I travel the 95 corridor on a regular basis and in recent years have made a point to actually stop off at various rail points of interest along the route such as Edgewood, MD or Newark, DE. One location not far from the others, but totally off my radar was Churchman's Crossing, the Delaware owned SEPTA station between Wilmington and Newark used by a few peak period R2 trains since R2 service was extended in 2000. This set of photos covers my first visit to the station as well as the nearby CSX Wilsmere Yard and some additional action at BWI.
Churchmans Crossing could be reasonably considered to be an infill station between Wilmington and Newark, although it was built in conjunction with the SEPTA R2 extension to Newark. Built, owned and maintain by DART First State transit, it is similar in concept and construction to the DART Claymont Station that opened in 1998. Churchmans Crossing consists of a single low level platform on the east side of Amtrak's #1 track with duckboards reaching tracks 2 and 3 in case of contingency operation.
With SEPTA service suspended south of Wilmington due to COVID, there was no need to staff the station with a security guard to yell at photographers. Although the station is pretty much in the middle of a field, it is reasonably adjacent to a large Medical and Corporate park as well as a few residential neighborhoods. Still, the lack of all-day service even in normal times is a major deterrent to anyone who might want to use the service to reach the nearby centers of employment.
The budget layout of the station was due to the plan to operate SEPTA trains in both directions exclusively on #1 track between RAGAN and DAVIS interlockings, keeping them out of the way of higher speed Amtrak trains on tracks 2 and 3. The station is adjacent to a vintage PRR era road bridge that provides back door access to the Delaware Park racetrack.
ADA access is provided by both an elevator and a little track lift located to the side of the platform's only staircase.
Amtrak service was pretty thin on this Saturday with only a single pair of Regionals bothering to show up. The northbound was powered by ACS-86 #614.
A perk of the station is the milepost 33 automatic signal location a fraction of a mile to the north.
I had better light for the southbound Regional headed by ACS-86 #624.
The action was just as bad at Wilsmere yard, with nothing moving or
lined up. Wilsmere is one of the minority of yards that retain the old
practice of routing the main tracks through the center of the yard. The General Motors Wilmington Assembly Plant
was built adjacent to the yard and after its closure in 2009, Fisker
Automotive purchased the site for an electric vehicle project that
ultimately flamed out. A major Amazon fulfillment center later opened on the site shortly after these photos were taken in 2021.
CSX GP38-2 #2756 could be seen peeking out from behind the truck scale.
Down at Amtrak's BWI Airport Rail Station I was on hand to catch a southbound Acela Express trainset with power cars #2001 and #2003.
This was followed by a northbound MARC Penn Line train with MP36PH-3C #21 and Kawasaki cab car #7849.
Following that was a northbound Regional hauled by ACS-86 #653.
That's it for now. Next time I'll be back with a trip to the revived East Broad Top Winter Fest.
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