23-09-09 PHOTOS: Portland Steel Bridge

Here in the second part of my 2023 trip to Portland, Oregon I return to downtown to take a walk across the famed Steel Bridge, used by both Amtrak and the MAX light rail alike. I also get some additional photos of Union Station, the Portland Streetcar and the MAX light rail system. You can check out Part 1 here and the full set of Steel Bridge photos here ( mirror ).

Opening in 1912, the Steel Bridge is not only the second oldest operating vertical lift bridge in the United States, but also the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world. It carries road and Portland MAX light rail traffic on its upper deck and main line railroad traffic on the lower (with pedestrians on both). It is located just east of Union Station and was likely part of VC tower's span of control. It's actually a common misconception that downtown Portland sits on the Columbia River, when in fact it is on a tributary, the Willamette.

The bridge carries the MAX Red, Blue, Green and Yellow lines, with flat junctions at each end. Below MAX SD660 #309 on a Yellow routing diverges onto the North-South downtown alignment at the western junction.

Here SD660 LRV's #311 and #304 taking a green line routing into downtown at the west end of the double deck Steel Bridge.



Here SD660 #303 and #225 on a Red routing take the opposite path towards the east-west downtown alignment.

The Steel Bridge has a two lane truss containing both MAX tracks and two single lane wings on the side for road traffic.

The bridge is just downstream from Portland Pacific Grain Terminal.

MAX SD660 #313 on a Blue routing approaching the bridge from the east.

MAX SD660 #252, in a 1980's retro paint scheme, sits in front of the Portland Trailblazers' arena at the Rose Quarter station just prior to entering east bridge jct.

Directly east of the Steel Bridge is EAST PORTLAND interlocking where the route to the passenger station splits from the Union Pacific Portland Sub. While there I caught this Union Pacific light engine move with ES44AC's #8114 and #7786.

EAST PORTLAND interlocking also functions as Portland Union Stations turning wye and every day Amtrak Train 28, the Portland section of Amtrak's eastbound Empire Builder Train 8, goes for a spin in order to head back west out of the station to reach the BNSF Columbia River route on the north bank. Train 28 consists of coaches, a sleeper and the sightseer lounge/cafe car, which will join with Train 8 in Spokane on the midnight after departure. Today, Train 28's power consisted of a single ALC-42 Charger, #310.

23-09-08 PHOTOS: Portland MAX

Over the years I've managed to at least put a toe in all of the major West Coast population centers, many more than once and for significant periods of time, however I had never gotten the opportunity to visit Portland beyond a 20 minute train-to-bus transfer as part of a Coast Starlight bus bridge in 2014. This year I finally managed to put a real trip together with two solid chunks of railfanning. The first, featured here, involves the trip in from the airport via MAX light rail and wandering around Union Station before heading west of the city to my final destination. The second part will cover both ends of the city's iconic Steel Bridge as well as the return trip to the airport. You can view the first set of photos here ( mirror ).

Starting things off on Southwest Airlines, I encountered the Hawaiian and New Mexican heritage units at BWI and Chicago Midway respectively.

Unfortunately the MAX Airport Line was under reconstruction so my first experience with the light rail was boarding a TriMet shuttle bus to the Gateway Transportation Center.

To reach Union Station I would need to catch a Green Line train in from Gateway, as the Red and Blue line trains use a different alignment through downtown. While known for its boxy Siemens SD660 LRV's #236, in recent years TriMet has been ordering SD70 and SD700 LRV's like #402.

My train downtown would feature Portland 300-series SD660 #320. While the rolling stock is set up for a look ahead view, I later discovered that the default behavior by most operators was to deploy a curtain and block it.

With the first segments built in the late 1987, MAX is one of the few North American rail systems with left hand mounted signals. On the dedicated rights of way signaling is a basic ABS/ATS setup with speeds up to 55mph between stations.

MAX uses BNSF style speed restriction signs including a harsh 20mph through stations.

23-09-02 PHOTOS: Doswell

As the supply of interesting signaling in the northeast dries up, I have been having to turn my attention south to the state of Virginia. The CSX route between Washington, DC and Richmond, VA fortunately has a number of Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac era signaling from before it was purchased by CSX in 1992 and after learning that the notable Doswell, VS bracket mast was under threat of replacement I schedule a third RF&P related trip in the summer of 2023, the previous two having been to the Milford and Fredericksburg areas. You can find the full set of these new photos here ( mirror ).

The first stop of the day was at the Coleman's Mill intermediate signal location, 29.5 miles from Richmond. I arrived with my friend in time to catch Amtrak Train 88 with P42DC #54 leading.

We then ran express to Doswell, VA where the famed bracket mast was still standing along with its intended replacement. Typically CSX would have replaced the now disfavored bracket configuration with a cantilever, but because the signaling logic was not in need of replacement and the location of the signal is constrained by adjacent tracks, a new bracket mast was ordered.

Doswell is a significant interchange point and yard for the Buckingham Branch railroad which operates the former C&O Blue Ridge route between Richmond and Clifton Forge, VA. Two of its locomotives, GP40-3 #12 and GP38-2 #17, were standing adjacent to the bracket mast.

