22-05-26 PHOTOS: Brockway

In the early 1990's there was a minor monorail resurgence in the United States with 4 similar systems being sold to the cities of Brockway, Ogdenville, North Haverbrook and Springfield. While the systems in Ogdenville and Springfield were later shut down, I had had no information regarding fate of the Brockway Monorail and therefore I decided to visit over Memorial Day weekend in 2022 to see what I could find. Brockway is located a few miles off I-80 north of Du Bois, PA and, in addition to the monorail, it features the Buffalo and Pittsburgh main line running through town. The full set of photos, which include additional content from Hancock, MD and Clarion, PA, can be found here ( mirror ).

The trip out to Brockway from the east coast involves I-70 to the PA Turnpike to I-99. I try to time travel using this route so that I will pass by Hancock, WV just in time to catch Amtrak Train 30, the eastbound Capitol Limited. This day I was a few minutes early and managed to snag a surprising amount of CSX action. First up was a westbound manifest freight led by NINE(!) locomotives. The first three were ES44AC's #986, #860 and #3020

These were followed by SD70MACe #4558, one of 7 CSX SD70MAC's that have been so far rebuilt with new AC electronics and a power bump from 4000hp to 4500hp.

Behind them were three "YN" painted C40-9W's, #9012, #9016 and #9019, in tow as part of their reactivation process due to increased traffic levels. The 9000-series C40-9W's are interesting as the 50-strong order was GE's first of the Dash-9 era and had some early installment weirdness including Dash-8 trucks.

Two additional locomotives were behind the C40-9W's, C40-10W #5328 and GP40-3 #6561.

The manifest freight proceeded to pass by a local job waiting to head east with GP40-2 #6483 leading.

Instead of getting a signal, a different local freight with 3 locomotives and 4 cars proceeded west under HANCOCK interlocking's eastbound signal bridge. the units included GP40-2 #6445, GP38-2 #2742 and GP38-3 #2059.

The main attraction soon arrived with Amtrak P42DC #71 pulling a 6 car Train 30 all by itself.

22-05-11 PHOTOS: Yosemite Searchlights

Over the last few years I have been on a bit of a National Parks kick since vacations involving cross country air travel wasn't part of my Childhood repertoire. having visited Bryce, Zion, Rocky Mountain and Great Sand Dunes in 2021, for 2022 I set up a trip to Yosemite with some West Coast friends. Despite the headline attraction, I was still able to slot in some railfan activities with a specific focus on getting photos of former Western Pacific searchlight signals near Lodi, CA and I was even able to get some BART action traveling to and front the airport in Oakland. The set of photos can be found here ( mirror ).

Starting off at Oakland I snagged this photo of an AirBART cable car on its elevated guideway. AirBART connects the Oakland Coliseum station with the Oakland Airport terminal for an additional fare. Replacing an earlier shuttle bus, the cable car system was made by ski lift manufacturer Doppelmayr.

Heading away from Oakland along the route of the BART Pittsburgh/Bay Pointe Line I encountered a mix of A type and D type stock.

Past Bay Pointe I also encountered eBART DMU #1 returning from Antioch.

Traversing the Sacramento River Delta involves a bunch of two lane roads and drawbridges. A surprising gap in California's renown system of freeways. Below are the drawbridges at Threemile Slough and the Mokelumne River.

Exiting the delta I managed to finagle a stop at the east end of the Thornton siding on the former Western Pacific Sacramento Sub. Somehow this line segment has avoided getting hit by a signal replacement program.

The searchlights are of US&S manufacture and block signals still use the split configuration for right hand placement. Hints of the WP's distinctive mint green paint can still be made out.

So yeah, I did all the Yosemite National Park activities including hiking to the top of Half Dome, but this is a rail oriented blog and you're not here for vacation slides. ;-)

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.

22-03-31 PHOTOS: Hudson

When the gray is in the air and the ground is turning to mush its probably time to take another trip up the Hudson valley to document one of the best preserved examples of New York Central signaling anywhere. For the better part of a decade I have been working to replicate my PRR Main Line signal survey on a smaller scale and with most of the easy locations checked off I am having to go after higher and higher fruit. In 2022 my targets was the Milepost 79 signal bridge, just a few hundred yards north of the historic Hyde Park station, the Milepost 108 masts near Linlithgo and the station and interlocking at Hudson, NY. I also documented some of the "new" (2009) searchlights installed by CP in the Mechanicville area. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

First stop was Hyde Park where I caught Amtrak P32AC-DM #702 passing under the NYC vintage signal bridge with a southbound Empire Service train.

My next stop was a point north of CP-103, which unfortunately had recently had its small target searchlight signals replaced, to catch a northbound Empire Service train led by non-heritage P32AC-DM #706.

Amtrak's train tracking feature is pretty useful as it is now super easy to ensure a train encounter at every stop. At the Milepost 108 automatic signal location I managed to snag a Phase III heritage painted P32AC-DM #713 with a southbound Empire Service train.

Unfortunately I was a day late an a dollar short to document the searchlight signals at CP-114, but the new LED target type color light signals are making use of the same Conrail era cantilevers that even have remnants of the old contrast paint.

22-03-17 PHOTOS: TexRail

For all of its car culture and highway building sprees, the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex has some pretty comprehensive rail transit. Not only does Dallas have the fairly expansive DART light rail system and a pair of streetcar routes, but there is also a traditional commuter line to Fort Worth and two DMU based rail lines that connect Denton to Dallas and Fort Worth to Grapevine/DFW Airport. The latter, known as TexRail, opened in 2019 and in the spring of 2022 I was given an opportunity to ride it. Other topics covered in this photo set ( mirror ) include some general DART and Dallas Union Station stuff as well as TRE and the Fort Worth Intermodal Transportation Center.

Arriving in from Love Field via a DART Orange Line train on LRV #163 seen here at the St. Paul St station. The city was much emptier than pre-COVID and like many other cities transit ridership had collapsed.

The next morning I headed to Union Station to catch the TRE commuter line to Fort Worth. F59PH #121 was hanging out with a typically short TRE consist.

I went to go get some breakfast a diner across the street and when I returned #121 had been replaced by #124 and an eastbound Union Pacific freight was passing through through with ES44AC #5515 leading and AC4400 #6457 behind.

Even in the spring of 2022, in Texas, COVID safety theatre was still a thing with a chain keeping people away from the cab car cab and thus preventing any photos being taken out the front or back.

While passing through Mockingbird yard my TRE train encountered a Dallas, Garland and Northeastern Railroad RP20BD genset.

Although the terminal for TRE and TexRail is at the more downtown Texas and Pacitic Station, I got off at the newer intermodal transportation center as there was simply more there to see and do. TexRail makes use of eight Stadler DMU trainsets with 4 coach sections and one central power unit. Although FRA "complaint", and thus able to run on the same tracks as TRE, TexRail trainsets make use of semi-high platforms and require a separate berthing area as can be seen with #108 here.