New York and Atlantic Railway RS40 @ 73rd St. on the Lower Montauk Branch with 2 MP15ACs and a PR20B

On the sunny morning of Thursday, July 11th, 2019, I made a trip to Fresh Pond Yard in Queens, NY, which is the main base of operations for the New York and Atlantic Railway. The New York and Atlantic Railway (NYAR) is a shortline that interchanges with CSX and Providence and Worcester in Fresh Pond Yard and serves customers in Queens and Long Island. They typically operate four or five trains per day, most of which run at night due to most of their trackage being shared with the Long Island Railroad. Their one daytime freight, NYAR RS40, leaves Fresh Pond Yard in the morning and services various industries in eastern Long Island before returning back west in the afternoon. NYAR has a roster that includes 4 EMD GP38-2s, 4 EMD MP15ACs, 2 Progress Rail PR20Bs, 1 EMD SW1001, and a few leased locomotives from GMTX and CIT.
I arrived at Fresh Pond Yard at around 6:30 AM and set up at a railroad crossing on 73rd St., located just west of the yard on the lower Montauk Branch. About two hours later, NYAR RS40 emerged from the yard and picked up a cut of construction debris cars, before backing into its train and preparing to head east. Today's train was powered by three locomotives, which is fairly unusual for RS40 considering that it's typically only 10-20 cars long. Leading the train were two NYAR MP15ACs, #159 and #151, both of which were built in 1977 for the Long Island Railroad and sold to NYAR in the late 1990s. Trailing third was NYAR #300, one of two Progress Rail PR20Bs that were recently bought by NYAR. The three locomotives were pulling 18 cars. Knowing that RS40 wouldn't return for seven hours, I decided to head home after it cleared the crossing. Thanks for watching!
9:01 AM: NYAR RS40
NYAR #159 (MP15AC)
NYAR #151 (MP15AC)
NYAR #300 (PR20B)

[@johnschwerdt9983]

This was at the Glendale station, an old commuter stop!

[@HarrisonPeloso]

Radical catch

[@tomy.1846]

Sweet catch! :)

[@MTANewYorkCityTransitFilms]

Nice!!

[@nynjrailvideos7198]

Thanks!

[@MrPhysics._]

Nice to see triple again

[@sarahhxo_]

How often does the nyar pass??

[@nynjrailvideos7198]

NYAR operates one daylight train Monday through Friday, which goes from Fresh Pond Yard to Long Island and back. They also run a few trains late at night.

[@Jc42bugs]

the nyar pass thru weekdays

[@EuropeanTrainDriver]

Wunderschön video

[@nynjrailvideos7198]

Thanks!

[@Tiredoldchannel]

Nice catch! Those are some really interesting units! Especially the third one

[@nynjrailvideos7198]

Thanks! Progress Rail rebuilds are always interesting, I believe NYAR is the only railroad that operates PR20Bs.

[@sheilatrachtenberg8997]

That was one impressive lashup. But why have 3 engines totaling 5,000 horses to haul only 18 cars?

[@nynjrailvideos7198]

I would guess they had a much larger load for the return trip.

[@chrish3329]

Where in Long Island can you catch these trains?