"Smoking Out ENY"
Long Island Railroad's RFX2 shoves the rail reclaim train down the Atlantic Branch at East New York Station on the morning of January 16th, 2021. Atlantic Avenue, from which the line derives it's name, is directly overhead. Three minutes after stopping for a quick job briefing the stack smoke that had accumulated in the tunnels between here and Richmond Hill has caught up to the train, escaping though the side openings of the station.
The rail reclaim train picks up old rails along the right of way to send out for scrap and recycling. The train was also used to drop small sections of new rail where a normal Continuous Welded Rail train would not fit. The train consists of LIRR's only two running EMD SW1001s (103 & 105) for power and 7 open-ended gondolas. These moves mark the first time a diesel has ran on the Atlantic Branch east of East New York in 4 years and prior to that, over a decade.
