Freight and Passenger Trains on the Amtrak Keystone Corridor [4K]

In February and March of 2015, Norfolk Southern rerouted two priority intermodals over the Amtrak Keystone Corridor as a detour around SEPTA's weekend track reconstruction in Norristown, thus blocking the connection from Norfolk Southern's Harrisburg Line-the normal route of the trains-to the Morrisville Line.
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0:40 - (Skip Intro)
February 14, 2015
On a bitter cold Valentine's Day morning, a few Keystone Service trains are seen running ahead of the detours. On weekends, Amtrak runs about half the trains they during the week. First was 662 racing through the remains of the Eby Chiques Road crossing just east of Mount Joy, where we set up for the rest of the morning.
0:40 - 662 - Harrisburg, PA - New York, NY
AMTK AEM-7 940
Next, an AEM-7 pushes Keystone Service 661 west toward Harrisburg with the newly compete overpass and catenary system visible in the shot, which replaced the crossing in the foreground that retained the ghosts of the crossing arms, lights, and bells until they were removed several months later.
0:55 - 661 - New York, NY - Harrisburg, PA
AMTK AEM-7 939
A few minutes later 664 heads east with the next station stop at Lancaster. NS runs local trains on this line at night, shifting a wide array of industries, including the mill in the background.
1:15 - 664 - Harrisburg, PA - New York, NY
AMTK ACS-64 620
Entering the Keystone Corridor at ROY, 24K follows not far behind the 664. Because of the low catenary system, the intermodal trains were filleted to all single containers.
1:30 - 24K - Rutherford, PA - Morrisville, PA
NS ES44DC 7568
NS C44-9W 9334
Just over an hour later, the Delaware Lackawanna & Western Heritage Unit leads 21E at Eby Chiques road. This is the first time a Norfolk Southern Heritage Unit has ever led a train over the Keystone Corridor, but we would soon learn it wouldn't be the last!
2:45 - 21E - Morrisville, PA - Chicago (47th Street), IL
NS SD70ACe 1074
NS SD70 2515
At 3:30 we arrive just in time to catch 21E speeding through Middletown.
Later that afternoon in Mount Joy again, this time at the remains of the Newcomer Road crossing, the diesel-powered Pennsylvanians speed through:
5:00 - 42 - Pittsburgh, PA - New York, NY
AMTK P42DC 188
5:15 - 43 - New York, NY - Pittsburgh, PA
AMTK Dash-8-32BWH 513
February 21, 2015
Next Saturday was equally as cold, but with snow in the forecast. First up was 661 and 664 speeding through Salunga only a few minutes apart, both running push mode, representing the changing of the guard with a newer City Sprinter on 661, and an older AEM-7 on 664. AEM-7's were still plenty at this time in 2015, but by this time next year, the AEM-7's were less then a handful, serving their final hours on MARC.
5:45 - 661: ACS-64 614
6:00 - 664: AEM-7 944
6:15 - Once again, 24K was running about 20 minutes behind the 664, with four locomotives today.
NS C44-9W 9550
NS C44-9W 9952
NS C44-9W 9049
NS SD60 6716
7:15 - During the hour wait for 21E, a wet snow fall started.
NS C44-9W 9561
NS SD70M 2608
NS C44-9W 9272
Snow was still falling when 666 also passed through Salunga with 614 returning east.
8:30 - 666 - Harrisburg, PA - New York, NY
AMTK ACS-64 614
At Newcomer Road, 663 starts to slow down for its next station stop in Mount Joy.
8:50 - 663 - New York, NY - Harrisburg, PA
AMTK AEM-7 663
March 21, 2015
To our surprise, detours were on again a month later after the work on SEPTA was not quite finished back in February. This gave a nice opportunity to catch some of the detoured freights at different angles.
9:10 - First up we catch 24K rounding the bend at the Newcomer Road remains with a pair of consecutively numbered ACe's.
NS SD70ACe 1157
NS SD70ACe 1156
10:30 - Now on Norfolk Southern rails, 21E passes under the flyover where the Keystone Corridor swaps sides with the Royalton Branch, which will continue to parallel Amtrak until it's junction with the Harrisburg Line at PAXTON near the Harrisburg Train station.
NS ES44DC 7700
NS C44-9W 9132
NS C44-9W 9949
March 28, 2015
The next and final weekend of detour trains brings us another historic moment. The Southern Heritage Unit leads 21E out of Morrisville, while also likely being the last through freight train to ever run across these sections of rails.
11:30 - After having just missed 24K, I made it a goal to chase the special 21E, setting out for the remains of the Irishtown Road crossing in Ronks, PA, near the Strasburg Railroad in Lancaster County.
NS ES44AC 8098
NS ES44DC 7523
12:35 - From there, we beat the train to Middletown. 21E crossed over the the eastbound track at RHEEMS, and slowly enters the NS Royalton Branch to stop for a recrew at the station platform. I did omit the footage of the stop since there was a good solid 2 minutes of nothingness, and shown is the train approaching and then starting up again for the remainder of the trip to Harrisburg.
Thanks for watching!

