C87 // U.S. Sugar - a photo on Flickriver

C87 // U.S. Sugar

NS local C87 shoves four box cars from Mexico into the "mud track" on the west side of the U.S. Sugar plant in Buffalo.
U.S. Sugar is arguably one of the harder customers to see being worked, mostly because it happens at any time of the day and sometimes by any job, though it is primarily handled by Bison's industry job C87. The side of the plant visible to the public eye is the side which receives covered hoppers along Bailey Ave. However unbeknownst to me for the longest time, it turns out the plant has still been taking box cars too. At the end of 2021, with the help of a friend and a contact at NS, we were able to crack the mystery of when Sugar was worked and finally start shooting it. I shot the Bailey side numerous times over thr course of 2022. I had always seen box cars on the other side away from the street, but the track back there was so dilapidated and in rough shape that I thought those cars were simply left there to rot. Turns out they were just seldomly switched. The crews referred to this area as the "mud track" due to how poorly maintained and wobbly it was.
Around spring of 2023, an influx of box cars from Mexico began populating the north end of the spur into Sugar along Bailey Ave. The cars were being kept there due to track work inside the plant on the Bailey Side, and so they weren't taking any hoppers for quite a while. Essentially that left it as a temporary storage track, making the switch on the mud track slightly easier, where normally the string of box cars would be stored over there. However crews would still have to pull the innermost cars and set them over before spotting there. When the string of box cars was kept on the mud track, the crew could simply switch with the whole thing intact since the rear cars would be going straight in, keeping the power far from the building. It occurred to me that at long last I'd have an opportunity to shoot the forgotten side of U.S. Sugar. After plenty of waiting that chance arose as my friend Aidan, who was a conductor trainee at the time, just happened to get put on C87 that week and tipped me off they'd have to switch the mud track. I recall leaving the house a bit late that day and still beating them to Sugar through a half hour of traffic. The sun angle was at least good for side light that time of day, as the shot faces north.
Alas, shortly after this within a month or two, the track was deemed OOS and the Bailey side was placed back in service following the repairs. It was at this point that box cars started randomly showing up in the line of hoppers shoved down the spur alongside the plant. Sugar uses a front loader with a railcar coupler on the rear to spot cars inside their unloading bay, typically one at a time. NS only picks up the empties and delivers loads for the plant to handle themselves. Remnants of dock doors from when box cars could be spotted outside along Bailey are still visible today, albeit all boarded up. At this point the box cars, like the hoppers, are unloaded inside rather than at an exterior dock, such as the mud track was. In my opinion, U.S. Sugar still remains one of the most interesting ops to shoot around Buffalo. Earlier in 2024, I finally managed to nab some shots of the front loader moving a car inside to complete the trifecta. I'll post that one eventually.

Bailey Ave side:
flic.kr/p/2pk7JJU

Taken on: May 1, 2023

Tags:

Norfolk Southern

Industry

Industry Photography

Afternoon Sun

Box Car

U.S. Sugar

Trains

Train Crossing

Train Photography

Railroad

Railroad Photography

Low Angle

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Sets appears in: • Industry Shenanigans • Norfolk Southern Buffalo Shenanigans

Groups appears in: • Customer Service Rail Photos

Camera: Panasonic DMC-G7, f/3.5, 1/1600 sec, 14mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-G7
Aperture:	f/3.5
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1600)
Focal Length:	14mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	+0.33 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Landscape
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.2.2
Show full info

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