Awesome Trains In North Jersey, Railfanning, South Plainfield - Ridgefield Park, NJ 2/20-21/22

Having a couple days off I ventured North to Port Reading to try and nab one of the Conrail jobs pull an empty ethanol train out of Motiva's Sewaren refinery with a BC Rail Dash 9 leading. Unfortunately the train never ended up getting pulled, so I cut my losses and continued North to the lower end of CSX's River Line in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey to see a KCS duo on Q403. I knew if I wanted this train in daylight I had to do a little bit of driving, as the Philly-bound train would not make it out of black hole known as Conrail North Jersey before sundown. Thankfully the train showed up in perfect light, as they coast down the hill past NYSW's MC Yard in Ridgefield Park. After a failed chase attempt the rest of the train can be seen passing through the southern-most portion of Ridgefield Park before crossing the Overpeck Creek into Ridgefield proper. Aside from the KCS duo, you will also see double YN2 AC44 duos on both Q434 and Q433, as well as an extra NYSW local job returning to Little Ferry Yard. After failing to see the BC Rail the day prior, the next day I again found myself in Port Reading for another attempt at catching it. Sure enough within minutes of getting there PR-19 was out and about to pull the empty train out of Motiva with the BCOL Dash 9 on point. Here we see PR-19 coming off the Yard Lead at CP RON, and shoving down to Motiva on the Garden State Secondary. Then again at the lead into the refinery in Sewaren, a little farther up the line at Woodbridge Ave., and lastly crossing a trestle on their way back North with the empty train in tow. They would wait for a 20R at CP RON before continuing onwards to the East Siding to tie the train down. Once 20R cleared the interlocking, PR-19 can be seen heading North across the diamond for the East Siding, and again under Exit 12 after being tied down. With PR-19 having pulled the train early and hastily, it allowed time for me to make a quick stop over to the Lehigh Line and grab NS's Savannah & Atlanta Heritage trailing on 212, and see an epic SD40-2 duo as sole power on a 9,500 ton Q404 thunder through South Plainfield, NJ. All in all, it was a pretty eventful weekend for buffing, and a welcome change from the usual monotony we see trackside here in Jersey.