Railfanning: Albany Port Railroad

The Albany Port Railroad (APR) is an industrial railroad located in downtown Albany. It operates trackage south of the former D&H's Kenwood Yard, and a connecting track breaks out and runs to the nearby CSX's Selkirk Yard. It is controlled and operated jointly by CSX and the Canadian Pacific Railway. It is my understanding that they share equally costs, and each railroad used to take turns providing engines to service the line. 

Railfanning the APR has always been tough because I work during the weekday and they don't seem to do much on nights and weekends. At night, they lock their engines and caboose up behind chain link fence. So, many of my visits usually resulted in pictures shot through the fence, such as this one of engine #13 from September 02, 2005.

To access their enginehouse, the locomotive has to do a switchback maneuver. This is a picture of their enginehouse taken the same day. The track going to the right stops in about 100 feet. The track switching to the left leads "out" to the Port.

In the 1990s they used two idential switch engines (#12 and #13) shown here on June 27, 1993.

Before that, they used red Alco engines (an RS3 and an S2). Sadly, they were acquired by a local railroad group and sat rotting in Colonie Yard for many years before being scrapped. Here is a link to some pictures and information on my blog of those old APR Alco engines from 2005.

The largest customer is a Cargill grain facility which has its own switch engine and I frequently see this engine parked nearby, but on September 02, 2005 I caught it operating. I suspect it was being remote controlled by an employee in the loading shed, as there wasn't any crew in the cab or riding the engine itself.

Per this website there are other companies receiving rail service too at the Port. Here is a map I found online of the APR (from this website):

Finally, on Octover 21, 2014 I took a day off from work and decided get to the Port early to railfan. It was still dark when I arrived, and the weather wasn't cooperating. I quickly introduced myself and promised to stay out of the way, and the manager agreed to let me drive around the Port and take pictures from the roads. I should mention that in 2021 I was once stopped by a security guard... the equivalent of a mall cop... and told I was trespassing. I wasn't but I didn't argue and just moved along.

The day started off with APR #13 pulling a cut of loaded covered hoppers from Kenwood Yard. As their manager explained, Cargill was the largest customer and got priority switching.

The sun was rising as the train trundled past me. I was surprised that the Cargill engine wasn't being used, but it was actually parked behind the fencing in the APR enginehouse facility.

Cargill owns at least one car mover, and it worked in tandem with the switch engine.

After dropping off the loads, they pulled some empties and took them to Kenwood Yard.

Then, the engine ran light around the property. Being essentially a big loop around the port I could guess where it was going, but not all access roads were "public" and some had lots of pot holes. And, the train had a direct route whereas I had to make several turns along the way and mind the speed limits.

The engine snaked between pipe works and past old abandoned tank cars.

Here are those tank cars. I cringe when I see people model grounded tank cars on layouts because they seem fanciful, but here is a real prototype.

The southern end of the port has another large covered hopper facility, and there were several tracks set up for rapid loading or unloading (I don't know which).

Then, the engine went and picked up a string of large flat cars from the docks where wind turbine parts had been brought to load onto outgoing ships.

Thank goodness the engine had a headlight (and the manager was wearing a bright orange jacket) so I could see where the train was amongst all the buildings and other railroad cars. It slowly backed onto the tank car here, and then pulled it away.

From this shot you can see how close the tracks run to some of the access roads.

Once those cars were stored in Kenwood Yard, the solo tank car on the end was spotted.

Next, the engine picked up three more tank cars from the yard.

These were dutifully pushed around the facility (again) to the back. I don't know if the engine just didn't have enough muscle to move all the cars at once, or if it was easier to switch each facility piecemeal. But, it seemed very inefficient to constantly go around and around. 

The destination of the cars was the Molasses storage tanks. And yes, in the summer months you can actually smell molasses in the air! 

The three tank cars were dropped off, and none were pulled.

Then, the locomotive ran light to the engine house.

Finally, it was backed into the fenced in area, and the crew went off to lunch. I should have asked if they ever used that caboose for anything but I forgot. It is bright red in this 2014 picture, but before that it was faded CP orange in the lead-off picture from 2005.

The gates were closed and that was that. All of this had taken place in about five hours.

For their kindness, I later sent the crew a gift certificate to Dunkin Donuts. 

Recently in the past few years the APR acquired a new locomotive, GATX #390, which is an MP15AC. I imagine that this is through a lease arrangement. Here is what it looked like on November 30, 2017, shuttling tank cars into the tank farm. The paint scheme is reminiscint of Montana Rail Link, and it looks very sharp. Ironically I selected the same paint scheme when I painted a few engines for my own HO shortline railroad (the "Rochester and Western") over 20 years ago. 

Here is a picture from September o, 2020 of one of the metal recycling companies. The track looks like it was installed recently, but I have been told it is over 10 years old. 

Naturally, the Port has a large crane facility. Here is what it looked like in September 02, 2005. I wonder if the blue paint is part of the Port's corporate image?

The area is also frequently used to load oversize loads from General Electric like the electrical transformer (?) shown below on September 06, 2020, but but wind turbine parts are also common. 

Here is a shot of an assembled/disassembled panel track taken in the back of Kenwood Yard which I also shot on September 06, 2020. I don't know what its function is.

I have posted pictures elsewhere of the Red Rinling Brothers' circus train that caught during a  random visit to the Port in May 2005.

Finally, here is a shot from September 06, 2020 of a CSX transfer run that had come from Selkirk Yard. It was parked right outside of Kenwood Yard and I waited almost two hours for it to pull the last 300 feet into the yard, but it never budged. Shucks.

There still be another chapter added to the history of the Port. The area is being developed to add an off-shore wind turbine manufacturing facility, and that will mean even more rail traffic! Stay tuned for the future.