22-10-29 PHOTOS: HARRIS With Friends

After my trip to the recently preserved Harrisburg Power Director's office, I had a non-railfan friend express interest in heading up to see the facility for themselves. The bad news was that after driving up we found that they would not be opening the PDO that day. The good news was that he had a ton of fun working the HARRIS tower Model 14 interlocking machine while I did train photos. You can find the full set of those photos here ( mirror ). Also included are bonus photos of the MARC Brunswick Line Kensington station and some Amtrak/SEPTA/PATCO stuff.

First up was Amtrak ACS-86 #655 on a Keystone trainset relay move.

Arriving soon after was an eastbound coal train led by C44-10W #7540 and Union Pacific run-through SD70ACe #8586.

Behind this was an eastbound merchandise train with ES44AC #8033 and C44-9W #9715.

At this time it was time for lunch and on the way to the mall food court I popped by the Harrisburg Station that has retained much of its PRR era interior. 

22-10-14 PHOTOS: City Position Lights - Part 2

In part one of my fall 2022 LIRR Main Line position light trip I traveled to New York City and visited three PRR style amber position lit signal locations between Q Gardens and Woodside on the LIRR Main Line. In part two I will continue on to the Hunterspoint Ave area to check out M CABIN on the "temporarily" out of service Main Line Cutoff over Dutch Kills in addition to late afternoon action at the Hunterspoint LIRR station. I'll then wrap things up by catching an outbound peak period <6> Express train to Parkchester. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

After getting back on the Queens Blvd line at Grand Ave, I transferred to R188 #7261 on the (7) at 74th St and took it to Hunterspoint Ave.

<6>

Back on surface streets I caught sight of an R188 train on the (7) ramp adjacent to the LIRR yard full of brand new M9's including #9093.

I also caught Amtrak ACS-86 #618 with a southbound Regional entering Line 2 en-route to Penn Station.

The LIRR Main Line freight cutoff served the old Sunnyside freight yards, allowing trains to reach the non-electrified Montauk Branch in an eastbound direction and avoid trying up the high density Main Line. With the decline in NYC industrial customers and the replacement of the Sunnyside freight yard with passenger yard and shoppe facilities, the Cutoff has been functionally abandoned. Previously accessed by ramps from F interlocking (part of the former PRR Sunnyside Yard complex), today the single remaining track has been largely reclaimed by nature as seen here under the Large Island Expressway.

Nevertheless, the line's movable bridge over the Dutch Kills, is still an active, although out of service, interlocking station. The westbound distant signal stands at the top of the F interlocking ramp and, despite the colorful artwork, is still lit and was displaying a PRR manual block Caution indication.

This section of the cutoff had also been commandeered by a local urban farm.

22-10-14 PHOTOS: City Position Lights - Part 1

As the supply of interesting signaling rapidly dries up I have been looking to the New York City region where, despite its best efforts, the LIRR still operates a large amount of amber style PRR signaling. Of course getting signal photos in an urban environment comes with its own set of challenges with restricted right of way access and frequent service. In the fall of 2022 I ventured out to get photos of LIRR position lit automatic signal locations on the Main Line between Woodside and Jamaica (covered here in Part 1) in addition to the quasi-abandoned M CABIN near Hunterspoint (covered in Part 2). I also hit up some towers on the NYCT Subway as well as a <6> express run between Route 125th St and Parkchester. The gallery of photos can be found here ( mirror ).

I started things off at the BWI Airport Amtrak station with an Acela train to NYC led by power car #2035.

<6>

Departing 30th St Station, three Acela II sets were in the Penn Coach Yard awaiting their 2023 entry into service.

At New York Penn Station was ACS-86 #646, numbered as a tribute to New York (or New Jersey's?) most famous area code.

Amtrak Phase III heritage P32AC-DM #715 also at Penn Station.

If you have lounge access or a pass, the new Penn Station lounge has is a great way to avoid paying for costly city food. I stopped by while connecting between Amtrak and the LIRR.

