22-07-23 PHOTOS: National Capital Trolley Museum

Despite having lived in the Baltimore-Washington region for almost 20 years, I had yet to visit the National Capitol Trolley museum. Part of the reason why was due to my closer proximity to the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. The NCTM was also hit with both a fire and a requirement to relocate due to the construction of a new limited access highway which impacted operations and prompted a general "wait and see" mentality on my end. Perhaps the greatest factor in my procrastination is that I tend to get limited utility from museums, especially upon repeat visits as little changes from year to year and I just wind up duplicating the photos and videos I already have. Anyway, as the 2010's rolled into the 2020's I felt increasing pressure to rectify my lack of attendance and in the summer of 2022 I found someone willing to spend an afternoon with me at the NCTM. The following photos ( mirror ) and videos cover that visit as well as some additional Amtrak NEC and NJT Atlantic City Line photos taken around the same time.

Washington DC's claim to streetcar fame was its in-ground conduit electrification, that was necessary due to regulations against the use of overhead trolley wire within the district. Making use of electric conductors installed in old cable car cableways, the system was expensive to maintain and prone to disruption. It was nevertheless a defining feature of the DC streetcar scene and of course the NCTM...does not run any conduit trackage, opting instead for this display on the practice.

The DC streetcar system was also known for its jaunty 1950's livery and in this regard the museum does have one surviving DC PCC, #1101, painted in its iconic livery. However on the day I went it was not running and ws also displayed in a fashion that actively hindered photography with the front in severe low light and the rest standing behind clutter.

Due to the 2003 carbarn fire, the DC streetcar museum is rather light on DC streetcars. Only three additional DC related cars were on display in the main hall, with one of those being the 09 sweeper. Other DC cars are in the storage/restoration barn, but that was not open for tours.

After the fire, the NCTM had to pad out its collection with international streetcars that were readily available for purchase in the 2000's.

The one and only operating car that day was ex-TTC PCC #4602.

The NCTM got a sizable chunk of change as part of the highway induced relocation with a new carbarn and main building, yet compared to other streetcar museums, there was a notable lack of activity.

22-07-22 PHOTOS: Silver Spring

In the summer of 2022 a friend had some business after hours in Silver Spring and I jumped on the chance to not only generate some rail content there, but also enjoy some good food and drinks at the Quarry House pub, located just a few blocks from the combined WMATA and MARC station. All in all three trips were made, although most of the photos were gathered on the first. Also included in this set ( mirror ) are Amtrak photos returning southbound from Philly.

Before getting to Silver Spring I happened to be passing near the old Elkridge, MD MARC station on the former B&O Washington Branch, when I saw ES44AC #7231 stopped on the Route 1 overpass. Turns out it was the distributed power for an eastbound CSX autorack train that was likely being held at ST DENIS interlocking.

One of the old track underpass stairways had also gained a railroad related mural since the last time I had been by the old Elkridge station. Elkridge was replaced in 1992 by the Dorsey Park N Ride station about 4 miles to the west with locals interested in Camden Line travel being shifted to the St. Denis station about a mile to the east.

At Silver Spring the DC Metro tracks sit between the two CSX Metropolitan Sub tracks with barbed wire fencing impeding the sight lines as you can see here with WMATA 6k car #6086.

After a low point in 2021 due to unexplained derailments, the 7k cars had been returning to service and by 2022 made up a good half the observed runs as with #7492 shown here.

MARC Brunswick Line trains provide the best action at Silver Spring with a healthy number of departures in the AM and PM peaks. Unlike Frederick which only sees a total of 3 round trips a day, Silver Spring also sees trains to Brunswick and Martinsburg. Here MARC SC44 #85 arrives with a single level Martinsburg train and cab car #7759.

