I was spending some free time on Google Earth and noticed that CSX’s ex-Conrail line is much more robust than Norfolk Southern’s ex-NKP line - it’s double tracked (as opposed to a mostly single-track NS route) and uses fills everywhere, while NS crosses the same rivers on bridges. I was surprised how closely these lines are to each other for a majority of the distance.
How many trains do CSX and NS run on these lines on a daily basis? Does NS run any freights over the CSX tracks since they have what appears to be no capacity?
I don’t know what you,re looking at, but I live about 1/2 mile from the NS main(ex CR waterlevel route), and the line is double and triple tracked most of the way. rstaller
Didn’t CSX get the ex-NYC waterlevel route in the CR breakup? NS already had their ex-NKP line between the two cities in question. West of Cleveland, onwards to Chicago, NS did get the waterlevel from CR though - where do you live?
Track speeds on both lines seem to be about 60 mph. This is CSX’s main east-west line so it sees roughly 50 to 60 trains per day. The NS main is the old PRR, so the Buffalo line is secondary and carries probably half as much traffic as CSX. NS does use a short bit of CSX line in Erie. For decades NS famously ran through a street (18th or was it 19th, I can never get it right), which was a problem for the city as well as the railroad. The solution was to shift over to CSX for about a mile.