The 425 Trip

My Trips and Adventures

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        In November, Me, and Ronnie went to Pennsylvania to see a Double Headed Steam Train. “Double Headed” Means that there are two locomotives powering a train. Other people included James, Adam Schwartz, Mark Edlman, Elliot, Pete and a woman named Bonnie who volunteers at the Railroad Museum. During discussions on what we were going to do, we were originally going to take Elliots van and everyone would sit in a seat but me, I would get the very back. Very quickly however, we realized that that would not work out because James and Mark don’t really get along because they both have big egos, so they are always right even if in reality they are really wrong. So I I asked my mom and dad if I could take my car. If they said yes, I would be picking up James and Elliot and Ronnie would be Picking up Adam, Mark, and Bonnie. I would be leaving my house at around 4:30 to pick up Elliot in Babylon, then shoot over to James’s place in Mineola. Then we would get something to eat and head over to South Plainfield, NJ, where we would wait for Ronnie's crew while watching trains. The reason why I wanted to leave so early was to beat the morning rush in the city. New York was known for traffic, especially from 6-9:30 a.m. there was even traffic on weekends. We made a Facebook conversation thing with all of us in it, and it ended bad. Mark and James were trying to explain why their car is better than the others. It eventually died down but later that night mark and Adam were spamming the conversation, so I left it and it turned out that Elliot and Ronnie also left. As a result, I called Elliot and we discussed possibly leaving the group and taking my car. The next day, I awoke to a new Facebook conversation thing, but Ronnie stated that anyone who fools around on this chat or starts shit with anyone would immediately be removed from the group. With that understood, nobody started anything. I found it funny however that James sometimes calls me selfish, but he keeps wanting to stop in Long Island City on our way to Pennsylvania so he can get pictures of the city. I did the same thing, except I brought up going to Binghamton once and he called me selfish. Scott was going to come with us but unfortunately he got sick last minute, but I got to take his VHS camera. It has to be from the 1980’s. It was supposed to be very cold, like 20 degrees cold and its not a good Idea to go in that kind of weather when your sick.
        So it was said that we would be meeting up at a place in Hempstead called “A&S Bagels,", at 4:00 a.m and go from there. That meant I had to wake up at 2:00 a.m and leave my house by 3:00 a.m.I Put on a shirt, Underwear, Pants Brought two jackets brushed my teeth and left. I would later pay for being so dumb. I picked up Elliot at his house in Babylon, then got on the Southern State Parkway and headed Carle Place to pick up Pete. Pete was a last minute add on because Scott dropped out because he got sick. After getting Pete I headed to Mineola where James lives. As we were waiting for him, I saw two Traffic cones in the street. One in a really big pot hole, and one outside it. I drove backwards slowly down the street, and looking as suspicious as possible opened my trunk and threw it in and drove back to James place. Elliot and Pete were laughing and asked what I was going to do with it and Once I got James, we headed south to Hempstead. At A&S bagels, we met up with the other car and we headed out after getting breakfast. We went to South Plainfield, NJ first and chilled there for a bit. On our way, just down the block from where we watch trains we pulled over and discussed what to do. We decided to go to the spot to chill for a bit and see how traffic was on the Railroad. Ronnie's car pulled out first and just as we were going to, a cop pulled up and asked “Hey, what are you guys doing?” we told him we were going to watch trains and he responded with “Oh, your THOSE guys. Ya know when I first got hired I responded to a call of some kids hanging out by the railroad tracks. When I arrived they were still there and I says ‘What are you guys doin?’ and they says that they’re watchin trains and I says ‘Ya know you guys are so full of CRAP!’ ‘cause I didn’t believe them…” By now all of us in the car are laughing and then he said “By the way, are you those guys that cheer when the train goes by?” and we all looked at each other like “Oh my god!” I turned to him and said "I'm so sorry you had to experience such a horror.” He laughed and we said goodbye.
        We hung out in South Plainfield for a few hours. We started out just sitting in our cars but then Ronnie suggested I move my car up so we can see the signal that was down the tracks. I threw my car in Neutral and proceeded to push it. As I was pushing it I tripped and fell and my car was a runaway. Ronnie and everyone was laughing as James steered my car away from getting stuck on the railroad tracks. He then jumped in the drivers seat and started driving as I sat on the roof. Adam got the traffic cone out from inside my trunk and started throwing it at my car. Mark and Ronnie were Dying! Elliot, who was still in my car, started filming on the VHS camera. Eventually, we tried to strategically gt the traffic cone run over by my car at low speed. It was unsuccessful. That poor traffic cone would go through so much during the trip. While trying to get the traffic cone run over a train came through. After that we decided to head over to Phillipsburgh. Here is where my plan would be carried out. We stopped at a gas station to get some more to eat. In our parking spots we had a small Car horn battle which made people stare at us. We made it over to Phillipsburg and I shared my plan with everyone. We all wanted to do it but there was someone down by the Bel-Del Railroad tracks and we didn’t want to risk it and thank god we didn’t, they turned out to be a cop! We saw one train go over the bridge and we decided what to do, By now I'm paying for being an idiot. It was 27 degrees out, and I didn’t put on thermal pants or shirt. By then I realized it was going to be a long and cold day for me.

