Tag Archives: #Buffalo Line

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Revisiting Norfolk Southern’s Buffalo Line

The former Pennsylvania Railroad’s Northern Central route north of Harrisburg toward Northumberland, Pa., (and beyond) is operated by Norfolk Southern as its Buffalo Line.

In the late-1990s, toward the end of the Conrail-era, photographer Mike Gardner and I began exploring this route, and continued our photography along the line ifor several years after Norfolk Southern assumed operations. However, it had been more than twenty years since I had taken a serious look of the railroad north of the Harrisburg area.

A few days ago, we had a rare sunny day, so Kris and I made an adventure of following the east bank of the Susquehanna River compass north toward Sunbury.

A Millersburg, PA, we stopped to inspect the old Northern Central Railway freight house that has been repurposed and maintained in good condition.
Kris and I spotted this sweeping curve near Dalmatia, Pa., commenting that it would make a neat place to catch a train. I wondered how I’d missed this spot in the Conrail era. I suspect there may have been more brush/trees in the scene 25 years ago.

We stopped at few locations. At Sunbury, I was curious get re-acquaited with the railroad and its connections. On the north side of town, we visited the Shikellamy State Park, where Mike and I had caught NS freight 41T back in November 2001. At that time NS was still operating the line as a through freight route all the way to Buffalo, NY.

Classic Chrome: In November 2001, I made this Fujichrome color slide with my (then new!) Contax G2 rangefinder of Norfolk Southern’s 41T crossing the Susquehanna River bridges at the Shikellamy State Park located on an island between Sunbury and Northumberland, Pa.
Here’s a similar view of the same bridge bridges made on our recent visit. More than 22 years separate the two photos. Notice that a trail has been constructed during the interval. Looks like the bridge could use a coat of paint too. Nikon Z7-11 photo.
Here’s another contemporary view of the Susquehanna River bridges at the Shikellamy State Park located on an island between Sunbury and Northumberland, Pa.

As I was photographing the bridges from the park, I heard a whistle to the west . . .

Stay tuned for more!

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