Chasing Pennsylvania Northeastern L160 in Southeastern PA, with a SD40-2W and a NHIR GP30

Описание: On the sunny morning of Monday, July 15th, 2019, I headed to Lansdale, PA, to document the operations of Pennsylvania Northeastern L160, one of three local trains operated by Pennsylvania Northeastern, a small shortline in Southeastern Pennsylvania. L160 runs from the CSX interchange in Lansdale to the East Penn Railroad interchange in Telford, PA. It operates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, typically pulling between 5 and 20 cars.

I arrived at Lansdale just before 9 AM, and it wasn't long before L160 pulled out of the yard. Today's train was operated by PN #5342, an ex-CN SD40-2W built in 1980, and NHIR #2198, an ex-PRR/PC/CR GP30 built in 1963. The NHIR (New Hope and Ivyland Railroad) is a heritage railroad that runs passenger excursions out of New Hope, PA. When their power isn't being used, it is often transferred to Pennsylvania Northeastern.

I chased L160 to a small railyard in Hatfield, PA, where I set up and got numerous shots of it collecting cuts of cars and switching out a small industry. After some time, L160 returned to Lansdale Yard to drop off some cars from Hatfield. I was able to catch it leaving the yard once again to go back to the train it had previously assembled, which consisted of eight cars. I then chased it to Hatfield, where I got it departing the yard for the trip to Telford. I managed to get L160 one more time as it crossed East Broad Street in Souderton. Since it was going to be at least an hour before the train finished working in Telford and I had already gotten more than enough shots, I decided to end the chase and call it a day. Thanks for watching!