16-04-16 PHOTOS: New Brunswick

In late 2011, WB tower in Brunswick, MD was closed and the interlocking there was rebuilt. A recent hiking trip to Harper's Ferry was the first opportunity I had to return to Brunswick, MD and check out the changes. During the week Brunswick is a busy stop and terminal on the MARC Brunswick line. During the weekend it is popular with outdoors types looking to to cycling on the C&O Canal trail or boating on the Potomac River. Railroad wise it is the defacto CSX freight terminal for the Washington, DC area and also hosts a major MARC serving and storage facility.

You can see the full set of photos here.

Harpers Ferry, WV sits at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers and was an early industrial hub, hosting a government small arms production facility up until the Civil War. There are three railroad crossings of the Potomac in evidence today. The easternmost was the original alignment and today exists only as piers. In 1868, after a total of 9 wooden bridges were destroyed during the war, an iron Bollman Truss bridge was built and served until 1894. At that point the middle steel truss bridge replaced it. Later in 1930 that in turn was supplanted by the girder bridge which also eliminated a sharp curve through the station area. The 1894 bridge continues to support the CSX Shenandoah Sub as well as the Appalachian trail.

While hanging out on the Maryland Heights, an eastbound manifest train with CSX ES44AC's #704 and 820 passed underneath. While the heights offers an excellent view, parking is extremely limited and it helps to get there as early as possible before the tourists arrive.

Located about 6 miles to the east, the town of Brunswick still hosts a classic B&O train station that still functions in its intended capacity on weekdays for the commuter service to Washington, DC.

The old interlocking plant utilized pneumatic switch machines which were somewhat resistant to the occasional Potomac River flood. The new plant also made sure to elevate the critical interlocking hardware. Also, in an effort to simplify the logic for trains existing the yard an automatic exit signal was provided on main track #1. It is currently displaying Approach Medium for a stop at WEVERTON interlocking. 

Since the B&O main line tracks sandwich the yard and the MARC parking lot, a second platform is provided for inbound tracks. Outbound trains stop in front of the station building.

CSX ET44AH #3355 and AC4400 #349 lay over in Brunswick Yard.

 Also in the yard was CSX AC4400 #69, fittingly seen from the rear, and GP38-2 #2803.

Because of the MARC operations, WB tower was the last tower on the old B&O main line east of Pittsburgh to close. Not only could CSX defray the cost of the tower by billing it to MARC, they also correctly assumed that the state would eventually kick in the money to replace it. Until the end it contained a US&S Model 14 interlocking machine. 

A local railroad museum is hoping to eventually preserve the tower.

Although the MARC Brunswick service is weekday, peak direction only, it is still a significant operation. Trainsets that originate at Brunswick are shown here laying over for the weekend. Among them is one of the remaining MARC passenger Geeps,#74, a GP39-2H.

I returned from lunch at the Potomac Street Grill to find a westbound train of empty coal cars rolling out of the yard on what is typically used by MARC trainsets. 

Remains from the old interlocking plant can still be found in the parking lot.

Although a signal was displayed east on track 2, I had to get to another engagement and couldn't sick around to see what would show up.

Next week I head back out to California and pop by the Santa Clara station area.