14-06-28 PHOTOS: B&O Bash

It's always nice when you can hijack an otherwise non-railfan group to do railfan things. I had one such opportunity in June when a bunch of friends were attending a conference in the Baltimore area and I convinced them to take a trip to the B&O Museum. I had last been to the B&O Museum way back in 2006 and it was high time for a refresher. As I expected not much had changed, but on the other hand my camera was two generations newer so I could photograph things again for the first time.

You can find the B&O Museum pics here along with a bunch from the Baltimore Zoo.

Out in the parking lot GP40 #3684 had been restored to its original B&O livery.

Although I wasn't too pleased that this B&O RDC was ripping off the trademark name of South Jersey's own transit system.

The "Tomb Thumb" engine might be a replica built in 1927, but this "Grasshopper" type is an authentic 1832 steam locomotive. I think that predates interchangeable parts!

I'm not here to give a history lesson on what each of the stuff display pieces in the B&O round house are, but I do know that around 2003 the museum suffered a roof collapse due to wet snow which severely damaged a number of the historic steam engines inside. Anyway the repair work was so good that I can't tell exactly which ones were affected, although I think it was some of these.

This restored Chessie painted GP38 was providing power to the excursion train in place of the MARC F-unit that was performing the duty back in 2006.

Still, MARC #7100 looked ready to take over if necessary.

The B&O Museum features one of the most powerful steam locomotives still in existence, C&O Allegheny #1604, whose class could generated nearly 7000hp.

C&O Pacific #440 is always a crowd pleaser.

Out in the field PRR GG-1 #4876 is still hanging in there as efforts to scrap the locomotive have changed to preservation. This was the locomotive that crashed into DC's Union Station in 1953.

I'll wrap things up with the Museum's signal collection out in the parking lot.

Tune in next time for the inaugural run of the DC Metro's Silver Line.

14-03-21 PHOTOS: Valley Campaign

Well over the last year I seem to have been retracing a lot of Civil War history first with my visit to tidewater Virginia last July and just this March with a visit to the Shenandoah Valley. The former was one of those "free" time share weekends and one of the inducements was a free 3 night stay in the Shenandoah National Park area which made the second trip possible. Now March isn't one of the more popular months to visit the park, but thanks to the cold spring and a snow story that closed parts of Skyline Drive, my friend and I at time wound up having almost the entire National Park to ourselves. Without the notorious summer and leaf season traffic jams to content with we were able to drive the 105 mile length of Skyline drive three complete times over the 4 days we were there.

Before, after and in between our visit to the park we also made numerous railfan stops along the NS Shenandoah Branch and the C&O Washington Branch, which is home to Amtrak's Cardinal. We even managed to run into several actual trains, which was good because I am sure that not many of you would be interested in seeing the best of 1100 signal related photos. Of course if you are you can can find them here

The first stop was Shenandoah Junction on the NS Shenandoah Branch that runs between Roanoke, VA and Hageratown, MD. This line still has quite a few classic N&W color position lights along it as when it was resignaled about 10 years ago railroads still bothered to save $$ by cutting the old signals into the new interlocking equipment. Shenandoah Junction was a once busy interchange point between the N&W and B&O that was made largely redundant by the mergers of the past 25 years.

Next stop was the junction between the Shenandoah Branch and the former Southern "B-Line" at Front Royal, VA. Today this is part of the primary NS freight route between the Northeast and the South. Trains turn west off the Southern Main Line at Mananas, VA then head to Front Royal where they turn north again to Hagerstown where they enter former Conrail/Reading RR trackage to Harrisburg and Reading before finally going to either NY or Philly. The route is far less direct than the one CSX has access to that basically parallels the NEC. Here we can see the wye connection between the B-Line and the Shenandoah Branch off to the right, while the old Southern line to Strasburg, VA continues on over the diamond.

 Here is the former N&W bridge over the Shenandoah River at Front Royal. You can see how the default route leads to the B-Line as most traffic heads towards the Southern Main to Atlanta while only a handful still use the N&W line between here and Roanoke.

 Until 1990 Strasburg was a major interchange point between the former Southern system and the B&O. However the NS and CSX mergers eventually made this service plan obsolete so now the west end of the B-Line sees only sporadic local traffic. This resulted in a flange riding diamond being installed across the Shenandoah Branch.

