While in previous years I had visited both the Bowie State MARC station and the preserved BOWIE interlocking tower museum, I had never concentrated on getting photos in an around the old Bowie station and interlocking area so this became my designated activity on the now painfully diminished Amtrak Thanksgiving Sunday for 2025. I would start at Bowie State University station to pick up a friend and then work my way down to the old Bowie town center and BOWIE tower. Unfortunately the rain played an increasingly deleterious role in the day's activities, so forgive the marginal quality of some of the photos.
On Sunday's MARC Penn Line service consists of running a pair of trainsets back and forth between Washington DC and Baltimore, MD. The service frequency from this arrangements runs about every 90 to 120 minutes. At Bowie State the northbound and southbound Penn Line trains are scheduled to arrive within 5 minutes of each other. Here the northbound was first show with doubleheaded MARC MP36PH-2C's #35 and #33 with weekend bike car #7710 in the consist with cab car #7855.
The second Sunday trainset featured cab car #7846, bike car #7712 and MP36PH-3C #28.
The first Amtrak train to make a showing was a northbound Acela with Classic set #13 featuring power cars #2027 and #2033.
I almost managed to catch a meet between the Acela and this southbound Regional with ACS-86 #652 which was following the MARC local on an Approach signal indication.
Moving down to BOWIE interlocking's southbound signal I caught an 11-car push-pull Regional with Metroliner Cab Car #9635 and ACS-86 #640.
This was followed by a northbound Regional with ACS-86 #654.
For 2026 Amtrak NEC Thanksgiving Wednesday I decided to pay a return visit to Bristol proper, as opposed to last year's session at GRUNDY interlocking north of town. The sweeping curve at Bristol had once made it a regular stop for Thanksgiving Wednesday, but the center track fence and availability of signal locations at Croydon and Levittown prompted me to neglect Bristol over the last decade or so. Although the weather was gray and misty, I gave Bristol another go with an additional stop at the old Andalusia Station.
The old Pennsylvania Railroad station at Bristol was built in 1911, but today serves as a daycare after being leased out due to middling ridership.
The station itself is located on an elevated embankment with two small shelters reached by temporary wooden stairways. If the local community continues to "pop off" as the kids like to say, it would be a likely candidate for a high level platform and ADA elevators.
Transport across the tracks is provided by a well lit underpass that eliminates the need for an expensive overhead walkway.
The station is definitely in need of some TLC as the inbound track #4 shelter and permanent staircase currently being fenced off.
Up on the outbound track #1 platform the first train to arrive was Amtrak Acela Next Gen Set #12 with power cars #2133 and #2124.
Over the 2025 Thanksgiving holiday I took some time to explore the somewhat overlooked portion of the Philadelphia Main Line between Paoli and Glen Loch, PA. This expedition was motivated by the larger THORN tower re-signaling effort and I wanted to get some photos of the legacy signals before they were replaced. naturally this came with SEPTA R5 and Amtrak Kestone service pics as well.
In 1994 massive PCB contamination forced the closure of the Paoli MU shoopes and the associated yard which had served as the defacto terminus of the electrified Main Line since 1915. A new yard facility was built about 4 miles to the west at Frazer, PA which had the side effect of extending the core SEPTA R5 service from Paoli to Malvern. While a new interlocking was bult to access the yard, the modifications were done on a budget and nothing was done to change the single direction double track ABS nature of the line. However in conjunction with the Paoli Station replacement project the line segment between Paoli and Frazer was upgraded to bi-directional operation on both tracks with new signals being installed at the existing milepost 2l location. Now trains bound for Frazer yard can get an Approach Slow instead of a straight Approach.
Here we see a yard-bound SEPRA R5 Malvern train passing under the modified signal bridge. Cars are Silverliners V #834 and #833.
This was soon followed by westbound Pennsylvanian Train #43 with P42DC #129.
In the fall of 2025 Amtrak offered a Guest Rewards points promotion that offered bonus points based on quantity of trips taken. Based on my proximity to the Amtrak BWI rail station and the fact that trips to and from DC often cost the same or less than MARC, I was able to put in a bunch of DC trips to kick me up into the higher bonus levels. This short set covers both the points trips and a few photos from an unrelated trip to Ridgeway, PA
Starting off on a Regional heading south to DC from BWI.
Here I am arriving in DC in style with my regional pulling into Union Station track #17 adjacent to classic Acela trainset #16. Power on my train was the ultimate ACS-86 #670 with the Acela having power car #2012 up front.
In a cool happenstance the ultimate classic Acela power car, #2039, was over on track #20.
