CSX Pounding Through Iona Island, NY (From an upcoming River Line DVD)
Watching trains at Iona Island along the Hudson River is always a treat. Add the golden light of a Winter sun setting behind Bear Mountain and you have classic upstate New York railfanning. The date is February 16, 2009 and the last days of Winter are upon the valley. Thoughts are turning to the warm days of Spring....

Train Q-433 heads south. Notice the piles of new ties on the ground in advance of Spring maintenance. It is normal for CSX to make improvements to the line in the Spring. This sends several trains a day over the usually quiet NYS&W out of New Jersey, through Port Jervis and Binghamton for a connection back to CSX's Chicago Line in Syracuse, NY.

Q-418 is northbound past the MP41 signal. That's an old military installation off to the left of the tracks; now shut down and off-limits to all visitors at Iona Island.

Another southbound, this time unidentifiable, is approaching the Iona Island military compound.

Not a great picture, but how often do you get to see this kind of unit leading a train on the River Line? Battered #7536, a C40-8 leads southbound Q433 through Jones Point and towards MP38.

NS Along the Lehigh Line (From an upcoming Lehigh Line DVD)
Preparing to split the Stanton Station grade crossing on the Lehigh Line, local H-24 out of Allentown heads eastbound. In just a few miles it will reach Flemington, NJ where it will work the interchange with the Black River & Western shortline.

CSX on the Trenton Line
CSX train Q-434 has just turned off the Norfolk Southern Lehigh Line in Manville, NJ and is starting its run down the Trenton Line with an SD70MAC leading the way.

CSX and NYS&W in Ridgefield Park, NJ (From an upcoming River Line DVD)
I swear the year is 2009 and the railroads are CSX and NYS&W! It may be hard to tell with all the Big Blue units working the scene, but this is CSX train K-648 and NYS&W train WS-4. The K-648 is a southbound ethanol train which is about to call the signal at CP-5. The River Line Dispatcher will hold them at CP-3 until the Conrail Shared Assets Line can handle them.

CSX Derailed at North Bergen Yard, NJ
This one took place at the northern end of the yard on May 17, 2008. The train led by SD70-MAC #4768 was heading into the intermodal section of the yard when it picked a switch. The "aerial" shot is from a parking garage. I was able to get a few shots off at the 69th Street grade crossing before the local CSX agent came over to tell me to stop.

"It doesn't look good" I was told. I agreed.