An Excellent Monday On The CSAO: Railfanning, Middlesex-Manville, NJ Oct. 3, 2016 w/ CP & Saftey Car

A pretty good day for a Monday, which are usually slow. I started the day at South Avenue in Middlesex, New Jersey. It was there where I caught the train of the day, a Norfolk Southern intermodal, who's symbol I never figured out. Next up was Norfolk Southern 24Z, which had an Ex. Conrail SD60i on the point with an insane RS5T. After that there was a half hour wait, then CSX Q409 showed up. Who was running considerably late. CSX 9002, one of only 53 9-40Cw's on the CSXT roster, trailed last behind a SD50-2 and an ES40DC. To finish off South Ave, Norfolk Southern 20E would come through with a nice and clean Canadian Pacific ES44AC trailing two other NS units. I kind of roughed up the shot so, sorry about that. From Middlesex we went to Manville, to poke around the yard where CSX Q300 sat, getting ready to make pickups in the yard. Unsatisfied with the action in the yard, we decided to follow the Trenton line up to CP Belle Meade, but didn't make it that far. CSX S410 was already coming with three GEVOs in elephant style, little did we know he had a surprise on board his train. I filmed the S410's power and a few cars and decided we should chase him. When we rounded the block again we saw a few safety cars disappearing into the trees. I knew at this point we had to see it. So, back East we go towards the Conrail Shared Assets line, into Bound Brook. We didn't make it to the station but we managed to just catch S410 at Vosseler Ave. I climbed the hill and he was just getting to CP Bound Brook. The three ES44AHs roared pass me at a perfect pace to catch the safety cars. Heading back to Manville, we stopped at the Norfolk Southern Lehigh Line, where 94W was going to do a run around of his train, but was interrupted by Norfolk Southern 15J, who was running really late. Leading 15J was a Ex.Conrail 8-40CW with another awesome horn, trailing was SD70ACe 1167, the lead locomotive of a train which had stopped right in front of me at Bound Brook a few weeks ago. This 15J was moving pretty slow, and made an eerie moaning sound as it passed over freshly ground rail. I took a walk to the end of train and got some footage of the ETD. Later at Manville yard I went by myself and caught a CSX K140 with 4 BNSF's leading the loaded oil. I then went to my spot in the Lost Valley in Manville to see Q300 idle. When Q300 was finished with his work, I watched him pull up to the stop signal at CP Port Reading Junction to await a fresh crew. That would put an end to what turned into a pretty decent Monday.

Train One: NS ??? (EB Intermodal) w/ NS #2683 (SD70M-2), NS #8059 (ES44AC)

Train Two: NS 24Z (EB Intermodal) w/ NS #6748 (SD60i), NS #3651 (ET44AC)

Train Three: CSX Q409 (WB Manifest/Garbage) w/ CSX #5371 (ES40DC), CSX #8537 (SD50-2), CSX #9002 (9-40CW)

Train Four: NS 20E (EB Trailers/Intermodal) w/ NS #9541 (9-44CW), NS #2631 (SD70M), CP #9376 (ES44AC)

Train Five: CSX S410 (EB Manifest) w/ CSX #739 (ES44AH), CSX #3193 (ES44AH), CSX #3044 (ES44AH)

Train Six: NS 15J (WB Autoracks) w/ NS #8438 (8-40CW), NS #1167 (SD70ACe)

Train Seven: CSX K140 (WB Loaded Oil) w/ BNSF #6034 (ES44AC), BNSF #5120 (9-40CW), BNSF #4952 (9-40CW), BNSF #5240 (9-40CW)

Train Eight: CSX Q300 (EB Manifest/Garbage) w/ CSX #3039 (ES44AH), CSX #4788 (SD70MAC)