20-11-29 PHOTOS: Odenton

In normal years I reserve a few hours on the Sunday after Thanksgiving to watch some of the Amtrak extra trains being run on the Northeast Corridor. However in 2020 with the Covid pandemic drastically curtailing holiday travel, there was little of any extra service to be had and even if there was it would be indistinguishable from a normal year's regular service. Still, I didn't want to break my tradition, so instead of heading to a popular spot where trains were to focus, I chose a location with some infrastructure and signaling that could fill in the gaps. Specifically this was the Odenton, MD MARC station and adjacent GROVE interlocking. Also in this set ( mirror ) are some Philly area PATCO and SEPTA photos/videos.

Situated as the first stop south of the BWI Airport Rail Station, Odenton has grown into a massive park and ride facility with a lot of high density transit orientated development. It's two large high level platform can accommodate full length MARC trains unlike Bowie State and Seabrook to the south. 

Located behind the platform on the northbound side is the old ODENTON interlocking tower that controlled some crossovers and a connection to an industrial track. This would be closed in the early 1980's when ODENTON interlocking was replaced by GROVE interlocking about a mile to the north.

The first train to appear was an southbound Amtrak Acela Express trainset with power cars #2032 and #2034. Looking north we can see the Maryland Route 175 bridge.

This was followed by ACS-86 #653 with some kind of Regional.

The station building was constructed in the 1950's and has what I assume to be reproduction PRR keystones.

Using a gap in activity to head down to GROVE interlocking, GROVE is a 3 track full crossover that was the location of the NEC's first high speed turnout to allow northbound Amtrak trains on track #2 out of DC to make the stop at BWI on track #1 without having a large time penalty. Before the advent of the Cab Speed 80 cab signal, diverging routes over the HST at GROVE were protected by directional arrows on track #2. Today the center track #2 had a barricade up north of the interlocking so all southbound traffic was using track #3.

MARC was running a two hourly service with a mixed trainset with MP36PH-3C's #18 and #13 having the honors and Kawasaki Kab Kar #7853 on the end.

20-11-25 PHOTOS: NEC Mashup

Every year on the day before Thanksgiving I head out with Chuchubob for some pre-holiday railfanning along Amtrak's NEC. This year due to COVID not only was sharing a car and a meal not considered a good idea, but Amtrak's schedule had been drastically cut back due to the collapse in ridership. Not to be deterred Bob and I realized that there was nothing stopping us from taking separate cars to an outdoor NEC location to continue the tradition. North Philadelphia station was chosen due to R7 and R8 SEPTA trains filling in for missing Amtrak Regionals. Since Bob had a number of other things to do we split up early leaving me to continue on to Holmesburg Junction and then Croydon where I did some outdoor dining in view of the tracks. The photos from the entire day can be found here ( mirror ).

We began at the NJT RiverLINE's 36th St station in Camden where sibling units #3513 and #3512 passed eachother.

In Pavonia Yard NS AC44C6M #4035 was performing some flat switching.

Due to track work in Amtrak's LEHIGH interlocking, inbound R7 trains on Track #4 were getting Stop and Proceed signals. (Thack 3's signal wasn't even lit!). SEPTA Silverliner IV #317 was the first to navigate the work area.

 


NORTH PHILADELPHIA tower is still standing, but has been boarded up.

A northbound Acela Express trainset with power car #2034 was the first Amtrak train on the scene.

20-11-21 PHOTOS: VALLEY JCT

Once again it's time for a trip to Reading Country and with most of the surviving Conrail signals already accounted for my goals for 2020 were to check out the surviving Reading interlocking tower at Lebanon Valley Junction along with the new/rebuilt NS Harrisburg Line interlockings CP-LORANE and CP-BIRD. This trip also afforded me my first shot at the popular railfanning location of Wyomissing Jct as well as some other Reading area points of interest. The full set of photos can be found here ( mirror ).

My trip started out well enough when upon leaving the Maryland area I caught the head end of an eastbound CSX intermodal train passing over US Route 1. Swinging onto local roads I was just in time to catch distributed power in the form of ES44AC #936 passing through the site of the old Elkridge MARC station.

I met up with Reading area guru Kevin Painter at the Reading and Northern North Reading station. Although nothing was moving from an R&N point of view, an odd couple pairing of yard power featuring SW8 #802 and MP15DC #1548 was hanging out along with SD40-2 #3055 and SD50-2 #5018 in the new Fast Freight scheme.

Heading to Wyomissing Jct we passed by CP-BELT where an eastbound NS manifest train was waiting on a signal on the old Reading Belt Line with NS C40-10W #7523 and Ac44C6M #4331 on the head end.

Upon reviewing a clear signal indication, the train started east with C40-10W #7550 providing some mid-train assistance.

20-11-08 PHOTOS: Winter Park

After visiting the eastern portal of the Moffatt Tunnel back in July 2020, upon my next visit to Colorado I made plans to visit the western portal which just happens to be located at the site of the Winter Park Resort rail station, western terminus of the famed Denver Ski Train, where some luck and timing allowed me to catch the westbound run of Amtrak's California Zephyr. Later that weekend I had some extra time to visit the new Denver RTD commuter rail stations at 41st-Fox and Denver International Airport. These and other Denver related photos can be seen upon visiting the entire gallery located here ( mirror ).

The Winter Park Resort station has served as the terminus of the Denver Ski Train since the days of the Denver, Rio Grande and Western Railroad. After issues with insurance and the Great Recession caused an extended hiatus between 2008 and 2014, the Ski train officially returned as an annual Amtrak sponsored event in 2017. Demand was such that a fresh platform was constructed at the Winter Park Resort terminus to better support the ridership. Fun fact, this is the highest point on the Amtrak network at 9300 feet.

The reason for the Ski Train's popularity is the proximity to the ski lifts at the Winter Park resort and the limited highway capacity dictated by the mountainous terrain. If the Berthoud Pass or I-70 are blocked or congested the only alternate routes in the winter are a 190 trip via South Park or a whopping 260 mile detour via Fort Collins.

As a plus, the station platform is located directly adjacent to the western portal of the Stephen Moffatt Tunnel. While not as involved as the eastern portal with its crazy fan plant, it is still treated with the same marquee label and dates. At 6.2 miles in length it is not the longest tunnel in North America, but it is pretty important cutting many miles off the previous Tennessee Pass route and delivering water to the City of Denver.

The western portal area is equipped with anti-intruder sensors and a repeater signal for the East End of the Winter Park siding.

The approaching Amtrak Train 5 could be heard from quite a distance back in the tunnel and took a white to emerge despite the 40mph track speed.

The Covid shortened consist was powered by Amtrak P42DC's #69, #133 and surprise 3rd engine #62.