[@TheRailroadCrossingChannel]

Wow! I remember seeing those signals in action! It is a shame Amtrak took all the crossings out of service on the Keystone Corridor...

[@rwboa22]

It was inevitable. Even without the major track and traction equipment upgrades, PennDOT most likely was going to replace the crossings.

[@Ih8kone]

There are still crossings between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh

[@packr72]

Why? No crossings means Amtrak can increase speed on the corridor to 125mph.

[@socalledfreethinker]

Those tracks are owned by NS not Amtrak

[@psychedelicnarwhal9599]

6:36 That is just a heavenly sound!

[@michelinman8592]

It's always a sight to see old areas of track that are abandoned for a long time, or old defunct crossings that are bypassed.

[@unionpacificfan3569]

Central Penn Rail Productions Beautiful Shots!

[@rbrailfan2961]

Super cool with 2 heritage units!!

[@brianfalzon6739]

Well done! That’s awesome! Congratulations!

[@gleanerk]

Thanks ; those Amtrak's kicking up snow, that was neat! You got a lot rr in your area!

[@JayJr2007]

Neat compilation!

[@maxrailroad]

Awesome catches! It is so weird that Amtrak just left those crossing signals to rust there.

[@CentralPennRailProductions]

+maxrailroad It is, although they have since been removed, but they were there for a few months!

[@fueldixon9043]

I was thinking the same exact thing, I saw the crossings and I was wondering why they were just sitting there.

[@Narpets2112]

+maxrailroad lol, I just deleted a comment because I said the same thing.

[@amtraktom3223]

maxrailroad why they leave then there did they take out the crossing?

[@haydendraycott7897]

@@amtraktom3223 Yup they were taken out back in like 2013, if you look there are some vids of them still in action even after the roads had been closed off

[@YardLimit]

Great video. The 4K looks amazing!

[@KoploperMau]

Amazing video!

[@cascaderails9340]

Nice Heritage paint scheme catches! The Florida Southern scheme is one of my favorites

[@SeanBodine]

You got a lot of excellent footage.

[@allyreneepenny9447]

Beautiful trains ❤❤

[@waldron7281976]

Just wanted to say that I really liked this video. I am an extremely novice railfan so I don't know all the technical information about the trains, but I love watching videos. I live in Jersey but I just took my son to Strasburg last month and drove down route 741 past a set of tracks (at a big curve) which I assume are the same set of tracks in your video just a little further down the line. I was thinking of pulling over to the side to see if a train would go by but it was a Saturday and I figured they wouldnt come by very often so we opted not to wait. Great videos in the snow. Keep up the good work.

[@CentralPennRailProductions]

Yeah there is only an Amtrak train each direction roughly every two hours or so on weekends (so one train per hour average). On weekdays it's roughly double that.

[@e_5463]

Awesome video and I like you're videos☺😊

[@xCharjx]

Love the intro!

[@MarkAHHDvideostreaming]

Nice video, subscribed

[@AliceInChains243]

Great stuff, I'd say runthrough freight under the wire is always worth going out in the cold for hehe, especially. From a foam standpoint, it's pretty remarkable that during narrow windows of these detours that heritage power managed to sneak through, and on the point no less. I know none were pictured here, but were 20Q and 25T routed this way during that time as well? I know that if so they both should have passed through the night which would obviously be why many wouldn't have documented them, I was just a bit curious since you specifically stated in the opening line of the description that only two trains were detoured this way, when I've always known 20Q to terminate and 25T to pull from Morrisville, where I would assume them to be affected just the same as 21E and 24K were. Either way, again, this was great. That first day was definitely one where you got your money's worth. Really liked that shot of the 21E at Jednota too, never seen that angle before.