I was lucky enough to catch a train while hanging out at Front Royal. Here NS C40-10W #7602 heads down the N&W line with a train of mixed freight.

Newly rebuilt SD60E #6960 was following behind as seen here in this video of the train as it pounds the Southern diamonds.


The N&W Shenandoah River bridge as seen from the side.

While the weather was a bit cold it did have some advantages like these cool clouds blowing across the Blue Ridge in Shenandoah National Park. This was shot just south of the US entrance.


When you have a National Park to yourself you can just stop on the main road and take pictures of wildlife without pissing other people off.



These deer weren't in the park, but were right outside the hotel place we were staying at.



Mid-day railfanning break on Day 2. This is VAUGHN interlocking, south end of a signaled siding on the Shenandoah Branch.

At the other end of the siding, SUMMIT interlocking, I caught wind of an approaching train as the southbound N&W PL mast signal was displaying Approach.

Sure enough a light engine move with NS C44-9W #9944 and SD70M-2 #2680 passed by a few minutes later.

10-06-20 PHOTOS: C&O Main Line Survey 2010

Well after my success of my 2009 C&O Main Line survey I was eager to get a second bite at the apple since I had only learned the trick to cleaning the rear Viewliner window from inside the train just as we were approaching the Southern main line at Orange, VA. Trying to get good views out the back of an Amtrak train is always a crap shoot as there can be rain or a private car stuck on the end. In 2010 everything seemed to be going my way. It was closer to the solstice so I had maximum daylight. The weather was clear and sunny. There were no private cars. Unfortunately, a month before my trip Amtrak added a baggage car to the consist of The Cardinal and decided to move the sleeper from the rear of the train to the front and in doing so I was stuck with shooting through two panes of glass at the rear of the train.

Needless to say I was pissed off and although I persisted and got the full measure of photos the quality suffered greatly with much increased amounts of grain and a red tint that I had to struggle with in post production to mitigate. Still I did manage to document the next section of C&O signaling on CSX's hit list and I documented some territory that I had missed in my first go around.

Last year I had to split the C&O survey photo set up into two parts, but this year due to the decrease in quality I don't plan to bombard you with so many photos simply because there are far fewer good ones I would want to show off. Needless to say I think I will show off the photos I took during the power change in Washington DC in a bonus set.

In case you have forgotten my goal with this set of photos was to document the incredibly senic trip of Amtrak Train 50 as it snakes its way through West Virginia and the New River Gorge. I begin taking photos just west of Russell Yard in Kentucky and continue through Huntington, WV where CSX has already ruined things with last year's re-signaling effort. After that I went and had breakfast before returning to the rear end where I took photos straight through from Montgomery, WV to Clifton Forge, VA. When it was time for lunch and I resumed photos out the side of the train between Charlottesville and Orange, VA.

The super awesome set of photos can be found here: http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/10-06-20_CnO_SURVEY_010/-Thumbnails.html and I urge you all to just sit back and take the whole trip.

We begin our trip at 6AM at the west end of Russell Yard with some good old fashioned Ohio Valley fog. I know this and the other photos I took in the fog look cool enough, but I still hope the low light performance of non-DSLR cameras improves to get rid of the grain.

Sitting just outside the east end of Russell Yard at RU CABIN was a string of AC4400's including CSX #347 and 545 on a coal drag.

The fog had already burned away a few miles later as my train went from track 3 to track 2 at NC CABIN adjacent to some sort of industrial complex that had worked through the night.

Spoke too soon. The Ashland KY Amtrak station was completely shrouded in fog as my train continued eastward through 19th St interlocking.

Between Ashland and Big Sandy Junction was a 3-track freight super line with big C&O signal gantries at every block boundary. Here at the MP 514 auto we find ourselves in a coal train sandwich.

The train on track three was being lead by AC4400 #476. CSX seems to like keeping their AC4400s as the primary source of power on the old C&O.

Around the bend we find Big Sandy Junction where the Big Sandy Subdivision splits from the Kanawha Subdivision. This impressive interlocking complex had its perfectly serviceable C&O signals removed just a week or two ago replaced by sterile crap signals.

The closed interlocking cabin still stands Big Sandy Junction complete with a vintage C&O safety sign.

