"Ducking Under Pitkin Ave"
Louisville & Indiana Railroad SW1200 #9321 & NYA SW1001 #101 have just ducked under Pitkin Avenue on Gershow Recycling's track just off the Bay Ridge Branch in the East New York area of Brooklyn. NYA's SW1001 #101 is tasked with shoving the locomotive towards the end of the track, where it will be scrapped. All locomotives are normally banned by Timetable from this side of the Pitkin Ave overpass on this track due to extreme low clearance but special permission was obtained just for this move. EMD's "SW" class locomotives are the only engines on Long Island short enough to fit under. Built by EMD in 1957 as EMD 23763, 9321 served the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (#562), the Erie Lackawanna Railway (#457) and Conrail (#9321) before joining the Louisville & Indiana Railroad's roster. The locomotive ran on the L&I for many years before being sent to the New York & Atlantic Railway, a sister railroad to the L&I, to assist with the increase of rail traffic on the island. Unfortunately the engine was not used much because of it's reliability and only ran for a couple of years before being sidelined with several mechanical issues. It was moved to a storage track within Fresh Pond Yard where it sat for 9+ years before being moved to the Heritage Paper track on the Bay Ridge Branch in 2017. On January 28th, 2020, the locomotive was finally scrapped by Gershow Recycling, a longtime customer of the NYA located less than a half a mile away.
