19-07-21 PHOTOS: Hot Times

A Washington, DC area summer is hot and in late July even a late night celebration of the 50th Apollo 11 moon landing anniversary turned into an absolutely sweltering affair.  Still, I didn't pass up the chance to get some DC Metro photos and ride the new H Street streetcar line. Also included are some Baltimore Light Rail pics during the service disruption caused by a giant sinkhole on Russel St adjacent to the Convention Centre. You can see the full set of photos here (mirror).


Starting off at Perryville, MD, I was out to check out the new Rule 562 enabled signals as well as a new trailing point ladder for northbound freight trains coming off the Port Road.  This allows both Perryville siding tracks to be used to hold freight trains instead of just track #4. 

To reach DC I chose Greenbelt as my suburban park and ride option which would require a transfer to the Red Line to reach Union Station. Here is WMATA 7k car #7618 and a video of some additional 7k Green Line action on the lower level at Ft Totten.

Luckily I managed to get a train of classic style 6k cars on the Red Line segment of the trip with #6167 in the lead.

Here is a video taken from the rear window of my Red Line all the way from Ft Totten to Union Station.




6k car #6053 was the last car in the set, seen here at Union Station.

H-Street Streetcar #202 arriving at the Union Station stop with new construction as far as the eye can see.

#202 again as it is seen departing the 15th St stop on Benning Road. 

The Apollo 11 event on the Mall was really fun, despite the sweltering heat.  Projecting a full scale Saturn V on the Washington Monument was a stroke of genius, however the 500+ foot tall monument had the unintended effect of making the ~380 feet tall rocket look small :-\

After the show ended there was a mad dash to the L'Enfant plaza station, but I managed to score space on the first available Green Line train to Greenbelt.  Here we see a southbound Yellow Line train on the upper level of the station followed by my outbound train of classic style cars.

At Greenbelt I  managed to catch a pair of classic trainsets platformed across from eachother with 3k cars #3222 and #3108 on the ends.

Shifting to the Baltimore light rail we see LRV #5020 at the North Linthicum station. 

By the time of my visit, the finishing touched were being put on the large sinkhole repair.  The hole caused a shutdown of the Light Rail line between North Ave and Camden.  The presence of maintenance facilities on both ends of this outage allowed service to continue outside of the city center.

Heading home for the night I caught MTAM LRV #5032 at the Camden Station.  

The station building itself had been recently rebuilt and looked great, especially at night.  However due to the peak period exclusive MARC service the last commuter train to DC had departed hours earlier.

Well that's all for now.  Tune in next week for a quick visit to the West Chester Railroad's West Chester base of operations.