19-11-30 PHOTOS: Rainthorpe

Normally the weather on my post-thanksgiving Sunday Amtrak photo excursions has been excellent. Alright, usually it's more than a little chilly, but if anything the early setting sun results in a severe excess of Golden Hour. Well, you roll the dice often enough eventually it comes up "electoral college tie" and in 2019 the weather on Amtrak Sunday wasn't just wet or drizzly, it was a straight up light to moderate rain. While the Halethorpe MARC station provided more covered waiting space than many of the alternatives such as Martin Airport, it was a struggle to keep the lens free of water. Amtrak was also running less extras, clearly having run the numbers and shifted its service to Saturday. As a result I was able to call it quits after the passage of Amtrak Holiday Extra #1056 instead of having to wait for the southbound Arrow III trainsets, which had both been axed. You can find the full set of photos here (mirror).

For everyone's convenience I will lead off with my edited GoPro montage of the day's traffic. After some technical difficulties on the previous Wednesday I managed to compensate and missed fewer trains.




The first train that passed was northbound Newport News Regional Train #96 led by ACS-86 #647. You can see the level of wetness from the spray of water kicked up by the pantograph shoe.

Moving to the north end of the station I caught southbound Amtrak Silver Starve Train #91 with ACS-86 #603 providing the tractive effort.

This was followed by southbound Regional Train 195 with ACS-86 #616.

Track #3 was seeing a lot of traffic that day with the Regional followed by a Sunday MARC local sporting Split Level Cab Car #8053 and MARC SC44 #87.

Most years there are about 20-30 other fans out at Halethorpe for Amtrak Sunday. This year with the lack of NJT Arrow's and the crummy weather I was joined only by a lone senior citizen and a really enthusiastic young kid who can be seen here giving a wave to Amtrak Acela Express Power Car #2004 heading north on the less frequently used track #2.

19-11-27 PHOTOS: Croydon

Every year on the Wednesday before thanksgiving I head out to an NEC station with fellow rail enthusiast Chuchubob in order to catch some of the extra trains Amtrak runs to handle the Thanksgiving crowds. Typically it's just one or two extras with the regular trainsets having a few extra cars added to the consist, but it's always a fun time. Still, there exists a struggle not to have the chosen location get too repetitive. At first the chosen location was Bristol, then Morrisville, then Levittown for a few years and even Tioga thanks to a scheduling mixup. In 2019 I idly decided on giving Croydon a try and I was in no way disappointed. Not only did the station have high level platforms with great sight lines in both directions, it was also situated next to the Milepost 69 intermediate signals and a brew pub which eliminated the need to pack things in early and head to lunch. I had such a good time I will surely be back in future years. You can see the full set of 2019 photos here (mirror).

To save you having to scroll down here is a video montage of many of the trains I captured that day. Due to some technical issues I wasn't able to catch all of the trains, but I did manage to get most of them!




The Croydon parade kicks off with an eastbound Amtrak Keystone service train hauled by Amtrak ACS-86 #644 and including cab car #9632.

Next up was an inbound SEPTA R7 led by Silverliner IV #365 with #398 at the rear.

Amtrak Regional Train XXX with Amtrak ACS-86 #653.

Westbound Keystone this time with ACS-86 #661 passing under the Milepost 69.4 intermediate signals. Metroliner Cab Car #9651 was in back.

An outbound six car R7 was next on track #1 with SEPTA Silverliner IV #156 on point.

What followed was a three way meet between Amtrak Train #98, the northbound Silver Meteor, southbound Acela Express Train XXXX and southbound Regional Train XXX. Train 98 was powered by ACS-86 #639 and included 4 sleepers, a diner and a baggage car for a total of 6 Viewliners. The lead AX power car was #2028 with #2007 trailing and the Regional was being hauled by ACS-86 #619

19-11-23 PHOTOS: Reading Belt Line

The Reading Belt Line was built in 1900 to allow trains of black gold from the Anthracite regions of Eastern Pennsylvania to bypass the increasingly congested Reading yard. It was emblematic of a time when advances in industrial technology would allow the rickety 19th century rail network to get upgraded for the age of steel for those wealthy railroads that could afford it. Running from Klapperthal Jct south of the city to Belt Line Jct in the north, today it hosts the vast majority of NS through traffic on the Reading and Harrisburg Lines as they run between eastern markets and Harrisburg.

