17-08-21 PHOTOS: Eclipse Project

Well solar eclipses don't come around the East Coast of the United States very often, so when the IAU awarded the 2017 Solar Eclipse to a band between Oregon and South Carolina I made plans to attend. As the date approached the best combination of weather and distance appeared to be the Knoxville, TN area, about a 900 mile round trip. Myself and the three friends made the decision to drive overnight and avoid trying to book hotel space. However nothing would prove to be easy as myself and one of my friends also had prior commitments in the Philadelphia area so we concocted a plan wherein I would take transit from southern NJ to Norristown, PA to minimize the amount of driving we would have to do before driving another 900 miles. 

Ironically, despite planning some railfan stops in Tennessee, most of the rail content in this post will come from the Philly area. You can find the entire set of photos here.

I kicked things off at the Haddonfield PATCO station, catching unrebuilt Vickers car #291.

Rolling out onto the Reading Viaduct on a northbound R6 train.

Front end video of my R6 train diverging over the 3 other main line tracks at 16TH ST JCT.


Passing Silverliner V #737 at Roxborough.

SEPTA #723, The Silverliner V I was riding on, at Norristown.

SEPTA Silverliner V #737 departing through KALB interlocking.

Gnarly summer squall line moving across the Delaware Valley.

While in the area I stopped by CP-NORRIS on the NS Harrisburg Line. While there a westbound freight arrived from Philadelphia with a pair of NS C44-9W's #9824 and #9064.  The train was routed into Abrahms yard and stopped for the conductor to get out and hand align some switches.

Better views of the engines as they slowly enter the yard.

500 miles away in Tennessee I booked two CSX interlocking visits to document some late model L&N searchlight signals. The Singleton siding used a cost saving bracket style dwarf placement (note the doll arm on the mast signal) and a fixed marker above a single US&S H-2 searchlight to create medium speed (R/Y, R/G) aspects. Hacks such as bracket dwarfs were in use up through the 80's when ICC regulations against left handed signal placement were relaxed.

I also stopped by the north end of the Etowah siding. The switch was lined for movements into the yard there, but alas, no train ever appeared. I came close to catching one while scouting for lunch in "downtown" Madisonville, TN, but I was a little too far away from a crossing to run there in time.

Well played WalMart manager, well played. For anyone who knows WalMart, they have very friendly policies towards RV's using their lots and as we expected the Madisonville WalMart was packed with all sorts of eclipse tourists. It's a win win as the store gets to sell them whatever they need during their stay.

Ultimately we decided to use the adjacent abandoned WalMart lot adjacent to the active WalMart. There were a lot less people and getting on the road and out of town quickly was of paramount concern because hundreds of thousands of people were going to be doing the same thing and a few minutes delay could mean hours stuck in traffic.

The abandoned WalMart was located next to an Ingles supermarket (a local chain I assume). In earlier times, WalMart was strictly a dry goods and general merchandise retailer and co-existed with a supermarket in the same strip. However today there are only 45 classic WalMarts in the entire country with all others converted into Super Centers that include a full service grocery store. In most small towns the former locations have been abandoned in place, creating headaches for local governments.

As the eclipse got under way my friends and I did all the usual eclipse things.

At 80+% coverage things started getting really creepy and the parking lot took on a twilight vibe at 2pm.

Eclipse money shots with both my DSLR and my mid-range point and shoot.

And that's it. There was no time for any additional rail activities as my friends and I were in the car and engaged in a mad dash to I-81 and the Tennessee border. As US 411 filled up, we had to resort to back and local roads to get through the bottleneck of Maryville, TN, since all loal roads seemed to converge there for some reason >:-O Next week tune in for a tour of the Baltimore Light Rail and Metro shoppes!! text.txt Displaying text.txt.