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10.11.98 stg10-11 Live from the field via my Sharp Wizard 1 MB: It is another cruddy day, damp and overcast and it looks like it could rain at any time. It was supposed to be sunny and 67. Pittston Junction - Nothing is by the yard office. Everything must be out switching local industry. Avoca - A CP train is already running across the crossing at MacAlpine street. It is 1:25 PM and earlier than expected. I thought it would be there around 2. I miss the power on this train. I hear the whistle posts in the distance and wonder if the detector will go off at Moosic.555 passes the detector at Moosic with 343 axles and no defects I hear LEPI calling the dispatcher. It is going to wait until another train gets by it. I am assuming it is an R and N local. I am sick of looking like a goon taking pictures and having people gawk at me at the crossing, so I find a location on a side street in Avoca. I don't hear anything though. Maybe the local is already farther along, maybe at Techniglass. Nothing is comming so I trace the line back to Duryea Junction and then to Pittston Junction. Passing the Pittston Junction this time I see two R and N "pups", coupled cab to cab. L and S unit 30 is also nearby. I go home and change to a different mode of transportation - my mountain bike. The first thing of interest that pass is the concrete abuttments and pier that was one the tramway for the Pine Ride Colliery. A bridge used to carry it over the CNJ tracks and Mayock Street. A litte way farther, I see the little wooden depot of the CNJ near Penn-Lee Shoes. The line was abandoned by CONRAIL circa 1980. I go across the crossing on Oak Street. At one time 2 D and H tracks and 2 CNJ tracks crossed the road here. I recall the many block signals at the junction, were these branches connect to the main. Further along is th D and H Sunbury Line. I look at the concrete foundations near the crossing, it supported a crossing tower and a floodlight tower next to it. I ride into the coal dumps that used to be the Southern end of Hudson Yard. |