What caught my interest was the presence of surviving Conrail era signals on the line which have managed to survive several major NS re-signaling projects in recent years. Always wary of "future developments", I booked a weekend with Reading area rail enthusiast Kevin Painter to visit the Conrail signal locations as well as some other Reading area landmarks. Unfortunately the gods were not kind to me and I caught zero NS freights over the entire course of the day. You can still see all the photos I did get here (mirror).

The first stop was CP-TULP where the Reading Line crosses the Tulpehocken Creek via a single track bridge. The entire bridge is within interlocking limits and the interlocking marks the division point where westbound Reading Line trains can head east to Philly or continue west to Harrisburg. First re-signaled by the Reading in the early 1950's as part of a general Reading area CTC project that concentrated control at two new towers, VALLEY JCT and OLEY, much of this territory would be end of life by the dawn of the 21st century and CP-TULP was again re-signaled by Conrail in 1998 or 99, immediately prior to the NS/CSX split. Therefore, as the interlocking hardware is essentially "new enough" it has so far avoided re-replacement. Here we see the eastbound Reading Line signal for eastbound Harrisburg Line traffic adjacent to the Conrail blue station sign.

Although Conrail was known for using "pinch points" instead of a normal double track crossover to save money, the Reading era single track bridge over the Tulpehocken Creek was the motivating factor for CP-TULP's design, not Conrail's frugality. The westbound signals feature 3 heads due to CP-TULP being back-to-back with CP-VALLEY JCT and CP-DUNKLE, necessitating the need for R/Y/G Medium Approach Medium. Although clearly an equilateral turnout, Conrail did not like the concept and designated track 2 as the diverging route.

The milepost 6 intermediate mast signals replaced a pair of Reading era bracket masts visible from the adjacent PA Route 12. The portion of the Reading Line between CP-BLANDON and CP-WYOMISSING JCT uses its own zero based mileage reflecting the history of this route as a bypass.

If there is congestion on the Belt Line or if carloads need to be handled at Reading Yard, trains may be routed via the slow road through downtown Reading. CENTER interlocking, established during the 1950's CTC project, represents the western apex of the old Reading Outer Station wye where traffic bound for Harrisburg would emerge from the Reading terminal complex. Left largely intact from the Reading days, CP-CENTER was recently re-signaled with the western switch and interlocking limits relocated to the west to save on grade crossing logic and allow for a higher speed turnout.

The eastbound signals were also made more descriptive providing for medium and full speed indications to the Pottsville Branch even though speeds on both legs of the old Outer Station wye are only 10mph.

The south leg of the Outer Station Wye is represented by CP-WALNUT. Replaced by Conrail in the late 1990's, new NS signals replaced the Conrail masts in 2018 or 2019. A major hub of activity during the days of the Reading railroad, Outer Station closed in 1969 and was destroyed by fire in 1978. In the early 2000's the city public works opened a large facility on the site and today much of the surrounding brownfield has returned to a natural state.

Looking east towards the old Franklin St station while a parade passes by on Penn St.

19-11-10 PHOTOS: BOWIE

I have some to find that museums with few interactive elements are somewhat lacking when it comes to repeat visitations. Baring extenuating circumstances one doesn't need additional photos of the same displays year after year. As a result the last time I visited the preserved PRR interlocking tower in Bowie, Maryland was 2007. 12 years later, with opportunities to photograph classic signaling drying up, I decided to make another visit to BOWIE to take some better photos with a better camera. It was nice to see that the museum had been expanded, but NEC photography was still somewhat limited due to the tower having been moved away from the tracks. In addition to the Bowie rail history museum this set also includes photos from a random trip to DC. You can find the full set of photos here (mirror)

My DC trip was of the after work variety so I went about catching MARC at Halethorpe. As typical a southbound Regional was running ahead of the MARC local out of Baltimore with ACS-86 #645 in the lead.

Peak period express trains out of DC typically sport 9+ bi-level cars which are best handled by one of MARC's 6 HHP=8 locomotives. #4912 here was doing the honors this day with bi-level Kab Kar #7846 on the rear.

My reverse peak train to DC was somewhat shorter and led by Kab Kar #7851.

WMATA classic series train at Metro Center with #6109 on the end compared with a new 7k train at the same location.

Amtrak ACS-86 #658 in MARC service at Washington Union Station at night.

K-TOWER interlocking at night with loads of recent construction.

Southbound signals at WINANS interlocking along with the MP 103.1 automatic.

Since my last visit, BOWIE tower had its companion Western Maryland caboose replaced by a Chessie veteran. There was also a new bike path that appears to be the first step in connecting downtown Bowie to the current passenger station.