Comments on: Not often did I see a locomotive marked for Western Maryland thru here, even though it was part of “Chessie”. In this late day image, WM 3797 and C&O 3866 have made their way thru Niagara Falls and are but a couple of blocks from heading over the bridge to the US of A.

By: awmooney

awmooney — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 17:38:47 +0000

Dragging 130 cars thru Clifton must have made you guys rather unpopular !!!!

By: mercer

mercer — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 16:15:47 +0000

Pretty sure this would be the crossing, in May 1980 when I was doing my Qualifying runs, that a motorist had struck that gate after an eastbound had cleared. The arm was spun 90 degrees so that it was across the tracks and therefore unable to raise itself. We were coming east behind that train, but operating on the westbound (near track in this photo) owing to tie replacements on the bridge deck.
Just after the headend passed by The Center (Clifton Hill crossing) the dispatcher called us to tell us about the gate. We had 130 cars that day and were into dynamic brake mode approaching the curve and bridge. The Engineer instructor looked at me, as I was running at the time, and said “forget about it, they make those things everyday”.
So we crunched it and kept going.

By: awmooney

awmooney — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 16:06:33 +0000

I wondered what the number would have been, and went with #320 because I did not know when the changeover of numbers took place.
Kinda figured you would pipe up here, because it was your territory at one time.
You are right, if I turned the camera in the direction this train was going I would have viewed the switch to CN about 50-75 ft away.

By: mercer

mercer — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 16:03:18 +0000

Nice one Arnold.
A slight correction if I may – this would still be a ’42′ train (NI42 likely) as the CSX numbers didn’t come into effect until late 1989/early 1990.
Is this about a block west of where the CN interchange connector joined the mainline ?