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Early a.m. Hell Gate action


Rutgers Tube

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Any clue how many cars it actually is? I generally see it in the dark, but it looks immense.

 

Not sure, but as far i know the only "heavy" freight following your description that comes from NYC is trash (sad i know). A huge part of it comes from the fresh kills waste processing facility, which runs from SI into NJ. I see those trains all most every single time i'm on PATH, they are either in the long distance transfer/intermodal yard where several of the trains will combine to form one cross country craphauler, but NY&A deals with long island's refuse. I believe several class 1's (CSX, NS, CN) also have trackage rights on hell gate, but i have no solid info on that.

 

What do the railcars look like? Are they all identical? If not then it's a manifest train, if they are then it's likely a trash train. Oak point yard is not too far off either.

 

- A

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What do the railcars look like? Are they all identical? If not then it's a manifest train, if they are then it's likely a trash train. Oak point yard is not too far off either.

 

- A

 

It's difficult to see what the cars look like at the time I catch them. If I cross the RFK (Triboro) into Queens between 5 and 5:30 am, it's generally dark at that time for most of the year and I've only recently begun driving in regularly and noticed them. I'd have to say that they're refuse cars, and they look very alike from what I can tell. I've yet to see the locomotive as well. The consist has to be 1/2 mile long and when I tell you that it crawls, that train is doing no more than 10 mph, if that. And yes, I'm pretty sure that CSX runs over the Hell Gate, but I'm not sure about the other companies.

 

Thanks.

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Does it sound like it has more than one loco moving it? Of not then it may be an NY&A trash train going on to oak point or meeting up with another train for making a longer one.

 

Trash train: trashTrain.jpg

 

More info pointing to it being a trash train:

http://gothamist.com/2009/03/11/north_brooklyn_trash_to_take_train.php

 

Typically non-trash trains move overnight when the traffic along that stretch of the NEC is very low, 5 am is too late in the morning for a very long freight consist, if it broke down it would be a serious issue. Half a mile is pretty standard for trash train lengths that i've seen, most yards around NYC can't hold more than that & are broken in half and divided along 2 yard tracks, when they leave they pull one half out then either back up to meet the other half, or a switcher/helper brings it to the front half. This is what i've observed anyway.

 

- A

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