22-07-08 PHOTOS: Gainesville After Dark - Part 2

One reason I make an annual Amtrak trip to Gainesville, GA via Train 79, 19 and 20 is because schedule is actually pretty convenient for this itinerary since I arrive early Friday morning and depart Sunday night. In past years the departure time of Amtrak's northbound Crescent Train 20 was a little after 9pm, and although it was often running late, the time still allowed to have dinner and get driven to the station with in time for my ride to return home by a reasonable hour. In 2021 Amtrak retimed the northbound Crescent schedule at the behest of NS to "improve reliability" and I'm not exactly sure how that worked, but the result was shifting the departure time by three hours to after midnight (plus any running delays of course). This sticks me with about three hours to kill at the Gainesville station since my ride has a firm limit on their availability. The silver lining is that Gainesville is a also an NS crew base where both local and road power is stored overnight under favorable lighting conditions. In part 2 I will take advantage of these photo opportunities then cover Train 20's return trip including the power change at Washington, DC. Also remember to check out part 1 as well as the full gallery here ( mirror ).

The ex-Southern Railroad Gainesville station serves as an NS crew and MoW base in addition to an Amtrak station. The Amtrak portion has seats, vending machines, a restroom and an automated time-locked door. In 2021 the schedule change was so recent that the door locking system had not been adjusted and the station was locked for the entire time I was there. This time the door was open when I arrived, but I had no way to tell if the door would just suddenly decide to lock itself and therefore I was forced to carry my bag wherever I went.

The downtown Gainesville area has a number of industries including a large feed mill. These are served by a series of yard and industrial tracks typically worked by a pair of road engines that are parked in front of the station when the crews are off duty. Today the local freight engines were NS SD40-2 #6087 and SD60E #6919.

C40-10W #7614 that I had previously encountered on Friday morning was also still on hand in the same location.

While I was waiting a local transfer move rolled in with NS SD40-2 #3307 leading SD60E #6904.

After the local freight train proceeded on its way, I walked down to a lash up of road power left on one of the siding tracks. Likely waiting for a large cut of grain hoppers from the feed mills, the engines included NS AC44C6M #4445, BNSF ET44AC #3908 and CS C44-9W #9958.

Walking back to the station here are #6087 and #6919 posing in front.

22-07-08 PHOTOS: Gainesville After Dark - Part 1

My 2022 summer trip to Georgia was my first in the purely post-COVID era and although baggage service on Train 79 had unfortunately returned, the same could not be said for full dining service on Trains 19 and 20. Another permanent change was the three hour shift in the Crescent's schedule departing Gainesville moving a 9pm departure to an after midnight departure. However this year there was quite a bit more to do at the Gainesville station thanks to a larger amount of NS motive power resting overnight. Still, without the reverse photos on Train 79 I'll be able to cover the entire trip within a single photo set ( mirror ) narrated in two parts.

The trip started out from the BWI Airport Rail station, which unfortunately is not served by southbound Carolinian Train #79. This requires an initial hop to Washington Union Station via southbound Amtrak Regional hauled by ACS-86 #630. This arrived just after a northbound MARC local with MP36PH-3C #20 and cab car #8055.

At Union Station Train 79 arrived on time and ACS-86 #622 was dutifully swapped out with P42DC #25.

The first extended stop was at Richmond where #25 looked like it had suffered a number of hits from oversize Southern mosquitos.

Departing southbound, my Train 79 passed by CSX SD40-2 #8250 and GP40-2 #6013 at the south end of Acca Yard.

Jumping ahead to Rocky Mount I encountered plenty of additional CSX motive power in the yard there including ES44AH #3106, SD40-2 #8033, C40-10W #5321, ES44AC #831 (being fueled), SD40-3 #4296, GP40-2 #6341, SD40-2 #8459, YN2 painted AC4400 #389, palindrome SD40-2 #8228 and finally plain jane SD40-2 #8256.

