Jersey Mike's Rail Adventures: 20-08-11 PHOTOS: Edgewood

Edgewood, Maryland is a town located between Baltimore and Aberdeen on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. The town features a MARC commuter rail station directly adjacent to Amtrak's WOOD interlocking that is a well known photo and video location for Amtrak trains operating at high speed at low level platforms. During the summer of 2020 I had the opportunity to spend an hour or so at Edgewood in the middle of a weekday when both Amtrak and MARC trains would be operating. I also grabbed some photos of the nearby WOOD tower and later padded out the set of photos with more MARC action at SAVAGE interlocking on the Camden Line. The complete set of photos can be located here ( mirror ).

The Edgewood MARC station has seen increasing growth over the years, evolving from a handful of peak direction runs padded out with "secret" Amtrak Regional stops for the benefit of monthly passholders, to a fairly robust selection of peak and reverse peak runs, even during the mid day. One element of the reverse peak growth was the adjacency of the Aberdeen Proving Grounds that supports a good number of trips to and front the DC area as everyone involved seeks to avoid the crushing beltway traffic. This modern station facility with air conditioned waiting room is an indication of Edgewood's significance.

I arrived just in time to catch MARC's mid-day Perryville train arriving well ahead of schedule due to the Covid induced plunge in ridership. The trainset was bracketed by MP36PH-3C #11 and multilevel cab car #8050.

After the MARC train departed towards Perryville, an NS local freight sitting in the Magnolia siding pulled out through WOOD interlocking, following the MARC with a short cut of tank cars sandwiched between NS Operation Lifesafer GP38-2 #5760 and standard NS GP38-2 #5605.

Moments after it cleared the platform on track #2, a southbound Amtrak Regional train led by ACS-86 #669 whipped through on track #3.

WOOD tower is a late 1930's PRR design similar to the other period towers involved with CTC projects such as COLA, THORN and PERRY. Although made from sturdy brick with a slate roof, the depression era tower still lacks some of the embellishments added to 1940's vintage corridor towers such as GRUNDY and MIDWAY.

Edgewood's ADA ramp system makes use of the south walkway adjacent to the original road underpass. The north walkway and its platform stairs are currently overgrown and out of service.

The only Amtrak train to pass by was a northbound Acela with power cars #2024 and #2021.

After the Acela passed the MARC trainset returned from Perryville with #8050 leading and #11 pushing.

Jumping to SAVAGE Interlocking on the Camden Line, MARC's Covis schedule created a sweet spot where one could catch three trains, one westbound and two eastbound, in the space of about an hour. First up was the eastbound single level set with MARC MP36PH-3C #24 pulling and cab car #7757 on the rear.