driver next year, as I will be looking for a new job related to my degree. But if it allows, you will definitely still be seeing me occasionally. I hope to still be here as well.

This is my longest Turtle Back Zoo video yet. So please enjoy the action, and stay tuned for more!