East Penn Railroad Wilmington & Northern Branch: WN-5 and the CSX Elsmere Yard-March 5, 2021

For the first time this year, we caught some East Penn Railroad action on the southern portion of the Wilmington & Northern Line. EMD GP18 no. 1800, one of three GP18s owned by the "football railroad", led the northbound WN-5 train towards Coatesville with GMTX-lease EMD GP38-2 no. 2179 trailing. While we waited for ESPN WN-5 to leave the Elsmere yard, we caught some CSX action in the Elsmere Yard, including Q300, Q217, and 729. 1800 was built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division at La Grange, Illinois in August 1962 for the New York, Susquehanna, & Western Railway in New York. 1800, along with sister locomotives 1802 and 1804 worked for the "Susie Q" from 1962 to 2008 when they were all retired from the NYSW roster. In early 2010, all three GP18s were sold to East Penn Railroad, LLC and were delivered to the Octoraro Branch in Kennett Square, PA for use on both the Octoraro and Wilmington & Northern Lines. In mid-2014, 1804 was the first GP18 to be painted into the current East Penn Railroad paint scheme and was transferred to the railroad's Perkiomen branch where it continues to work today. 1802 was also repainted to East Penn blue and yellow in 2014 and was transferred to the Lancaster Northern branch shortly afterwards. In 2017, 1800 was transferred was leased to the Middletown & New Jersey Railroad for a short time and was used for hauling that years "Toys for Tots" Train. 1800 returned to the Octoraro and Wilmington & Northern Lines in late 2018 and continues to haul revenue freight for the East Penn Railroad. 2179 was built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division at La Grange, Illinois in August 1972 as Belt Railway of Chicago no. 491. 491 continued to work for the BRC in Illinois until 2006 when it was sold to Locomotive Leasing Partners (LLPX) and was renumbered to 2233. In 2011, 2233 was purchased by the GATX Rail Locomotive Group (GMTX) and was renumbered to 2179. That same year, it was leased to East Penn Railroad, LLC and was repainted into East Penn's blue and gold before it was transferred to the Octoraro and Wilmington & Northern Lines with sister locomotive 2173. 2179 continues to operate on these lines today with 2173. Timestamps: 0:00 CSX Q300 switching in Elsmere 1:30 ESPN WN-4 5:45 CSX Q217 (Light) 6:20 ESPN WN-5 Departing Elsmere 7:29 West Rockland Road, Montchanin, DE 9:17 Adams Dam Road, Winterthur, DE 10:23 Cossart, PA, South of Chadds Ford Junction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Events Sat. March 27: Wilmington & Western Railroad Steam Easter Bunny Express April: West Chester Railroad [TBD] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits: Executive Directors: thehnw1223 and trainboy105 Producers: thehnw1223 and trainboy105 Video Editing/Revisions: thehnw1223 Photo & Video Credit: thehnw1223 COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: Videos are not to be reuploaded/reposted/redistributed without permission from our team. All content reuploaded/reposted/redistributed without our permission will be taken down in accordance with international copyright laws and policies. Please contact us if you would like to use segments of our videos for projects or other video purposes. Copyright © 2021 East Penn Railfan Productions and The Flying W. Ranch Studios. All Rights Reserved. ---------------------------------------­----------------------------------------­-------------------------- Instagram: @eastpennrailfanproductions Twitter: @EastPennRFPro