Jersey Mike's Rail Adventures: July 2017

Saturday, July 8, 2017

17-07-08 PHOTOS: Metro Detour

So last summer someone I know from the UK needed to catch a flight out of International Airport Dulles and I suggested that we make a day out of it and visit the Udvay Hazy Center before his late afternoon flight. To somewhat complicate matters another friend who had offered to actually do the driving wanted to spend three additional hours after the Dulles trip to go and see his horse. I made a counter proposal that he just drop me off at the Wiehle-Reston Silver Line stop and I'd make my way home via the Metro and MARC Weekend Service. unfortunately things turned out to be a little more complicated than I had anticipated.

I'll start with a few photos from the Udvar Hazy center. First a Vought F4U Corsair.

The B-29 Enola Gay.

Me 163 Komet with an HWK 509 rocket engine.

A PBY-5A Catalina sitting next to the Apollo 11 spacecraft in the restoration hanger.

Upon leaving the museum I got this photo of an Air France A380 #F-HPJD landing at IAD.

Catching a waiting METRO train of the classic style at Wiehle-Reston.

Unfortunately the Blue/Orange trunk line was shut down somewhere between Roslyn and Metro Center so Silver Line trains were having to turn at Ballston Spa. This would force a transfer to an Orange Line train, but that would get me only as far as Roslyn where I would need to transfer to a Blue Line train to take me to Pentagon where I could finally get across the river on a Yellow Line train. The closure basically turned a 2 seat ride into a 5 seat ride!!

I was able to get some rear railfan window video while on the Blue line between Roslyn and Arlington Cemetery.

17-07-03 PHOTOS: Pennsylvanian

As you have seen I have been desperately trying to document the PRR signals on the Main Line before they are replaced in over the next year or two. In the summer of 2017 I had the opportunity to ride the Pennsylvanian eastbound from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, which would supplement my 2009 photo survey of the line in the opposite direction. I even booked Business Class to make sure I would get a view out the back. Unfortunately, despite booking on a Monday Morning, my train attracted a PV out for a short joy ride over the curve to Harrisburg and back and was denied a view of the most important part of the line :-( I did my best out the side window and I got rear shots east of Harrisburg, but all in all the trip was a bust.

If you are interested in the full set of photos I did manage to get, they are here.

The business class car was at the front of the train so I had the time and opportunity to get some pictures under the Pittsburgh train shed. Here we see Amtrak P42DC #89 on one of the two stub end tracks used by the Pennsylvanian.

The old PITT tower is visible through the trainshed columns. Built in the early 1950's, the tower housed one of the last and largest US&S Model 14 machines ever installed. Today the tower functions as a Port Authority police station with operational responsibility over the adjacent east busway that took over half of the former PRR Main Line right of way.

Here we look westward down the main station platform. Mainline track 1 is used by the Capitol Limited with a midnight westbound departure and an 5:30am eastbound departure. To the right of that is the old 3000' long Pitt controlled siding that used to store helper sets. In the 2000's, the west connection to the siding was removed leaving it as an infrequently used stub track.

Some railfans out to catch the PV movement at Latrobe.

A couple of views of Johnstown, PA. The first is a view from the Stone Bridge of the the Conemaugh River, channelized to prevent a recurrence of the deadly flood of 1889. The Stone Bridge, built in 1888, survived the flood unscathed and continues to serve in its original capacity. The second picture shows the top of the surviving PRR Johnstown Station.