| (3 of 5) From the grade crossing at Rt. 200 and north to the gas facility (now known as Enterprise Products) where they were switching cars, it's about a half mile stretch. After waiting nearly 2 hours, they made it to this point which is about 200-300 feet north of the grade crossing at Rt. 200. I guess part of the reason it took them so long to get here was that they were having trouble getting traction. Yes, those are real sparks! The wheels were slipping; I don't know if the locomotive was malfunctioning, or whether the consist was too heavy for the engine. My estimate is that there were 40 to 60 cars in the consist. Update: I learned today (Feb. 8, 2012) that indeed the consist was too heavy for one engine. They had to run another one up from Owego to finish the job. They had to move some cars out of the way in order to get to some empties that were ordered back to Chicago. |