ABOVE: The locomotive we chased

After we left Philipsburg, We decided to head over to Minersville, where the train this trip was all about, was to start. On our way we were passing by Port Clinton, PA when we saw smoke in the valley next to the highway we were on and realized it was the Deadhead move to Minersville. A Deadhead is a train that does not stop at all while going straight to its destination, and its carrying nothing on it. We immediately began the chase we stopped in a small town and just as we arrived the gates went down. It was 425 but an SD40-2 was pulling it. The horn on the SD40-2 was very loud, it sounded like it was next to us when it was really a few hundred yards away! Immediately we hopped in our cars and chased it to Cresona. At Cresona we ran down to track level and I set the VHS camera on a hopper car that was stored there and we waited. They were taking the SD40-2 off of the train and 425 would run by itself to Minersville. We met a few guys who were also chasing and they knew the area, so we followed them basically everywhere they went after Cresona. After the train went by we ran to our cars and zoomed over to a dirt road with a very nice scene as the tracks rounded a curve. We arrived just in time and we left even before the train finished passing. We proceeded over to a factory and got some shots there and headed a bridge that went over a creek. We ran across the bridge and set up there. Along the road we traveled on, when the tracks become level with the road, a creek goes under the tracks and parallels them as the road goes up the hill. There is also a pedestrian bridge that goes over the creek right before it goes under the tracks. That pedestrian bridge is how we got to the tracks. There was one kid who was right next to the tracks! We could have sworn he was going to get smacked by something on the train, but he didn't. After the bridge we headed to Minersville.
At Minersville, they added 113 to the train and boarded the passengers. We watched them couple 133 up and then head to the station. The two locomotives uncoupled from the train to clear a crossing and sat on the other side of the crossing for another hour. I was freezing by now. Me and Pete went over to the station and sat down and talked for the next hour. Even inside the station it was cold. It was only 22 degrees in Minersville. After a while we decided to look for everyone, so we braced the cold, well at least I did, and found Elliot who was talking to a few guys. After everyone got their pictures we headed to the car and looked along the line for good photography spots. Earlier, Pete found a pedestrian bridge across the tracks so we kept that in mind about we headed to a railroad crossing first. When the train finally came, it was weird. Since there was no where to run the engines around the train, the caboose was leading out of Minersville to Cresona. It was quite a sight to see a bright red caboose leading a train. The train came back from Cresona and we got some awesome shots! The engineer on 425 must have loved the whistle because he was constantly blowing it and drowning out 113’s whistle. I personally liked 133’s more though because it had a deeper tone and it sounded kind of creepy. Next stop was that bridge again got our pictures and headed to Sheetz in Minersville for lunch. Problem was that it was a 25 minute wait if you wanted to get something cooked so we got chips and candy instead. We headed to the bridge again to get the caboose going over first and headed to the pedestrian bridge. We saw it go by and we waited one more time. They took a long time and we couldn’t figure out why. It turned out however, that 133 was having issues and they had to set it aside in Cresona and bring it back to Minersville later that day. 425 came around the curve just down the tracks and it was pretty cool.as it got closer, a few hundred feet to be exact, I noticed the sound changed and the exhaust turned more black. I got blasted with steam and a ton of soot. It was funny but at the same time I would be picking soot out of my hair for the rest of that long day. We attempted to look for 113 after with no luck. It was behind some stored cars.

