22-12-21 PHOTOS: Patuxent

On along the NEC between Odenton and Bowie State is an ~8 mile stretch of track that runs parallel to the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, a surprisingly large track of undeveloped land in the I-95 corridor that was created in 1936 as a way to partly bank land adjacent to Fort Meade for either expansion or maneuvers. Either way the Patuxent tract provides the NEC with an oddly rural character in what is otherwise a highly developed area. The NEC itself roughly serves as the eastern boundary for the tract and as it contains a couple of accessible signal locations I set out on a holiday season mission to get some weekday photos ( mirror ) at each of them.

The Milepost 116 intermediate is located about 2.5 miles south of Odenton off Patuxent Rd. Upon my arrival I caught a southbound MARC local with cab car #7762 and MP36PH-3C #13.

There is a small parcel of private land west of the right of way accessed by this adorable little underpass.

While there I was surprised by MARC GP40PH-2A work/rescue locomotive #4145 running lite towards Baltimore. This was recently purchased from NJT.

The milepost 116 intermediate signals were installed during the 1980's NEC Improvement Project that installed all 3 main tracks to Rule 261 bi-directional operation.

Immediately to the south of the signal location is the only curve re-alignment carried out during the NECIP, likely due to the Federal ownership of the land needed to be taken. Even then only tracks 2 and 3 were re-aligned with track #1, used almost solely by local MARC trains, on the original alignment. I was told that this change allowed enough time to be saved by Metroliner service trains to reliable schedule them under three hours (ie 2h 59m).

The milepost 118 intermediate signal location is adjacent to state owned land accessible from the Bowie State MARC station via an old farm road. The path is visible below next to an isolated stretch of renewed overhead catenary and connects with the Bowie State University trail system via an NEC underpass at the Patuxent River bridge.

The next schedule southbound MARC local had Bombardier split level equipment and Mp36PH-3C #28.

This was followed a respectful amount of time later by a southbound Amtrak Regional with ACS-86 #635.

Seemingly appearing in reverse order of speed/priority was an Amtrak Acela Express with power cars #2017 and #2036.

Next up was a northbound Regional with ACS-86 #658.

I'm wondering if that first Regional wasn't running late as a second southbound appeared with Veterans ACS-86 #642.

My last trains of the day was yet another pair of MARC locals. The southbound run had single level cab car #7758 and MP36PH-3C #34 while the northbound train was being accelerated by MP36PH-3C #31 after the Bowie State stop with bombardier split level cab car #8059 on the rear.

If anyone is in the area and wants to get their steps in I would highly recommend the this part of the NEC.