Over the last year or so CSX has been engaged in some fairly heavy re-signaling efforts in the Washington DC area due to stimulus dollars being needed to be spent somewhere and the state of Maryland eager to buy the for-profit freight railroad a new signaling system since the last one they bought for CSX in the early 1990s was now slightly less than brand new. Anyway, this has kept me busy documenting the classic Baltimore and Ohio railroad color position light signals and generated several sets of photos that almost nobody here would be interested in at all. However, every so often when I am out on my missions an actual train will trundle by and I will of course take a picture of it as well. Multiply this by many missions and now I have enough photos banked up to actually make them into a full set.
No sense beating around the bush so let's begin this week's installment on the Baltimore Belt Line with CSX SD70MAC #4769 passing the eastbound CPL mast signal at CLIFTON PARK interlocking. This and the following couple of photos will be the last new content generated by my old Olympus 510UZ camera and were taken last November.
Behind it was a Helm leasing SD40-2 #7169. The train had been creeping up on a restricting indication, but it had upgraded to Approach just before passing the signal.
CSX #5292 popping out of the Charles St tunnel on the Baltimore Belt Line.
It was followed by SD40-2 #8804 pushing out a lot of smoke.
Chuchubob can have his BNSF units at Pavonia because when was the last
time a Flordia East Coast unit showed up in New Hersey? #502 here is a
GP38-2.
Well if traveling to South Norwalk is a bit too far for you there is another preserved interlocking tower museum in Harrisburg, PA operated by the Harrisburg chapter NRHS. The former Pennsylvania Railroad HARRIS tower was built in 1930 and turned over to the NRHS chapter in 1992 after Amtrak closed it in a plant rationalization project. Unlike South Norwalk its 115 lever US&S Model 14 interlocking machine is completely operational and able to allow visitors to run a simulated 1943 schedule. Now I could go on and on about the history of HARRIS tower and how Model 14 machines function and operate, but I am going to save that for another time so I can instead focus on all the other cool railroad stuff I encountered in two trips I took to the museum this fall, one by Amtrak, the other by car.
HARRIS tower is a short 5 minute walk from the Amtrak Harrisburg passenger station and can also easily be reached from Philly in about 2 hours or Baltimore in 1 hour. It used to control the west end of the Harrisburg station complex where PRR GG1's were swapped for steam power. Today most Amtrak trains terminate at Harrisburg and only use the STATE interlocking at the east end of the station. Freight traffic comes in the form of the Norfolk Southern Harrisburg line which makes a big left turn to head down the former Reading railroad route instead of take the former PRR Main Line. While traffic on the NS line is intense, with upwards of 50 trains per day, Amtrak traffic passing the tower consists of only the single Pennsylvanian round trip and Keystone tainset relay moves.
You can see all the photos from both trips right here with the Amtrak trip first and then the road trip photos coming after. As part of the Amtrak trip Chuchubob and I stopped off at the Middletown and Hummlestown yard in Middletown to get an extra trip leg for more AGR points and to also kill turn until HARRIS tower opened at 10am. The tower museum is open most Saturdays from May through October from 10 until 3.
Here we see Amtrak Metroliner cab car #9645 departing the Middletown station in the trailing position.
The M&H still has its collection of SEPTA PCC cars like #2095 seen here.
#2095 sitting next to GE 44-ton #2 which is about to depart with the
first excursion train of the morning hauling former DL&W commuter MU
coaches.
Alco S-6 #151 painted in a Western Maryland scheme.
Upon reaching Harrisburg I caught AEM-7 #923 hanging out across the platform from #952.
Space cab car #9649 hung out on the stub track while signals were displayed for #952 through STATE interlocking for the next schedule keystone departure.
PRR GG-1 #4859 on display at Harrisburg station.
Amtrak P32-8WH #512 is the substitute power on this day's eastbound
Pennsylvanian due to a general shortage of P42's which was in turn due
to an overhaul programme.
Over Labour Day I took my annual trip up to New Hampshire to visit a friend in Portsmouth and this year we decided to head up to the Funspot Family Fun Center and American Classic Arcade Museum, which thanks to attrition is now the largest video arcade in the world. In order to get up to New Hampshire I of course had to take an Amtrak Regional train up through New York and then transfer to a Downeaster train in Boston so most of today's photos are going to cover what I saw making the self transfer between Boston South Station and Boston North Station.
We begin at Penn Station and although I know there are some rather large gaps in the LIRR section it is really necessary to festoon every door with four warning stickers?
