{"id":36798,"date":"2023-08-03T06:47:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T10:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=36798"},"modified":"2023-08-03T08:08:36","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T12:08:36","slug":"ns-coal-empties-on-the-port-road-branch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/ns-coal-empties-on-the-port-road-branch\/","title":{"rendered":"NS Coal Empties on the Port Road Branch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over the course of recent weeks, Kris and I have explored locations on the Norfolk Southern’s Port Road Branch. This is a portion of former Pennsylvania Railroad that follows the Susquehanna River between the Harrisburg area and a connection with the Northeast Corridor at Perryville, Maryland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRR electrified the route in the 1930s, and it handled electrically powered freights until the Conrail era. The old electric catenary supports are evidence of this by-gone era. It has been more than 40 years since electric operations ended on this portion of the former Conrail system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daylight freight moves on the Port Road seem to be relatively rare, owing to an Amtrak daytime curfew on the Northeast Corridor route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, I left Lancaster very early and made my way to Columbia, PA where I picked up the Norfolk Southern Port Road line. In the morning glow, I found that home signal was lit ‘clear’ for a train movement toward Harrisburg. Expecting a train, I proceeded against it on the parallel highway to Washington Boro, PA, where I scoped a suitable location near a local park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I waited for a few minutes, and soon heard the approaching freight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I set up with my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens and exposed this sequence of an NS empty coal train rolling up river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the train wasn’t moving more than about 25 mph, I followed it along the adjacent highway. Stay tuned for more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Former Pennsylvania Railroad electrified line at Columbia, PA. A high dew point made it difficult to keep the front element of my lens from misting over.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
In many places the road, the railroad and the Susquehanna River run adjacent to one another. The classic catenary supports visually identify the line as the former Pennsylvania Railroad.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
After just a short wait, this Norfolk Southern empty coal train came into view at Washington Boro, PA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Soft morning light on the coal train made for a classic view.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
This wideangle photo is at the same location in Washington Boro.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Trailing view at Washington Boro, PA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
View of the hoppers from Washington Boro Park rolling along from the opposite side of Highway 441.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daylight freight moves on the Port Road seem to be relatively rare, owing to an Amtrak daytime curfew on the Northeast Corridor route.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6060,10,6108,48],"tags":[6568,5383,5131,7625,5073,7624],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/NS_coal_empties_on_former_PRR_Port-Deposit_line_Washingtonboro_near_Columbia_PA_DSC_9119.jpg?fit=1800%2C1198","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-9zw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36798"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36798"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36820,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36798\/revisions\/36820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}