Fall Foliage on the NYS&W: Chasing a Ballast Train - October 27, 2012

On Friday night I had in my head that the Sparta local must've been behind the SU-99 which was running significantly later than usual, so I figured they would outlaw somewhere along the mainline East of Sparta and run down Saturday morning. In the morning I set out to find this local checking all of the possible spots for them to tie down with no luck in finding them. I spent a solid hour and a half trying to find them in Sparta Junction but did not find anything other than stagnant cars. I then heard a brief transmission on the scanner which made me think the local was drilling cars somewhere in the area.
I told myself that if I could not solidify any more information on the location of this train I would head home, but as I pulled next to the tracks and saw a headlight down the line by the Sparta siding. I ventured down there and found 3016 with a string of ballast cars and some cars from Sparta Junction. It then hit me that this was the empty ballast train and that they were just running around the train. So the chase had begun. I was really pressed for time on this chase, missing the train at two of the desired spots and had minimal set up time at most locations.
What I found most ironic about the whole day was that I went out for a train that was never there but got to see a train I wasn't expecting. Our chase will take you from Sparta to Oakland with a stop in Pompton Lakes to see them run on the seldom used Pompton Industrial track.
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