Here we see some M2's in the motor storage yard in New Haven. Across the way Amtrak has taken to keeping an MP15DC switcher over in their engine terminal.
At BOS I found Amtrak AEM-7 #918 ready to lead a Regional southbound sitting next to an Acela Express trainset.
At the other end of the platform AX #2029 was playing the role of rear power car.
Messerschmidt cab car #1502 head of a split level K-car. All they need
now is something from Fiat or Breda and the MTBA can start running "axis
specials".
Standing in for the allies was Hawker Orange Line car #1210 at the Sullivan Sq. From all the corrosion it seems that Hawker would have been better served had they stuck with fabric construction instead of Aluminum.
I had a bit of extra time in the connection so I took a bit of a joy
ride on the Orange Line. Here my train back to North Station arrives
headed by car #1228.
MTBA GP40MC #1130 sitting on track 10 at North Station.
Amtrak P42DC #122 on the 5:30pm Downeaster departure sitting next to MTBA F40PH #1008.
I really wish I had something Christmas-y to post, but even though I have chopped my processing backlog down to 2 months from 11, that's not close enough to get in my photos from the Baltimore Streetcar Museum Santa Special or anything with the Nostalgia train which I didn't bother to ride this year. So everyone is going to have to sit back and yawn as I dig up some photos from August when myself and an all-star cast of Subhcatters including Chuchubob, Fred G and Alex converged on South Norwalk, CT for a visit to the preserved New Haven Railroad interlocking tower there.
Now this is not my first trip to the museum, but with the M-2's due for retirement I needed to get out on the New Haven Line anyway and this was probably the best destination available. For those of you looking for an in depth description of how turn of the century electro-mechanical interlocking machines functioned I am going to save that for another essay in the future, but there are plenty of non-signaling related visual treats available.
We start off with a string of classic M-2 railcars departing Stamford inbound towards New York City. I took Amtrak to Stamford and then got a ride from Alex there instead of trying to make the 1 minute transfer to Metro-North.
Enter the bag guy, track left as an outbound train of M-8's pulls in.
Inbound Stamford local train with M-2 #8832 in the lead.
Roof shot of M-2 #8832.
Video of 8832 and friends departing Stamford from above.
MNRR BL20-GH #115 pushing at the rear of an outbound Danbury shuttle train. The Beeps have been suffering from some overheating problems which is why one of the side doors is open.
Amtrak Acela Express #2039 in the push position as it heads through the Norwalk truss bridge.
Brand new Metro North catenary structure bolted to the original 1918 New
Haven gantries is at least a nice consolation prize after the original
catenary was removed.
The original New Haven electrified wire warning sign needs to be updated
as voltage was raised to 12,000. At least its better than the "High
Voltage SEPTA" signs.
Due to still photography not working very well in a vehicle moving through darkly lit tunnels I once again turned to video recording to get more than a joy ride out of my Summer R32 trip to NYC. Even better I was now equipped with a 720p HD video capable camera so I would now have the joy of re-shooting all of standard def video I took previously. However because my camera is also fitted with a pair of 16GB SD cards I didn't have to worry so much about being stingy with what I shot...or at least that is what I assumed.
My trip comprised a complete round trip on the A between 207th St and Mott Ave in the Rockaways, although not in that order as I had a midday break in midtown for lunch, and I shot video along the majority of the route in both directions. In chronological order I went from Penn Station to 207th St, then down to Canal, then back up to Times Square in the morning and then in the afternoon I went from Hoyt to Nostrand, waited several headways for a clean railfan window, then continued on to Mott Ave, then back all the way to Penn Station again.
As a lesson to all of you who might assume there is no need to film or video something just 4 months after I took this journey, the entire line out to the Rockaways was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy and my HD videos posted to YouTube will be one of the few historical records of the line as it used to be. After the storm I saw a huge spike in traffic to that video as various people were nostalgic about another vanished transportation link.
Anyway, for the purposes of simplicity I am going to present my videos in the form of a round trip starting outbound at Nostrand Ave, heading out and back to the Rockaways, then north to 207th St before returning south to end at Canal St. Remember these videos are available in HD so please check that option for the best viewing experience.
Here begin at the Nostrand Ave Station, named indirectly for the famous Dr Van Nostrand at the Hoffermyer Clinic in Belgium and continue east along the Fulton Line all the way to the 80th St station on the Liberty Ave El.
In our second video we will run all the way from Liberty Junction at Rockaway Boulevard to Beach 67th St on the Rockaways. The segment between Horward Beach and Hammels Wye, along with much of the Rockaways themselves, were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.