09-07-26 PHOTOS: C&O Survey 2009 Part 2

Part 2 will cover Hinton, WV to Washington, DC with a few gaps along the way. These photos were taken from the rear of Amtrak's eastbound Cardinal (Train 50) and you can view the entire set at http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/09-07-26_CnO_SURVEY_09/-Thumbnails.html In the Huntington East ETT refer to the North Mountain and Washington Subdivisions.

So due to the actions of the late Senator Byrd, not only does The Cardinal pass through WV, it makes a stop about every 10-20 miles. Still in a state with few transportation options to reach the outside world the train is well patronized as you can see at from this picture of the old C&O Hinton Station. Also, it looks like the station has escaped the rebranding that began about a decade ago. Long live the pointless arrow.

Patriotism runs strong in West Virginia. U-S-A! U-S-A!! 

Epic beard man was also there to watch the train roll through, but fortunately he didn't try to start anything.

Departing the station we passed a coal train with two road units and a road-slug pair with a former GP30 as the road slug. How many of these things doe CSX have!!

This is a cute signal. It has to be placed close to the tracks to allow ling of sight through the tunnel, but that required the elephant ears to be trimmed a little.

 The tunnel in question is the Big Bend Tunnel. The 5000 foot twin bore was the site of the famous John Henry ledgend. This was the newer bore built in the 1930's and the only one still in use today. At Hinton the Main Line leaves the New River valley and begins to follow the Greenbrier River east towards the Allegheny summit. The Big Bend in question is in the Greenbrier River.

09-07-26 PHOTOS: C&O Survey 2009 Part 1

The last installment of my four part epic Railfan trip to Chicago in 2009 will cover my sleeping car trip on Amtrak's Cardinal in July of 2009. Due to CSX's retarded decision to start axing down the perfectly serviceable C&O era signals on the famous C&O Main Line through Kentucky and West Virginia I considered this part of the trip to be the real priority as I would take advantage of the rear placement of the sleeping car to try to document all of the remaining classic C&O signals on the route.

I lucked out is not having any private cars attached to the train, but in a moment of pure stupidity I failed to see how dirty the rear door windows were when I had a clear chance to clean them before Indy so combined with an overcast day most of the photos I took came out somewhat muddy. Fortunately there was no rain to screw things up even further.

Now I can easily assume that few people here are interested in looking at hundreds of pictures of signals, even if they are classic C&O signals, so I'll try to stick to some of the non-signaling related high points of the route. The C&O main was the other was heavy tonnage route across the Alleghenies designed to accomidate coal and ore trains traveling between the mines in West VA and the ports at Toledo and Norfolk. As such it has much better examples of railroad engineering than one finds on the B&O route used by the Capitol Limited. Unfortunately the C&O did not have the deep pockets of the PRR and the terrain of its route is a tad more imposing so the Cardinal does not enjoy the same high speeds as seen on the Pennsylvanian. For anyone who has ridden the Pennsylvanian the best comparison is 200 miles composed of what one encounters between Huntington and Tyrone.

The complete set of about 400 photos can be found here and covers the like from MP 513 in Catlettsburg, KY to MP 498 past Barboursville, WV, MP 458 at Charleston, WV to MP 398 near Covington, VA and finally between MP178 and MP150 on the Washington Sub near Gordonsville, VA. The photos are in roughly Chronological order, but between MP 413 and 409 there are a bunch of photos out of order due to the time stamps getting screwed up.

Another worthwhile reference for anyone who cares is this Ma href="http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/Rail/Signal/aspects_us_co.html">list of C&O signal rules. They are roughly equivalent to what one sees under NORAC, but have several big exceptions. Also you can follow along via the 2005 CSX Huntington East Division ETT downloadable here.

I am going to begin at KV CABIN in Kenova, WV. The C&O liked to call its tower "Cabins" and the moniker has persisted to the present day. KV CABIN was one of two interlockings on the Kanawha Sub that retained its pneumatically worked switch machines until it was re-signaled in 2010. Here in 2009 we see the 6-track wide eastbound C&O signal gantry with two three head entrance signals and one two head exit signal. The C&O almost exclusively made use of US&S style N single unit color light signals (think what you see on the Flushing Line) with large "Elephant Ear" backing plates.

