Uploaded May 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Some days your railfan plans don't pan out, so you end up following a back up plan instead. That's exactly what happened on a March railfan trip to Green Spring, WV to chase the South Branch Valley railroad, but with no crew arriving, we instead followed CSX through Western Maryland and Pennsylvania. We had a CSX local train in mind, but did not find them either. Instead, we lucked into several unexpected catches as the day progressed that easily made up for the slow morning. I hope you join us trackside for a day of CSX railfanning shot in 4K to take you there! Train information is provided in the commentary, including history and other information for those who want to learn more about railroad.
Some days your railfan plans don't pan out, so you end up following a back up plan instead. That's exactly what happened on a March railfan trip to Green Spring, WV to chase the South Branch Valley railroad, but with no crew arriving, we instead followed CSX through Western Maryland and Pennsylvania. We had a CSX local train in mind, but did not find them either. Instead, we lucked into several unexpected catches as the day progressed that easily made up for the slow morning. I hope you join us trackside for a day of CSX railfanning shot in 4K to take you there! Train information is provided in the commentary, including history and other information for those who want to learn more about railroad.
![Reading & Northern on the PRR Schuylkill Branch [4K]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vvYhj72_ilk/mqdefault.jpg "Reading & Northern on the PRR Schuylkill Branch [4K]
On March 27, 2015, a train of 100 empty crude oil tank cars are bound for storage on the former Pennsylvania Railroad Schuylkill Branch between Reading and Hamburg, Pennsylvania. This was the first move of many made to store 100s of empty tank cars across the Reading & Northern system. With declining prices and demand for oil, the once busy method of shipping crude by rail between 2012-2014 has significantly dwindled. Many of these rail cars were built between 2011-2014 and have seen very few mileage, but with a lack of demand for crude by rail, thousands of these tank cars sit idle across the country, for how long? Who knows...
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The power for the train, symbol PNTE (Port Clinton - Temple) had power on both end of the trains, with RBMN SD50M 5049 and GP39RN 2530 pulling the train down from Port Clinton to the Norfolk Southern interchange and BELT (Belt Line Junction) just north of the city of Reading, and RBMN SW8M 802 on the rear for the shove north toward Hamburg, which is the present day terminus of the branch and home to the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society museum and preserved railroad equipment, some of which you see scattered along the branch in this video.
The PRR Schuylkill Branch used to be a line that paralleled the Reading Railroad from Philadelphia to Delano Junction, but is now split into segments with the abandonment of most of the line. This segment runs between Laurel Junction in Temple, PA to Hamburg, PA. This section of track has not seen revenue service in many decades, and the days of the Blue Mountain & Reading steam have come and gone two decades ago. Therefore, seeing a train on the PRR side of the Schuylkill River is incredibly rare, especially on the full extent of the branch.
Hopper cars had been stored on this line in the past, but rarely north of GLEN, which is where the switch to the Glen-Gery Brick Plant and old Pennsylvania Railroad Signal bridge sit derelict. This was the first of such rare mileage empty oil can moves made, and was perhaps the first revenue freight train to run above Shoemakersville in over two decades!
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