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.
Next up was a southbound AX with power car #2017 in the lead. The three track structure of the southern NEC has strange effects like more southbound Acelas stopping at BWI than northbound. The center track is often directional based on time of day, south in the mornings, north after noon, we switching it back and forth willy nilly would completely destroy its capacity.
On the same Acela trainset, power car #2036 passes under the southbound signal bridge for WINANS interlocking. Only in service on tracks 1 and A, the signal bridge also supports an automatic signal on track #2. The track 3 automatic is located on the northbound WINANS signal bridge.
Amtrak Train #156 passing through the Halethorpe MARC station on Track #1. The previous low level MARC platforms allowed passengers to disembark from train stopped on track 1, crossing over Track A, which was an infrequently used freight siding. The new high level platforms can only serve Track A on that side resulting in a slow diverging move at WINANS.
Lynchburg Regional Train 157 with ACS-86 #662 caught me a bit by surprise as it passed by on Track #3.
Another southbound Acela Express with power cars #2007 and #2028. Amtrak expanded Acela service as the affluent Northeastern clientele appreciates the more exclusive atmosphere.
Well here's the crowd pleaser. Amtrak Holiday Extra train #1056 with ACS-86 #655, 6 MARC coaches and an Amfleet food service car.
A short 4-car Sunday MARC local then appeared, crossing onto Track A with SC44's #84 and #82 in association with Kab Kar #7852.
Like I said, by this point I was cold, wet and with no Arrow III's in the picture I called it a day and went home. Next week I'm am once again off to Chicago via the Capitol Limited
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