Down on the NYP wide platform my LIRR train to Q Gardens arrived with #7482 on the rear end.

After arriving at Q Gardens I got this photo of LIRR M7 #7219 passing one of the new pedestal signals for the new ESA related extension of JAY interlocking that consisted of a new trailing point crossover between Main Line tracks 1 and 3.

<6>Here is an eastbound train of LIRR M7's passing through the Q Gardens station with #7504 on the front and #7285 on the rear as it slows for the work crew and signals at JAY.

<6>

22-10-08 PHOTOS: Cleveland Line Autos

It is becoming mighty hard to find position light type signals these days, especially ones in a single direction ABS configuration. However that is just what happens to exist on a portion of the former Conrail Cleveland Line along the north bank of the Ohio River between Beaver, PA and Yellow Creek, Ohio. I had made a similar trip in 2021, visiting a single Cleveland Line PL signal location and in October, 2022 I manage to visit two more along with another stop at EAST CONWAY. This will be a short post, but you can still find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

The first location was at Milepost 4.5 in sight of the PA route 68 overpass. This is a simple pair of single head, single direction, approach lit automatic signals.

The second location was at Milepost 8.7 and consisted of a single head PL signal in the eastbound direction and a new color light signal in the westbound due to the installation of a single track segment 1 block to the west.

Milepost 8.7 is also the location of the Midland Hotbox, dragging equipment and high car detector.

Driving back east I stopped by the old Beaver, PA P&LE station. Although currently owned by CSX, the P&LE route was previously a New York Central subsidiary that likely avoided being absorbed into Conrail due to its relationship with the B&O.

At EAST CONWAY I found NS AC44C6M #4312 sitting on the hill track, while a westbound manifest train waiting for passage on track #2 with AC44C6M #4011 leading and ES44AC #8022 behind.

Facing towards the old tower, an eastbound manifest train was pulling out of track #3 and crossing over to track #4 led by C44-10W #7516 and AC44C6M #4431.

22-10-01 PHOTOS: Boston First Class

Autumn is a great time to visit New Englande and although the last few years saw some disruptions to my annual Labor Day-ish trip to New Hampshire, I managed to make other arrangements. 2022 would be no different as I managed to wrangle a group of friends to take Acela from Washington to Boston to visit another group of friends. Unfortunately, apart from the NEC trip up and back, I had a fairly limited ability to do rail activities during the trip itself. Therefore I am mixing in some additional Baltimore area content from immediately before the Boston run ( mirror ).

Since I more frequently take Amtrak between BWI and Philly I'll start off with some typical Amtrak and MARC action at BWI with ACS-86 #637, cab car #8049, MP36PH-3C #17 and Acela Express power cars #2027 and #2033.

Next up was a trip to downtown Baltimore to take in an O's game. This would be my first time riding one of the rehabilitated Baltimore Light Rail LRV's in the form of #5012 seen here at North Linthicum station. The interior looked pretty much the same, but I think they installed new seats.

Here we see LRV #5009 at Camden Yards.

#5032 at Hamburg. The new Maryland teamed paint job is certainly nice.

Ravens wrapped LRV #5001 at the Convention Center station.

Down in Silver Spring, the Purple Line beam is giving the old JFK AirTrain a run for its money. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

48 hours in advance of my scheduled Boston trip I was able to secure Acela first class upgrades for myself and traveling companions. Since our desired Acela departure did not stop at BWI, we first traveled to Washington Union Station via MARC to create an end-to-end NEC ride. Here is MARC MP36PH-3C #30 and MARC cab cars #7857 and #7758 at Union Station.

Here is Acela Express cab car #2011 on Track 21 although my train was on the adjacent track #20 with power car #2037 which my friend group and baggage situation did not allow me the time to photograph until I got to New York Penn Station where it posed next to P32AC-DM #717.

The first class menu wasn't the best I had, but it did have a tasty vegetarian dish. However after most of the ritzy business travelers got off in NYC, my party got to talking with the attendants and they showered us with drinks into Boston.