Jersey Mike's Rail Adventures: 22-07-22 PHOTOS: Silver Spring

Friday, July 22, 2022

22-07-22 PHOTOS: Silver Spring

In the summer of 2022 a friend had some business after hours in Silver Spring and I jumped on the chance to not only generate some rail content there, but also enjoy some good food and drinks at the Quarry House pub, located just a few blocks from the combined WMATA and MARC station. All in all three trips were made, although most of the photos were gathered on the first. Also included in this set ( mirror ) are Amtrak photos returning southbound from Philly.

Before getting to Silver Spring I happened to be passing near the old Elkridge, MD MARC station on the former B&O Washington Branch, when I saw ES44AC #7231 stopped on the Route 1 overpass. Turns out it was the distributed power for an eastbound CSX autorack train that was likely being held at ST DENIS interlocking.

One of the old track underpass stairways had also gained a railroad related mural since the last time I had been by the old Elkridge station. Elkridge was replaced in 1992 by the Dorsey Park N Ride station about 4 miles to the west with locals interested in Camden Line travel being shifted to the St. Denis station about a mile to the east.

At Silver Spring the DC Metro tracks sit between the two CSX Metropolitan Sub tracks with barbed wire fencing impeding the sight lines as you can see here with WMATA 6k car #6086.

After a low point in 2021 due to unexplained derailments, the 7k cars had been returning to service and by 2022 made up a good half the observed runs as with #7492 shown here.

MARC Brunswick Line trains provide the best action at Silver Spring with a healthy number of departures in the AM and PM peaks. Unlike Frederick which only sees a total of 3 round trips a day, Silver Spring also sees trains to Brunswick and Martinsburg. Here MARC SC44 #85 arrives with a single level Martinsburg train and cab car #7759.

MARC doesn't come by the old B&O station anymore, but fortunately the historic 1940's Silver Spring depot narrowly avoided demolition and was completely restored at its original location 2002. The nationally registered historic place retains the old westbound platform along with a sealed track underpass, however the inbound platform and shelter were demolished in 2008.

The Silver Spring Historical Society also managed to get ahold of the old milepost 6 TAKOMA PARK CPL signals that were installed around 1992 as part of a CTC project and eventually removed in a 2014 re-signaling.

Back at the active Silver Spring station I caught more DC Metro trains with both 6k and 3k including cars #6005, #6061, #3210 and #6099.

With peak DC Metro headways I was also able to put together a little red Line Silver Spring video supercut.

I was also on hand for the arrival of the second to last MARC train on the night, an 6:53pm departure for Frederick, with a surprise double header considering of MP36PH-3C #13 and GP39H-2 #74 along with split level cab car #8048 on the rear end.

South of both stations was an impressive 4-track bridge over Georgia Ave. It appeared to pre-date the WMATA era, implying that the B&O right of way already had sufficient space for the Metro tracks. When the old Silver Spring station was still in use, the platforms extended over the bridge and were served by stairways from the Georgia Ave sidewalks.

The sidewalkways under the bridge featured some recently installed rail transit mosaics including a B&O themed one with an accurately depicted period streamliner.

On the southbound Amtrak trip I started with PATCO rebuild car #1013 at Haddonfield before connecting to SEPTA Silverliner IV #180 at Market East en route to 30th St.