Here we are headed back in the other direction from Beach 67th to Broad Channel.
Same line, Howard Beach to Rockaway Boulevard.
Back underground with the westbound Fulton Line starting at Grant Ave and proceeding all the way to Fulton Ave.
Here we switch over to the 8th Ave Line and run it all the way from Fulton Ave to 207th St.
We finish up with a southbound dash on the A from 207th St all the way to Canal. The reason I left in the gap between Canal and Nostrand Ave in this direction was due to some time and logistical concerns combined with the fact I can video that segment any time I went when the R32's are on the C.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the movies and I'm a bit surprised that railfans who actually live in NYC haven't really bothered to take advantage of the dwindling RFW opportunities for video purposes themselves.
One of the many highlights of Summer, right up there with baseball and trips to the shore is the now annual appearance of R32's on the A. No longer confined to dismal local runs under the ground, the A assignment allows the venerable Budd cars to stretch their legs on long express runs and even see the light of day as they emerge from the tunnel and head out to points in Queens and the Rockaways.
Over the July 4th Holiday period I headed up to New York City to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity and shoot some HD video from the large and surprisingly clean railfan windows. Most of the video segments will be put into a follow up post, but here is a compilation of still photographs I took during the outing, the complete set of which can be found here.
We begin in Trenton where Amtrak train #79 or 89 has arrived with an extra heritage baggage car on the head end. The pair includes #1708 in a Phase IV scheme and 1763 in the current scheme,
Here we see R32 #3442 on the rear of a southbound train at Penn Station with an R160 E train passing by on the local track.
Cab of R32 #3427 at 207th St.
R32's #3607 and #3841 laying over at 207th St.
An R32 at Canal street facing a Clear signal after having waited for the E-Train connection across the platform.
As you just saw in the proceeding post I attended the last two round trips of the coupled Silverliner II and III cars running on the Cynwyd Branch. Due to the fantrip-like nature of these ostensibly "revenue" runs and the very accommodating crew I was able to fully document the operation of both Silverliner II #9010 and Silverliner III #235 on the penultimate as well as obtaining rear vestibule and side window videos on the final run itself.
In addition to capturing High Definition video of the operation of these historic cars, you can also see the PRR cab signaling system in action as we run between BROAD and VALLEY interlockings on the historic PRR Main Line.
We begin on Train 1087 departing Suburban Station and running all the way to Cynwyd. This video shows the train climbing up and along the Chinese Wall to 30th St station, then out along the Main Line to the new K Interlocking before crossing into Amtrak territory at ZOO before heading up and over the valley Flyover to the SEPTA Cynwyd Line.
The soon to be retired Valley Flyover was used by Main Line PRR trains and Schuylkill Branch trains alike. Main Line track #4 was relocated off the flyover in 1994 and now slapped with a 5mph speed restriction the bridge will soon be replaced by a direct connection to the Main Line at PAXON.
Note the cab signal dropping as the train passes the signal on the far end of the flyover bridge. This is non-cab signaled territory and the conductor must use his key in the cutout box on the other side of the cab.
Next up we have the same sort of video only this time documenting SEPTA Silverliner III #235 on the head of Train #1088 as it returns to Center City from Cynwyd.
Included in this video is a detailed demonstration of the Pennsylvania Railroad Cab Signaling system. Watch as the train passes CP-JEFF and the cabs are automatically cut in and then go through a test sequence. Also watch as the SEPTA dispatcher pulls down our signal at the new K interlocking due to a heat kink and then when attempting to cross the train over, enters the wrong route requiring her to pull down the signal again and run time.
Next we have the Railfan Special express run from Cynwyd straight through to Market East. This would normally be a deadhead into the far end of Powlerton Yard, but special accommodation was made for the large number of people who turned out for this special event. Also in evidence are the large number of non-riding railfans camped out trackside for their final run photos.
The railfan special has to wait a bit at 30th St for some traffic to clear before heading through the Center City tunnel to Market East where I make sure to say farewell to both cars.
The fun didn't end there as we were treated to one more ride back to 30th St Station where I opted to fight the crowds at the front of the train for a head end video of this event.
The final moments of the Old Car era at SEPTA as #9010 and #235 discharge all their riders and pull into Powlerton Yard for the last time. Not as good a video as the May fantrip pulling out of Market East, but I guess everyone else could have the better shots back in the middle of the platform.
Well that's it for the Silverliner II's, but next week tune in for yet more Budd action as I go spend a day with some R32's on the A!
