| The Southern Tier Line west of Hornell was double track to CP River, roughly where the old NT tower was on EL, where the River Line to Olean split from the Buffalo Sub. Under Conrail, it had a dual personality. Track 1 was fairly well maintained, and good for track speed of 40 MPH. Track 2, on the other hand, was not. It had about 10 miles of 25 MPH running, the rest 10 MPH. It was jokingly referred to as the "D&H Main," since dispatchers faced with a choice of running a D&H train on track 1, or a Conrail train, would send the D&H train down track 2, making for a long trip to Hornell. Train 270 had good luck this day, and got the fast track. Seen here passing the semaphore pole-about 7 cars from the head end, on the left-at Hunt with 11 intermodal and 36 freight. |