21-07-19 PHOTOS: Union Terminal

Here is the third post documenting my 20201 Amtrak Train 79/19/20 round trip to Gainesville, GA. In part one I covered the southbound trip on Train 79 and its associated limited time only reverse railfan view. This part includes the stuff I encountered in Georgia as well as beginning and end of the trip around Washington Union Station. Since I moved out of Baltimore City, I now have to catch Amtrak Southern Service trains in Washington they tend not to make make BWI stops. This time I used the layover period to get photos of the Washington Union Station terminal action from both the parking deck before my southbound trip and a lower level platform after my northbound trip. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

Waiting at BWI for my southbound MARC train to DC, I caught a northbound Regional with ACS-86 #655 and some water dumping from the Cafe car.

Getting off at Union Station I was treated to a little Mars Light action by MARC Kab Kar #7849.

 


From the parking deck one could see how much development was closing in on the Washington Terminal right of way. Compare with similar views from 2008 and 2014.

The MARC yard had a medley of equipment including MARC SC44 #86, MP36PH-3C #25 and Kawasaki Kab Kar #7850.

The parking deck provides a great view of the entire K TOWER area including Amtrak ACS-86 #664 and P42DC #15 participating in a power change operation, DC Streetcar #201B at its Union Station terminus and DC Metro 3k series car #3118 in an unpainted appearance scheme.

MARC GP39H-2 #74 trundled light from the H bridge into track 9.

My upcoming Train 79 trainset then appeared, hauled by ACS-86 #611.

This was followed by a whole raft of movements including a Regional set pushed by everyone's favorite critter SW1200 #796, A MARC trainset with MP36PH-3C #31 and an Acela Express trainset led by power car #2015.

Amtrak SW1200 pup switcher #796 was on hand to push a Regional trainset onto one of the station track. As soon as #796 clears the applicable switches next to K TOWER, a MARC train pulled by MP36PH-3C #31, gets its lineup and pulls ahead to the H-Brdge where it will later reverse back onto a different station track. #796 then returns to Ivy City to pull back another trainset.





Jumping ahead to Georgia, my southbound Crescent Train 19 departed Gainesville, dropping the Approach Diverging signal at MIDLAND interlocking.



Standing in front of the Gainesville station building were NS SD40E #6336 and SD40-2 #6073.

Gainesville has a sizable amount of industry and there always seem to be a bunch of road power handing out waiting to head up some train or another that would originate locally. Today the trio of units on hand consisted of C44's-9W #9851 and #9943 along with fairly new AC44C6M rebuild #4432.

Heading away from the station I caught ConAgra owned GP7 CONX #101 sitting near the road.

I was staying in Bogart, GA on the CSX Abeville Sub which still sees some coal traffic like this loaded northbound train headed by ES44AC #968.

Apparently this former Central of Georgia trestle in Athens, currently being deconstructed for reconstruction for bike use, appeared on the cover of some famous REM album.

Back at Gainesville a few days later I found #6336 and #6073 properly stowed in the engine track. I had plenty of time for photos as Amtrak had pushed back Train 20's schedule by 3 hours, not departing after midnight. Unfortunately the station's automatic door locks had not been adjusted and I had to sit outside the entire time.

The three GE road units had been replaced by sibling pair of SD40-2's #6077 and #6076 and AC44C6M #4086.

My return Northbound Crescent Train #20 arrived with P's42DC #13 and #40 on the head end.



Since my train was on time/early it was routed into the normally southbound Track #23. Moreover, the power change was delayed slightly waiting for Train 92's departure with Amtrak ACS-86 class leader #600 to depart.

After the departure of an Acela Express trainset, Train 20's power change saw P's42DC #13 and #40 replaced by ACS-86 #653.



Also hanging around the lower level that morning was P42DC #133 that had led my southbound Train 79 4 days earlier. Today it was coupled to P42DC #168 indicating an assignment to a Long Distance train.

A Virginia service Regional also appeared on Track #26 with P42DC #201 on the front.

With #653 attached my train headed out of Washington Union Station, I had to transfer back over to the MARC side of the station because at this time Train 20 did not make a stop at the BWI rail station. My train was the second in line on Track 14 with MP36PH-3C #25 pushing on the rear.

As my MARC train pulled out it passed a plethora of motive power on the adjacent terminal and yard tracks. These included MARC MP36PH-3C #19, VRE MP36PH-3C #V64, Amtrak ACS-86 #612 in the VRE storage yard, Amtrak P's42DC #17 and #140 at Ivy City and MARC SC44 #83 and MP36PH-3C #26.

Well I hope you enjoyed all the Amtrak LD action. Tune in next week as I make a quick trip out to HARRIS tower.