[@camrenperry1920]

wow theres still allot of toasters on the keystond corridor that havent been retired

[@newcastlerails1416]

Nice video!

[@Signal1072]

24k is my fav ns intermodal train out there. I've caught it many times in Langhorne pa

[@drewjl0]

Man! Those -8's HAUL ASS Through There!

[@w.cooksy421]

Wow, great shots. :) I'm surprised that the B32-8WH at 5:17 has the livery that it has. I thought Amtrak stopped using that livery years ago when that newer blue/silver scheme was applied to most of the locomotives.

[@GenesisSanctuary]

Great catches! I'm wondering, is there a private crossing or something like that still in place east of Newcomer Road? I noticed the whistle post just past the remains of the crossing, and I could tell that the trains were sounding their horns for something down there.

[@CentralPennRailProductions]

+GenesisSanctuary Yes, there is a private farm crossing between Newcomer Rd and Eby Chiques Road in Mount Joy.

[@csxgeet44ac93]

I like your cache of the sou ry ns8099

[@denault3985]

Stunning as always, love your 4k work! Would you mind sharing your settings such as aperture and shutter speed used?

[@CentralPennRailProductions]

+denault3985 The camera I use, the Sony FDR-AX100, has three main manual settings that most video cameras have that I constantly adjust. Shutter speed I leave around 1/500 unless the conditions are too dark and I adjust accordingly (usually 1/250-1/350 on cloudy days, but anything less than 1/350 will start to show blur in frames in wider shots). If I am shooting high-speed trains I'll try to raise it to 1/725-1/2000 if the lighting allows. The ISO is measured in dB gain on this camera, not sure why, but if it's sunny I leave it between -3 to 3dB. Once it gets cloudy I'll raise it accordingly but once you go above 12dB you'll get a little grain. 33dB is the max setting if you're shooting in near total-darkness. I try to leave the F-stop the highest I can without under-exposing because the higher the F-stop the more crisp the shot turns out, generally speaking. The lens on this camera is F 2.8-F11 and remember it's only a 1" sensor so that's actually quite a lot to work with. I leave it around F9.6-F11 on sunny days and cloudy or low light adjust accordingly. Once you go below F 5.6 the shots not as clear but you have no choice once it gets darker in the evenings. I leave Zebra Stripes turned on to a 85 level sensitivity and usually adjust my F-stop or dB gain according to any highlights (zebra stripes) that show over-exposing in the viewfinder. Yeah I guess that's cheating, but it is a nice feature built-in to double-check your exposure because unlike stills, in video the lighting can change much more throughout the shot so I like that I can double-check highlights in preview. Don't really judge my settings based on this video, however, since I only had the camera for a month and was still testing it out, haha. Finally, after a year I'd say I know the settings to use in a variety of conditions.

[@CentralPennRailProductions]

Actually around F8 is the sharpest on the AX100 lens it seems. I used to shoot F9.6-11 on sunny days because I didn't want to raise the shutter speed too high, but if I set it to 1/725 and bump the ISO accordingly (between -3db and 0db when sunny and when cloudy at 1/500 and between 3db-9db) I can usually suffice with F8. F2.8-F6.8 seem incredibly soft and only use them in lower light and when I am not setting focus to infinity as well as higher ISO (higher than 9db gain). F9.6-F11 is pretty sharp too but I started to notice slight diffraction caused by headlights...hence I think the reason this lens cuts off at F11 because too much diffraction would be noticeable at higher F-stop numbers. Each lens is different though, so I'm just speaking from my experience on the AX100. I'm not experienced enough to understand completely how zoom affects F-stop on the AX100 lens except in low light where only certain F-stops (around 2.8) can only be attained in wide angle. Focus seems to be a much more dynamic way of controlling sharpness of the image in general, but with small frame sizes in video of 1920x1080 and even 4K, it's harder to notice frames that are only slightly out of focus as compared to your massive RAW shots from a DLSR; therefore I try to settle around an F-stop of 8 for my camera when taking video and focus to infinity when doing long zoom shots in which I pan out. If I am maintaining a certain angle I may set the focus accordingly. I try to avoid auto focus because, while the tracking varies from camera to camera and seems to be good on the AX100 in sunny conditions, it's terrible in lower light and the tracking will go off-focus from headlights on the train; therefore I always use some sort of manual focus to ensure I won't have sudden changes, even if I do botch the manual focus it rarely turns out worse than auto focus.

