In September 1988, I was set up at Dixon’s on Conrail’s former Erie Railroad line over Attica Hill.

Roaring up the grade with a CSX SD40-2 in the lead was this Delaware & Hudson Sealand doublestack land-bridge train bound for Little Ferry, New Jersey. The New York, Susquehanna & Western had just been appointed designated operator of the D&H, and NYSW locomotives were common on many D&H road freights.

Land-bridge trains, such as this one, reached the east coast via Delaware & Hudson trackage rights over Conrail’s former Erie mainlines between Binghamton and Buffalo, New York, and NYSW’s rights on the old Erie east of Binghamton.

Catching a CSX painted locomotive was a rare find in western New York in 1988, and finding one leading on the Erie seemed like a special treat.

This represents window in time in the dynamic melting pot of western New York railroading in the late 1980s.

After exposing this black & white view using my dad’s Rollei model T, I followed the train east and exposed dozens of photos along the way.