T.G.'s Photography Blog

This ariel view looking is looking across B705 in the Belle Isle siding, toward the FGLK yard at Solvay, NY.     After photographing Z520-10 on Tuesday , I noticed that loaded ethanol train B705, with CN 3863 and CN 3099, was tied down in Belle Isle siding. With the drone still in the air I captured this view, looking west, of B705 sitting at Belle Isle with the Finger Lakes Railway (FLGK) yard behind the train. The industrial complex right behind the rail yard is the former Syracuse Energy Corp. (SEC) cogeneration power plant. The coal-fired power plant supplied electricity and steam power to nearby companies. In September 2013, the plant closed when its biggest customer built and began using its own power plant. Per a news article at Syracuse.com, The customer built its own power plant due to concerns about SEC keeping the plant open. Photograph taken on October 10, 2023, at Solvay, NY.

  NYSW 3014 is eastbound, running light through CP-293 after dropping cars off at Belle Isle in Solvay, NY.   After a bike ride on Tuesday at Onondaga Lake, I heard Z520-10 call the CSX NF dispatcher for permission to shove west across CP-293 from the Geddes Street Lead to the pocket track at Belle Isle to drop a block of interchange cars. I quickly headed over to CP-293 of the Syracuse Terminal Subdivision, which sits on the eastern edge of Belle Isle in Solvay, NY. There, and just in time, I caught NYSW 3014, running light, back through CP-293 after making the drop. Z520 is a New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway interchange job. CSX uses the Z designation for foreign railroad trains. NYSW 3014 is an EMD SD40T-2 "tunnel motor" that was built for the Southern Pacific in 1978. 45 years old and still going.

While out running errands the 22nd, of last month, I happened to drive through Solvay, New York. As I crossed the Finger Lakes Railway (FGLK) tracks at Bridge Street, I saw that a switch job was working the Solvay Yard to the east. FGLK 2304 FGLK 2304 works at Solvay Yard, near Bridge Street. Working the yard today as FGLK 2304, a General Electric (GE) B23-7 . It was built as Southern Railway (SOU) 4016, in 1981. The locomotive was originally built with a high nose, but it was later rebuilt with a low nose. The locomotive has a remote-control system. The antenna for the remote system is visible on the front of the locomotive.  FGLK 2304 works on the south lead track at the western end of the yard. The railway yard at Solvay is the railroad's eastern terminus. The FGLK's main line is the old New York Central's (NYC) Auburn Branch. The Auburn Branch was originally NYC's main line before the Water Level Route was built to the north of it. After the Water Level Route was bu...