[@AmtrakandAWVRFan]

How many freights travel on the keystone corridor and where do they usually go?

[@atomiswave1971]

do you use the 30p setting in 4k or the 24p setting?

[@uprailroadkidthomas]

Amtrak at 8:30 was the beast train!

[@DelmarvaRailProductions]

Nice! What's the name of this song?

[@haydendraycott7897]

Cool, curious tho does CSX ever use this line?

[@FosterCampbell1]

Next generation: NS ACS-64 and AEM-7 trains

[@Trainmaster909]

I really want to model the keystone corridor. You get all of Norfolk Southern and almost all of Amtrak

[@TheJramos1970]

That's a lot of daytime freight action for this area

[@tunnelmot]

I've always been more of a Western US railfan, but these shots showcase fast paced NE action. Good job capturing the spirit and atmosphere of North Eastern railroading. As a side question,what are the red lights on the side of the NS units? Cab signal related? Something specific to that line? Curious.

[@CentralPennRailProductions]

+tunnelmot Those are the LSL lights indicating that the Locomotive Speed Limiters are on, which are required on Amtrak corridors.

[@RyanFRails]

How many NS heritage units made it onto the Keystone Corridor during the track work on the SEPTA line to Morrisville?

[@CentralPennRailProductions]

Two as far as I know, there may have been one the previous year but I was not around when that was happening.

[@RyanFRails]

Central Penn Rail Productions ah ok

[@mikelowery5741]

So all passenger trains have right away if they meet a freight train at a certain cp?!?

[@LorailPedraTrainPassion]

Sound kinda weird N&S and CSX not focusing on hybrid locomotives capable of running both under Diesel engine and Catenary. Maybe they should take a look to the brand new Stadler Eurodual and Euro9000.

[@RyanFRails]

I have not been to Amish country in the last 7-8 years. But from what I saw in this video, it does not look like a whole lot has changed along the line

[@CentralPennRailProductions]

The only changes were the three crossings that were removed and new sections of catenary where the overpasses were put in. I think they are finally going forward with redoing Middletown station closer to the airport but that project is YEARS behind schedule and funding cuts keep throwing it into a loop.

[@RyanFRails]

Central Penn Rail Productions ah. I was also wondering if we could meet up on the Homestead waterfront near Pittsburgh this July. There, you get 2 parallel main lines: the NS Pittsburgh/Monongahela Line and the CSX Pittsburgh Subdivision. There are approximately 70-80 trains per day on the 2 lines combined, with CSX seeing a little bit of everything while NS is mostly coal and intermodal. No Amtrak trains run on either line through town. However, the Amtrak Capitol Limited uses the CSX Keystone Subdivision into Connellsville from the Pittsburgh Amtrak station on the west side of downtown. NS also sees a few manifest freights along with a few autorack trains, but other than that, it's just coal and intermodal on NS. If you haven't been there yet to railfan, I strongly recommend checking the place out since the primary railfan spot is a restored PRR depot between both lines and it is probably the busiest hotspot in the Pittsburgh area

[@AndreiTupolev]

5:16 Very interesting catenary and power lines, rather like an art installation. I don't think those Amtrak B32-8s look right with the wide cab. They look too short.

