22-04-30 PHOTOS: Brunswick Tuscarora

CSX's Brunswick Yard in Brunswick, MD is a perennial visit on my calendar as the town provides the best food and beverage options near a number of natural recreation resources. In my last visit in December of 2020 I commented on the precarious situation of WB Tower that was slated for preservation, but left unsecured and vulnerable to fire. A little over a year later I just happened to be in the area after an Appalachian Trail hike and decided to pop by after lunch to see what was up. The full set of photos that also contain content from elsewhere on the Metropolitan Sub and Mid-Atlantic region can be accessed here ( mirror ).

Brunswick, MD is the location of the yard for MARC Brunswick Line service to both Brunswick and Martinsburg, WV. Each main track platform is split by a large parking lot at the west end of Brunswick Yard. The B&O era station is well kept although no longer maintained or staffed by CSX.

In a bit of good news, WB TOWER had been moved off its old foundation and relocated to town owned land as part of the Brunswick History Museum. The site was still a work in progress and stairs had yet to be built for access to the operator's level

Brunswick Yard has seen significant loss of activity since the PSR craze took hold. The only locomotives on hand were a trio of road units including AC4400 #528 and ES44AC's #943 and #844.

My next stop was the fairly new TUSCORORA interlocking at Milepost 39 on the Metropolitan Sub a few miles east of the Old Main Line junction at Point of Rocks. The full crossover was installed new as part of a ~2014 re-signaling and capacity expansion project partly funded by state and local governments to bribe CSX into allowing for the future expansion of MARC Brunswick Line services.

Next stop is the Garrett Park MARC station MP36PH-3C #22 arrived when an outbound afternoon train.

22-04-01 PHOTOS: Florence

Over the past 20 years the NJT RiverLINE has been far more useful than I assumed when it first opened. In addition to serving as a cheaper substitute to the SEPTA R7 for connecting to NJT at Trenton and the occasional access to the Camden waterfront, the RiverLINE has also served me as a Park N Ride alternative to Hamilton and, more recently, created a second NJ loop option for my SEPTA winter fan trips. In the Spring of 2022 I discovered a new use when driving down from North Jersey with a friend. They needed to stop near Doylestown, PA while I was looking to continue down to South Jersey. The solution was to drop me off at the turnpike adjacent Florence Park Ride station where I would then continue to my destination. Of course I am going to do a post based on the resulting photos that you can find here ( mirror ).

The Florence station is located at the northern end of a double track segment that runs adjacent to the Conrail Burlington yard. Although freight use of the RiverLINE track is time restricted to overnight, the Burlington Yard is seperate from the RiverLINE with direct access to many local industries and can operate during daylight hours.

The RiverLINE uses a system of timed meets to get a 15 minute headway on a line with a good amount of single track operation. On this day northbound LRV #3508 was the first to arrive and wait for the southbound.

This arrived in the form of LRV #3510.

Heading south past the freight yard, CSX GP38-1 #2531 was waiting its next call to duty.

While riding I tried taking some cab view videos with mixed results. The first one covers the arrival into Burlington and Beverly stations and the second one portions in Pennsauken and Pavonia.





Juniata Terminal SW1500 #9625 and associated PRR caboose was sitting at the Pavonia Yard RiverLINE facility where it handles various work and rescue duties.