Caption: The 50th anniversary of New York Central's demise has brought about some amazing photos from fellow contributors, so I might as well upload this before the year's end.

Coincidentally enough, Norfolk Southern's NYC heritage unit managed to end up on the Buffalo-Fort Erie transfer in time for the big 50, sandwiched between NS 9187 and chiselled nose SD70M 2593. This is believed to be NS 1066's first visit, so it was good timing. NYC's presence on this section of the Canada Southern was not well documented, however Fort Erie was a significant hub for them. Track 99, which was the former CASO Fort Erie yard bypass track, is behind the autoracks, now owned by CN. Only about a quarter mile west of here is where the Chippawa Branch split off to Niagara Falls. The part of the CASO ROW that extends towards Welland was torn up a few years ago as far as Stevensville. The rest remains in CP's hands, now known as the Stevensville Spur.

The NS transfer typically ends up with around three to four heritage units a year. NS 1066 (NYC heritage) appears to be the first to visit that had any major significance to past railroad history in the area. The Wabash unit almost showed up once, but the air compressor failed before leaving Buffalo.

Being a bright spot in what is becoming an increasing dilapidated and depressing part of Fort Erie, NS C93 and the NYC heritage unit completed their yard work within a couple hours and waited some length of time to get clearance back stateside. Past memories of this train involved a typically much shorter consist, and the train would get clearance back into Buffalo almost immediately after finishing work. It's not quite as simple as it used to be, but at least the train is longer. Somewhat frequently now, CN has to run an X422 just to handle how much traffic NS is bringing across. Looking back about 10 years down to the month, this is when the Great Recession really began to take its toll on Niagara's rail traffic. CP never recovered it, though CN seems to be at its strongest point in the area since then.