18-06-29 PHOTOS: Great Falls

Ok, sometimes my Rail Adventures can get contaminated with non-rail content. Over the 4th of July Holiday in 2018 I visited Great Falls Park on the Potomac River and although it's located on the C&O Canal I will freely acknowledge some of the photos might be a little off topic ;-) Beyond that I was hosting some people near DC and I went on a couple of local rail trips that I will use to reach the recommended minimum amount of rail content. Yeah, this is one of those grab bag posts so feel free to undo the drawstring and check out the whole lot!

The Great Falls of the Potomac mark the extreme northern limit of navigability on said waterway and consist of three main channels that are traversed by a walkway system from the Maryland side of the river. The west channel is the widest anf grandest with the center channel being the narrowest and the east channel bring in between, but still closer to the size of the small center channel. On this day the falls were swollen from some recent rains and there was clear evidence of recent high water. Here we see northward and southward views of the east channel.

Northward and southward views of the center channel.

And finally the Great Falls themselves, which dwarf the other two.

With fish traveling both up and down the channel there were a great many Blue Herons standing around, eyeing the water for a meal. I think I was able to count about 8, but I certainly could have missed more.

I was in time to see this fine fellow with his catch, although for a while it looked like he had bit off a bit more than he could chew! After watching with my camera ready I eventually turned away for a bit and when I looked back the fish had vanished ;-)

I also captured a sequence of another heron briefly taking flight in order to perch on another rock.

Of course wading birds weren't the only attraction. After a rather demanding hike on the Billy Goat trail I caught this doe standing in a lagoon off the C&O canal towpath munching swamp grass.

Classy...

Other herons were looking for easier prey in the remains of the C&O canal, which still held water, but at a much reduced depth.

The old canal was also home to a good many turtles.

C&O Canal locks 15 through 20 are located within the park as these comprise a flight that elevated boats past the rather significant water feature. Here we see the eastward entrance to Lock 15.

Here is the largely drained Lock 18.

Here we see the milepost 13.74 stop gate that could divert excess water back into the Potomac during flood conditions.

Ok, on with the rail stuff. I'll start with Maryland MTA LRV #5052 at the Glen Burnie terminus.

Here we have a video of Amtrak ACS-86 #609 arriving at the BWI Airport Rail Station with a northbound Regional.


And here is a still of Amtrak ACS-86 #611 at the BWI Airport Rail Station with another northbound Regional.

Speaking of the BWI Airport Rail Station, here is the last photo I got before the structure was completely gutted for renovation.

SEPTA Silverliner V #722 at 30th St Station.

SEPTA Silverliner IV #434 emerging from the 20th St portal.

SEPTA Silverliner V #722 again, this time at Market East.

WMATA 7000-series #7514 at Greenbelt.

Ends of 2000-series cars #2022 and #2055 at Gallery Place.

Here we have a pair of videos takes from the rear of my 7000-series WMATA train to Greenbelt as they had back cabs halved. The first video is from roughly Ft Totten to Hyattsville and the second runs from College Park to Greenbelt.





MARC single level car #7727 at BWI behind MP36PH-3C #31 at thw BWI rail station.

One last photo taken during the Haddonfield, NJ 4th of July parade of this old Bell System warning placard that dates from between 1964 and 1968.

Well that's it for this run. Next week I hit the PRR Main Line with a bit more luck this time.