Port Clinton PA, was our next destination. There resides the Reading and Northern's main offices and shops. There was a whole variety of diesels there including SW1’s, SD40-2’s, SD38-2’s, an SD50 and RDC’s. Honestly, all we did was drive in, park, and walk around taking pictures. I also got some pictures of the offices, which was shaped like an old railroad station and had a nicely restored coach that was under a canopy. I didn’t take any pictures of that though, I mainly focused on the Locomotives in the yard. Next to the offices there stood a pair of SD40-2’s numbers 3056 and 3057 waiting for their next assignment. I walked through the station canopy that had two parts to the building on both sides, and saw 3056 and 3057 next to each other. I went up to 3056 and stare at it for a while, wondering what railroad it was built for and what its been through. I eventually kneeled down, Set up the ISO and focused on the number on the side of the locomotive and *Click* snapped a photograph with my Pentax K1000. I walked around a little more, getting a picture of the row of SD38-2’s with an SW1 in the middle, and the SD50 that was sitting on a lone track. In the Distance behind the actual shops, I long hood of a SD40-2. As we walked to the car I took one last look at the yard offices and clicked a picture. We got in that car and there we were, on the road again Heading to Hamburg, PA. Hamburg is the home to the Reading Historical and Technical Society's group of locomotives and Freight cars. When we arrived unfortunately it was all fenced off and closed, so we decided not to go in and we left.

ABOVE: One of the SD40-2’s in Port Clinton. This was taken with a film camera and scanned onto a computer that is why the quality is bad. This was the sharpest picture I’ve ever taken because you can read the EMD logo on the trucks on the non-scanned version.

Next stop was Macungie, which was our last stop during my Pittsburgh Trip(Oh God). While there, everything that happened in South Plainfield started up again, like me riding on top of my car and messing with the traffic cone again. As I rode on top of the car it became a game, who can throw Gerard off of his car while driving. Nobody was able to. We the traffic cone around a bit and Adam attempted to go into my car while it was moving. I slammed the doors shut by putting my car in drive and flooring the gas pedal as Adam jumped in. It was quite a sight. Everything came to a halt when headlights were sighted a few miles away and we all set up for a shot. It was a Mixed freight with Union Pacific SD70ace number 8747 leading two Norfolk Southern units. After the train left James started bending the traffic cone and it looked like a witch hat.

Above: James attempting to wear the witch had traffic cone.

After fooling around in Macungie, we went to a Fridays down the road. I needed gas, so I stopped at a gas station and got lost. I couldn’t find the Friday’s. After Friday’s it was off to Hoboken, our final stop. We went out to the port area next to the terminal so that everyone that had cameras could get a shot of the city. After becoming very cold outside, I went into the terminal by the tracks and got some pretty cool shots there I eventually headed inside and was shocked by the beauty of the terminal! Nice wooden Benches with reading lamps, a stained glass ceiling, Marble floors, Very nice chandeliers, Wood Framed windows. It was beautiful, and surprisingly warm. After the others looked around we headed to Dunkin Donuts and sat around for a bit before heading home, I woke up at 2:30 A.M and went to bed By 2:30 a.m the next night.

ABOVE: Hoboken Terminal.

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