[@rwboa22]

When the Pennsylvania Railroad started experimenting with electrical traction back in the 1910's, they first used third-rail power in the Hudson River Tunnel powered at 700V DC (identical to that used in the NYC Subway System). While the third rail allow for shorter "cut & cover" tunnels, the biggest issue is transmission and voltage drop; DC-powered traction systems requiring the use of substations every 2 to 3 miles. Then in 1915, the PRR electrified the eastern half of the Main Line (this railroad line) from Paoli to the former Broad Street Station in Philadelphia. Unlike the NYC electrification, which is still used for the Long Island Railroad (LIRR), the Paoli-Philadelphia project used overhead catenary powered at 11kV/25Hz AC, which was common "feeder" voltage for subway substations (also that segment of the line was still rural in nature, not the grandiose string of upper middle class neighborhoods that you see today). With the overhead electrification, the PRR only needed three substations placed every 10 miles, the only issue being was voltage "sag" in the 44kV "feeders"; a problem that saw the building of two synchronous condensers in Radnor Township (the mid-point of the 1915 electrification; removed in 1960). Seeing an advantage of overhead AC traction vs. third-rail DC traction for long-distance operations, the PRR, after doing a similar electrification of its Chestnut Hill Line in 1919, introduced the long-distance transmission system that you see here for the electrification of its West Chester and Philadelphia-Washington Lines (Philadelphia to Wilmington, DE only) in the 1920s, with power provided by a frequency converter in Chester, Pennsylvania and using 110kV/25 Hz AC transmission lines that are placed with the overhead catenary on 80-foot high "H"-shaped poles; with step-down substations placed, on the Philadelphia-Washington Line, at Arsenal, Curtis Park, Chester, Edgemoor, DE, and Wilmington, DE; the West Chester Line having its substations in Morton, Lenni, Cheyney (removed), and West Chester (removed). This latter system would be used for the later expansion of the 25Hz AC traction system from NYC to D.C. and from Harrisburg to Paoli, with the Paoli-Philadelphia and Chestnut Hill systems integrated into the overall PRR system, which is now under Amtrak ownership.

[@ironcityrailfan8467]

You made a mistake in the description. 8098 is the Conrail heritage. 8099 is the southern.

[@billyjacobs965]

What is the purpose of ns intermodal using those Amtrak lines?

[@CentralPennRailProductions]

+billy jacobs The NS intermodal trains detoured around track work occupying one of the lines that the trains run on.

[@robertpletcher8757]

was the norfolk southern 7523 an ES44DC or an ES40DC

[@Sharpshooter-dl9fc]

Robert Pletcher es44dc

[@stevesulligan1080]

Why do the Amtrak engineers often give a horn blast but the freight guys almost never seem too

[@Jemalacane0]

This would be a fantastic place to start electrifying freight railroads.

[@CentralPennRailProductions]

Electric freights were once common on this line until about the 80's.

[@Signal1072]

Gammareign This isn't freight. Those trains were diverted onto there

[@Signal1072]

Gammareign The two freight 21e and 24k usually run on the ns Harrisburg line and then connect to the morriville line and arrive at morrisville yard. Instead they take the Trenton cutoff (still technically the morrisville line) which connects to the keystone corridor.

[@RyanFRails]

Gammareign 21E and 24K normally take the line between Morrisville and Harrisburg, but they were detoured onto the Keystone Corridor due to track construction

[@mekaylatate6205]

Gammareign no way we have diesel trains for that

[@markusdude1]

So, that's it, huh? All the Keystone crossings are gone now?

[@Ih8kone]

Well, there are still a few between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh

[@KaciCooperations]

0:41 abandon crossing

[@andrewstrains5717]

can they double stack containers on the Northeast Corridor

[@mekaylatate6205]

andrews trains No bridge crossing to low for that

[@StefanWithTrains3222]

Actually they can! Except thru NY Penn.

[@kevinhoward9593]

The should have café cars on the Keystones

[@Ih8kone]

Agreed. Federal LAW should require them.

[@gy1952]

No Manifest?

[@orangebodhi]

Why do freight trains use diesel locomotives, not electric?

[@locomotiveproductions]

Because these fright trains eventually branch off on its own track. Only electric freight train in usa is in Arizona somewhere for a coal mine

[@nolantherailfan5048]

Why couldn't NS use freight electric locomotives

[@Ih8kone]

Exactly! Just like the Pennsylvania Railroad!

[@StefanWithTrains3222]

@@Ih8kone in the US they should have an Track upgrade and electrification act.

[@nolantherailfan5048]

We need more electric lines in the united States