Doswell's other big attraction is HN tower, the classic RF&P station and the C&O Blue Ridge route diamonds.

The diamonds are the real deal and not the low maintenance flange riding type.

The RF&P was one of the better resourced railroads in the former Confederate South and many of its all brick towers survive today with. HN tower features such PRR quality elements such as copper cladding, an air plant for pneumatic switches and a bay window.

The former joint RF&P / C&O station still stands and houses Buckingham Branch offices.

I was wondering why so many railfans were hanging around the Doswell diamonds, when southbound Amtrak Palmetto Train 89 appeared with ALC-42 Charger #329 leading on what was apparently one of the first uses of this locomotive type out of Washington, DC.

23-08-25 PHOTOS: 36th St Connections

The interlocking and junction known as ZOO and its historical territory perhaps doesn't get as much coverage as it deserves due to being in a part of Philadelphia that lacks access to good rail transit and while also being unpleasant to drive to. One of ZOO's more interesting locations is often known as 36th St Junction where Amtrak trains bound for 30th St Station's lower level split from the Main Line that send SEPTA trains to 30th St Station's upper level. In the late summer of 2023 I the opportunity to go out with a friend who knows how to navigate Philly's bus system to reach 36th St junction and spend some time getting photos there ( mirror ).

Like many of my rail adventures this one started off in the Baltimore area, but unlike many recent trips I caught my Amtrak train from my old stomping grounds of Baltimore Penn Station. I was connecting to Amtrak there as I wanted to get some pics of the new B&O style CPL dwarf installed as part of the new Track F platform.

I had arrived on a MARC local pulled by MP36PH-3C #16 and would connect to a northbound Acela led by power car #2014.

I was lucky enough to get on one of the 2 Acela round trips with a beverage cart. I saw a woman order a $10 glass of white wine and get pretty much a full 16oz solo cup pour.

SEPTA Silverliner IV #408 at 30th St.

One of the most iconic features of 36th St Jct is the double cantilever signal located at the west end. Still controlled from the 1930 vintage US&S interlocking machine in ZOO tower, trains to Suburban Station head straight while trains to 30th St station's lower lever diverge.

Westbound SEPTA R5 comprised of Silverliner IV's including #422 and #367, passing through the junction on main track #4.

ZOO used to see a lot of freight traffic, but today this has been reduced to the single track Trenton Line, now run by CSX and completely separated from Amtrak. Here CSX ES44AC #947 and CM44AC #7000 head eastbound through the old limit of ZOO.

Eastbound R5 train with Silverliners IV #396 and #336

The great ZOO tower was recently given a fresh set of windows and reproduction PRR keystone nameplates.

An inbound R5 with Silverliner IV #436 heading on track #1 towards the 30th St upper level.

23-08-20 VIDEOS: Baltimore Metro Subway

Here we have the videos that go with my main Baltimore Metro Subway post. Due to the impending replacement of the Budd built Universal Transit Vehicle's, I made time to take a round trip from Owings Mills to Johns Hopkins Hospital and back.  Taking video through the forward facing windows, each trip was divided into two parts with the break taking place at West Cold Springs.

The line features manual operation with cab signal based automatic train control using speeds of 0, 12, 20, 40, 50, 60 and 70mph. The above ground section sees main line speeds of 50, 60 and 70mph with the 70mph taking place in the interstate 795 median between Owings Mills and Old Court. The Metro Subway yard complex is located between Reisterstown and Rodgers Ave.

 The tunnel section sees speeds of mostly 40 and 50mph.

While at Johns Hopkins I got a pair of videos of UTV trains departing and arriving. The UTV stock makes use of DC chopper type propulsion systems.






The return trip was largely uneventful, but provided a different perspective.






That's all for my Baltimore Metro Subway experience. I'll be back shortly with photos from ZOO interlocking's 36th St Jct.

23-08-20 PHOTOS: Dorsey and Baltimore Metro

As the Baltimore Metro Subway lurches forward towards replacing its Budd Universal Transit Vehicles, I figured I should take the time to both ride the system again and try to get front facing video that captures the current look and feel of the line. The videos will be in their own part, but here I'll have stills from the two terminal stations as well as other Baltimore area rail activities. The whole set of still photos can be found here ( mirror ).

I'll kick things off at the Dorsey MARC station killing some time between visiting a local mall and trivia night. I got there in time to catch an eastbound MARC Camden line train hauled by MARC MP36PH-3C #33 with Bomber cab car #8045 on the rear.

For whatever reason the CSX dispatcher decided to run a train full mostly of empty NYC waste cubes and powered by C40-10W #5449 and SD70MAC #4560 ahead of the following eastbound MARC train. However the next train into the station was a westbound with single level cab car #7759 and SC44 #81.

Before the Metro stuff I also did another trip up the NEC encountering MARC Bomber cab car #8053 and Acela Express power car #2010 at BWI.

Here is SEPTA #719 posing in front of the tiles at Market East and PATCO #1089 at Haddonfield.

Moving back down to Baltimore to get some photos at WINANS interlocking at the Halethorpe Station. There I caught an inbound MARC weekend train with Kab Kar #7843 plus SC44 #82, in addition to a southbound Amtrak Regional with ACS-86 #654.