22-07-01 PHOTOS: South Hills Village

Despite all the times I visit Pittsburgh, until 2022 I had yet to ride all of its light rail system. Built before World War 2 to support its vast streetcar network, the Pittsburgh LightRail system consists of two main routes that head south of the city using the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel. The 42 is mostly surface running along Broadway Ave in Beechview and Dormont. The other route, 47, was half rebuilt as a "modern" light rail line in the 1990's, largely replacing the last of the PCC's, with the outer half retaining its PCC era configuration to this day. I had ridden both these trunk lines, as well as the now discontinued 52, around 2010. However due to the quirks of the old school Allegheny County Port Authority Transit (PAT) fare system, I never rode the short bit of the 42 between Washington Junction, where the 47L splits off to Library, and South Hill Village. A decade of time and one updated fare system later I found myself back in Pittsburgh without any railroad signaling related missions on my plate so it was finally time to complete the Pittsburgh Light Rail system by going to South Hills Village. You can find the full gallery here ( mirror ).

My journey begins at Wood St station in Pittsburgh's Light Rail Subway that runs from the north side of the Allegheny River and through downtown. Here a Siemens SD400 type LRV passes through the crossover south of the station. My outbound trip would be provided by LRV #4327.

In the mid-1980's PAT made use of the old PRR Panhandle Route west of Pennsylvania Station to replace its downtown street trackage with a trolley tunnel. The Panhandle Route connected Pittsburgh to Chicago via Columbus and Logansport as opposed to the northerly route via Fort Wayne and exited Penn Station via a tunnel under downtown that would form the nucleus of the current PAT light rail subway. Here we see PAT LRV #4325 on a 47L routing heading inbound at the 1st Ave station. 1st Ave was an infill station built in the early 2000's to in part serve the redeveloped footprint of the former B&O a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Street_Station">Grant Street Station.

The Panhandle Bridge was built for the PRR's Panhandle Route and could support all manner of heavy main line railroad trains. Today the steel truss bridge is barely breaking a sweat with the LRV's that now cross it. Reuse of the disused railroad infrastructure allowed the Smithfield St Bridge used by the PCC's exiting the transit tunnel, to be rebuilt in 1994-95.

PAT Siemens SD400 LRV #4249 at Station Square. PAT received two batches of SD400 pattern high floor LRV's. The first 55 were built by Siemens in the mid-80's to go along with the downtown tunnel project. A second order of 28, numbered in the 4300 series, was built under license by CAF in 2003-4. Travel in the downtown part of the system was historically free with Station Square being the first point that would trigger a fare. This arrangement made trains pay as you enter towards downtown and pay as you exit heading away from downtown.

The Mount Washington Transit Tunnel, along with the large amount of dedicated right of way, is what prevented full bustitution of the Pittsburgh light rail system. Built in 1902, the 3,500 foot tunnel was necessary to get streetcars past the imposing Mouth Washington on the south bank of the Monongahela River. The southern end of the tunnel empties out into South Hills Jct where the routes 42, 47 and 52 all meet.



Also known as the Overbrook Line, the Route 47 ran on a dedicated right of way between South Hills Jct and Overbrook Jct. Although it was a completely dedicated right of way, it was built to classic streetcar/interurban standards with a single track, short passing sidings and wooden trestles over the rivers and roads of the valley. Not rebuilt in the first wave that brought in the LRV's, the 47 saw PCC operation until 1993 when the shut the whole thing down due to poor structural integrity of the trestles. The line would not reopen until 2004 having been completely rebuilt to modern light rail standards with cab signaling, double track and full high level boarding. Below is Boggs station, just past the point where new flyover ramps were built to join the Route 42, replacing the original alignment that used the at-grade crossovers at South Hills Jct.

CAF built SD400 #4301 near Boggs. The 2004 28 car supplementary order was to ultimately replace the Overbrook Line PCCs that were retired without replacement in 1993.

SD400 #4252 near Killarney. Despite being modern, the new Route 47 has little of the charm of the classic Route 47.

Overbrook Jct is where the Routes 42 and 47 merge into a single trunk line. Between 1993 and 2004 all light rail traffic would diverge to the left down the Route 42.