17-08-31 PHOTOS: Rearview NEC - Part 1

Surprisingly, for someone who is known for standing at the back of Amtrak trains and taking pictures out the rear, I had never conducted a full survey of the NEC. I had done some bits and pieces here and there, but often the high speeds combined with the double window shooting would make the pictures from my mid-range camera grainy and blurry. Also I rode the NEC so frequently that most times I was content to simply sleep because I could always get any pictures I needed whenever I wanted. Well, then Amtrak moved Business class to the last car of the train and getting rear window shots became a major headache. Therefore, when provided the opportunity of my yearly trip to New Hampshire and a class upgrade coupon, I brought along my DSLR and stood the 3 or so hours between the Gunpowder River and New Rochelle getting whatever photos I could out the back of a northbound Regional. Because of the speed and double tinted windows the quality isn't perfect, but it is better than what I was able to take in the past under similar circumstances.

You can find the full set here, but today's Part 1 will cover from Magnolia to Trenton.

We begin at WOOD interlocking in Edgewood, MD. The brick tower was built in the 1930's and at one point had CTC control of several adjacent interlockings up through the 1980's.

Beyond WOOD there are two movable bridges, one over the Bush river and the other over the Susquehanna. Both require special procedures for opening (MoW crew to unbolt the rail), however only Bush is within interlocking limits and has scheduled openings.

Here we see PERRY tower and the southbound interior signal bridge. Amtrak was in the process of instituting Rule 562 operation between BACON and GRACE. Given that PRINCE, PERRY and GRACE interlockings are back-to-back, I am not sure what use the Rule 562 operation would be. On the Shore Line similar circumstances were kept as islands of Rule 261. Note the bagged 'C' boards on the southbound signals to display Rule 280a, Clear to Next Interlocking.

Passing Acela Express power car #2026 near Northeast, MD.

Passing SEPTA Silverliner IV #411 on a Philly run from Newark, DE as it enters DAVIS interlocking.

Between REGAN and YARD interlockings south of Wilmington, Amtrak has been trying to eliminate a 2 track bottleneck for at least the last 6 years. Here we can see the new Shellpot Branch signal southbound at REGAN, the new track finally being laid between the two interlockings and new auto-plates on the signals at YARD as this will result in that interlocking being retired.

SEPTA Silverliner V #713 laying over at Marcus Hook PA waiting to return to Philadelphia.

Between Wilmington and Philly one can still find the classic PRR interlocking towers BELL, HOOK and BALDWIN interlockings. 

Blowing by a Northbound SEPTA R2 local with Silverliner V #831 at Folcroft.

Passing another southbound Acela Express with power car #2018 at Darby.

Old ARSENAL tower with the NEC MP 2.5 automatic signal gantry.

View of the single doublelsip ladder on the southern side of PENN interlocking.

Departing Philadelphia the train passes in front of the historic ZOO tower.

SEPTA Silverliner IV #344 passing under ZOO's old westbound home signal bridge east of the present day MANTUA interlocking.

The venerable SHORE tower is still hanging on in it's 3rd century of existence.

GRUNDY tower in Bristol, PA with an NS Geep in the background switching the local freight yard.

The rebuilt Levittown Station with a fancy new ADA overpass that will take about 3 times as much effort for the average rider to traverse than the old tunnel.

I really got a lot of nice tower photos on this run. Here we see MORRIS at the junction of the old Trenton Cuttoff and the present day NJT Morrisville Yard.

NJT corridor trainset with ALP-46 #4612 reaching the end of its revenue run at Trenton, NJ.

Well I am going to pause here due to length  Tune in next time to see the continuation of my NEC suvey all the way to New Rochelle!