I quickly switched to video mode due to the low light in order to capture the model A-5 pneumatic switch machines that powered most of the switches in the interlocking. Our train was only about 20 minutes late at this point and the time was about 6:45am in late July.



A few miles down the road we have the Huntington, WV station which features a gen-u-ine Amshack station. In 2006 I remember food being onloaded here for the Diner Lite cafe, but I don't know if that is still a standard practice.

 Next up was the other pneumatic interlocking, DK CABIN. Here we can see the facing crossover complete with silver painted A-5 machines and a ground mounted N-3 dwarf signal.

More A-5's, the still standing DK CABIN to the left and in the yard lots of coal.

Westbound C&O signal bridge at GUYANDOTTE with a bunch of Darth Vaders standing ominously behind. The track 1 signal is cleared for an approaching coal train. You can see the difference between the lamps needed for the C&O signal aspects and the Seaboard style aspects CSX is trying to standardize on.

For the next 6 miles the C&O has 3 main tracks and our train has been routed onto track 3. This is the fast portion of the route with speeds varying between 60 and 80mph. The line follows the generally flat terrain along the Ohio River, the Teyas Valley and New River before Charleston. Here is the 3-track signal gantry at MP 500. This is 500 miles from downtown Richmond, VA.

06-11-12 PHOTOS: C&O Cardinal

If you remember my post about the rare millage detour on the Lake shore Limited you might have wondered how I got back from Chicago. Well, I booked a sleeper on the Cardinal with the intention of photographing out the back of the train along the C&O Main line especially the New River Gourge.

Now I booked the sleeper primarily because the sleeper is typically on the rear of the Cardinal, but this time it was on head end. Another issue was that out of Chicago there were two private cars on the back, but luckily they were cut off in Cincinnati. Unfortunately I didn't notice this until nearly Charleston, WV, but the morning was dark and shitty anyway so I didn't really miss much.

My interest in the C&O main line is that it is almost completely unresignaled from C&O days with big old elephant ear US&S colour light signals with big 5" lenses. Also, the C&O was a noted user of pneumatic switch machines and I wanted to see if there were any pneumatic interlockings left.

Now, due to the shitty weather I missed some of the neatest part of the line between Russel yard and Huntington where you have 3-4 tracks with massive C&O signal bridges. I started taking pictures at the famous St. Albans railfan hotspot and while there were railfan out on the ground, from my motiving train the pictures weren't turning out so good yet.

Still, between there and White Sulphur Springs I took a great deal of exciting, yet rather gray photos. My ultimate goal was to photograph the 2200 foot Allegheny summit of the C&O main line, but a number of other ppl had come back to the last car for pictures and the conductor got pissy and kicked us all out :-(

Still, the crew was generally cool and I had carte blanche to take pics from the vestibule window of my Viewliner. Because the Cardinal has been operating without diner cooked first class food for some time now they did a much better job via a vie preparation than I had seen on the LSL a day earlier. of course like always the other travelers in the sleeper were very nice as were the geese back in coach (as opposed to my last Cardinal trip where I was stuck with a family from the no-fly list who thought it reasonable to bring 3 screaming children on a 23 hour train ride.

We were only about an hour down of our scheduled arrival time into DC, which is pretty good for a train that takes a full day to get from Chicago to DC. I had just enough time to grab my kit and run over to the regional train that we were normally scheduled to be tied up behind for the trip to NYC. The other interesting bit was that Amtrak seems to have made a serious scheduling error in that the westbound train is more than 50 min down then they can't re-crew in Charlottesville. We had to preform a flying re-crew at a small siding about 12 mines east of there.

Anyway, all the photos are posted at:

http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/06-11-12_CandO_CARDINAL/-Thumbnails.html

Most are listed by subdivision and then milepost. This means they go in reverse order of my trip and you go west (as I go east) as you scroll down and they you go back east again :-\ Heh, oh well.

Here's a quickie photo tour.

The cantilever signal is a C&O trademark and the old C&O main line through WV and KY is littered with them.

A little further along the main line splits with one track on each side of the New River. Not the walkway to keep locals off the tracks.

A little past that is WV's most famous tourist attraction, the New River Gourge bridge.

Next is Thurmond with its downtown which uses the railroad RoW as its main drag.