21-07-15 VIDEOS: A-Line Redemption

It's time once again for my yearly Amtrak round trip to Gainesville, Georgia and back. This used to be a super fun activity where I was closely collecting a high quality library of rear-facing still photos and video of the CSX RF&P Sub, CSX A-Line, former Southern H-Line and former Southern Main Line. Unfortunately in 2015 Amtrak decided to reverse its trainsets, placing the baggage car on the rear and blocking off the view.  This was especially galling because I had collected video of the entire RF&P Sub, but the segment from Alexandria to Quantico had suffered from an audio failure.  Well, as luck would have it, in 2021 Amtrak was having some staffing and equipment issues related to Covid and pulled the baggage car off of their Carolinian service restoring the rear facing view and I was able to collect enough video for its own special video post.

We begin with the aforementioned rear view from the back of Amtrak Train 79 as it runs from the Alexandria, VA Amtrak station to the Quantico, VA Amtrak station on the former RF&P Main Line. This was taken with my GoPro affixed to the rear vestibule window and replaces a previous video taken in 2015 that suffered from an audio problem. Note some of the preparation work for the third track, which I believe had already started back in 2015, is finally nearing completion.

Here we have a short video clip from the rear of Train 79 as it passes over the diamond crossing at Doswell, VA on track #2 in the southbound direction. Note the surviving RF&P bracket mast and HN interlocking tower.

Departing Richmond I wasn't careful enough and I got busted by the Richmond-Raleigh crew regarding my GoPro so I had to settle for stills. However I did steal this clip of Train 79 on track #1 overtaking a CSX hauled  Hergoz stone train on track #2 on the James River Bridge. The CSX train is led by a pair of AC4400's with #327 in the lead.

The more things change the more they stay the same. After tens of millions in capacity upgrades north of the Rocky Mount, NC station to prevent this very situation, my Train 79 had to pull in and then back out of the second main track to allow Train 90, the northbound Palmetto to pass. Heat restrictions on CSX had both trains running late and due to a variety of circumstances there was no ability for the two trains to pass properly as a CSX local was blocking the new second main track to the south. The same thing happened to me in 2010 at the old BATTLE interlocking located about a mile to the south of where this video was taken. The only difference was that the re-signaling effort now allowed a Restricting indication to be displayed immediately after Train 90's passage. In 2010 the old Seaboard signals could only display Stop, Limited Approach and Limited Clear. Total delay was only about 5 minutes for my Train 79. P42DC on Train 90 appears to be #11 or #17.



With the new crew on at Raleigh I was back in business so here is a rear facing video from the CSX / Seaboard S-Line from a little past the new station at Raleigh, NC to Fetner Jct, just short of the station stop at Cary, NC. The video is cut due to need to wait for an eastbound Piedmont Service train that got to Cary ahead of us. This section of track is shared with Amtrak's Silver Star train to Florida which stay on the S-Line at Cary.

In this video we have a rear view of the former Southern H-Line from a little past the stop at Cary, NC to Durham, NC. This segment includes the section between CLEGG and NELSON interlockings that was recently re-graded to improve speeds and eliminate grade crossings. Also included is D&S Jct, the main NS yard in the Durham area and junction with the former Southern D-Line.

Finally we have some nice 80mph speeds as my train runs from a little past the stop at Burlington, NC to Greensboro, NC. I was getting off at Greensboro for an eventual transfer to Train 19, the southbound Crescent.

I will finish this post off with a video of  my slightly late Train #79 led by P42DC #133 as it suddenly has some company in the form of a southbound NS double stack intermodal train being hauled by AC44C6M #4059, SD70ACe #1178 and C44-10W #7570. With both trains whistling for the Elm St crossing, Train 79 takes the lead despite being hobbled by a Diverging Clear signal indication at POMONA interlocking compared with the freight's straight Clear.