My destination for this trip was an event in DC's Adam's Morgan neighborhood which is accessible via the Woodley Park Zoo stop.
Skip ahead a few days and I was back at BWI for another round trip to Washington, DC. MARC has a noticeable pattern of Penn Line trains meeting at the Baltimore Washington International Airport Rail Station about the same time. Here a northbound train lead by MP36PH-3C #11 meets a southbound with single level cab cat #7761.
Because of the points promotion I let the MARC local with MP36PH-3C #34 pass by favor of the following Amtrak Regional with ACS-86 #644.
About to board DC Metro car #3204 at Union Station.
This day my destination was Metro Center. Here is a quick video as I ascended the escalator of my 3k series train departing.
My return was via Regional Train #138 from Norfolk which sent me down to Union Station's lower level. By the time
Southbound Crescent Train 19 was across the platform with bag dorm #69006 seen here next to ACS-86 #663.
Train 19's electric, ACS-86 #609, had come off the head end and was working its way back to Ivy City yard past #628, which was coupled to a single Amfleet on track #27. In the video you can also see Amtrak P42DC #19, which likely just came off Train 138, heading south towards the 1st St tunnels. Since this unit would need to be turned and serviced before heading back south, it is possible that it is being batched on a storage track so a single yard crew can return multiple locomotives to the yard.
End of my Train 138 waiting on the electric locomotive to take it on to New York. For whatever reason I decided to skip getting video of the power change.
Skipping again to a different day, while driving up I-95 my friend mentioned he was on the late afternoon northbound Next Gen Acela Train 2170 and just happened to be at the right location where I could get video of his passage behind an industrial park right off Delaware Route 279. I managed to get into position about 45 seconds before 2170 passed, but he was stuck in an isle seat and couldn't wave back :-( The Next Gen set was #13 with sequential power cars #2139 and #2140 that had just entered revenue service in October of 2025.
While driving out to see a friend in West Central PA, I stopped for dinner in Frederick, MD where I caught a MARC Brunswick Line (Frederick Branch) trainset at the Wisner Street grade crossing deadheading back to the storage yard just south of Interstate 70. The consist included single level cab car #7761, single level coaches #7718, #7728 and #7730 and MARC MP36PH-3C #28.
The town of Ridgeway is located on the old Buffalo and Pittsburgh line of the B&O and the former PRR Low Grade Main Line. Today both lines are under the umbrella of the Buffalo and Pittsburgh unit of G&W Industries. Both of the station buildings have been repurposed for use by local businesses. The B&O station was built in 1905 and the PRR station in 1907, which aligns when the region was at its most prosperous due to the extraction of both coal and oil.
Although the PRR station was still technically owned by the railroad, local groups had restored both the inside and outside and it was in use by a local artist.
That's all for this set. Next time I'll be back out on the PRR Main Line near Malvern, PA.
Recently I have discovered that travel to and from Stamford has above average value for railfan purposes. Not only is it the gateway to Metro North's Connecticut branch lines and related museums, but tickets functionally cost the same as one to/from New York City. As as Acela stop one can get close to an hour of additional ride time for no extra cost. Of course the big issue is blandness of Metro North and its infrastructure, but Stamford is at least good for a couple visits before it turns stale. So sit back and enjoy a parade of M8's along with a couple Amtrak trains.
I mostly slept on the way up, but I did manage to catch ACS-86 #668 in the push position on one of the push-pull Regionals.
My Regional Train 160 was able to traverse the newly opened eastbound HAROLD duckunder track. Built as part of the East Side Access project, the HAROLD duckunders eliminate conflicting movements between Amtrak trains to New Englande and LIRR Main Line trains. The eastbound duckunder was opened first to support the temporary closure of East River Tunnel Line 2 for rehabilitation.
The weather that day was absolutely fantastic and even side window photos from the train, like SS28 GREEN here in Cos Cob, looked great.
I'm not sure if my Regional Train 160 was late, but at Stamford it had to wait on track #4 while an all stops local to Grand Central crawled out of the yard. As T160 was able to depart it passed the inbound GCT express from New Haven which provides local riders with a timed transfer at New Haven.
While the Stamford Station is a great location for photos I got a tip off about another spot a bit south of down behind a DoubleTree hotel. The nearby glass covered office towers provided a natural fill lighting at this time of morning. Here is a montage of Metro North / CDoT M8 MU trains. West of Stamford the NHL sees 4 trains per hour, 2 express and 2 local.
Because of the timed transfers the westbound local and express trains tend to race each other out of the station, although meets between east and westbound trains are not uncommon.
