23-03-16 PHOTOS: McKinney Ave Extension

When I first visited Dallas in 2007, I was pleased to discover the McKinney Avenue heritage trolley line (apparently now rebranded as the M-Line) that ran from the art museum to the McKinney Ave arts and entertainment district. By that time the system had already been expanded once with a spur to the CityPlace DART station and a northward expansion to Blackburn Ave. The operation had an impressive fleet and level of service for a donation-funded non-profit and I rode it several times during my stay, despite the difficulty in reaching the Art Museum terminus (it was easier to take DART to CityPlace). Although I have been regularly visiting Dallas since 2017, I was never "downtown" enough to make time to revisit the McKinney Avenue trolley. However in 2023 I found myself back in the same hotel I had used in 2007 and to my complete surprise I realized that the long planned McKinney Ave Trolley extension into downtown had been completed and instead of being some 5 blocks away the streetcars now stopped across the street. With that level of convenience of course I was going to ride it again ,especially since I would be able to use it to access a greater variety of eateries. You can find the full gallery of photos here ( mirror ) and the previous coverage of my DART excursion to Buckner and the Dallas Terminal Railway here.

Due to the rainy weather I actually hit up the trolley before heading to Buckner with the hope that the weather would clear up some. The new station stop was at the corner of Federal and Olive and was where I caught the M-Line's smallest vehicle, Birney Safety Car #636.

The operator was new on the job and was receiving instruction from a comparatively veteran young lady. Watching the process it was interesting to see how much more complicated streetcar operation was with a huge amount of forethought to get stopped at the right place and not get into conflicts with the Texas sized vehicles it was sharing the road with.

I captured two long videos showing the training process, the first taken on Olive Street and the second on Cole. When the streetcar approached the more challenging McKinney Ave, the instructor took over.





In 2007 the CityPlace extension had been a stub terminal affair with the streetcars changing direction at the end of the line. This precluded the use of single ended cars like PCC's so at some point the M-Line installed an electric turntable. Here we see #636 taking a spin

After getting back to downtown I snagged this video of #636 turning off Federal St onto Olive St to begin a new run to the McKinney Ave food and arts district.

Later in the week the weather improved and I caught #636 again near the Klyde Warren Park, that was built on top of the Texas Route 366 urban highway.

I only rode it a few blocks until it McKinney Ave. The junction here was built new for the downtown loop expansion.

After picking up my food I managed to catch former Dallas Peter Witt car #754 making the turn onto what used to be the Saint Paul Street single track stub to the Art Museum.

23-03-16 PHOTOS: Dallas Terminal Railroad

While reviewing potential railfan activities to do before my 2023 trip to Dallas, I noticed something something that appeared to be Amtrak equipment in a random neighborhood near the Texas State Fairgrounds. Situated within walking distance of the DART Green Line to Buckner, I immediately planned an in-person investigation as it would also check off one of the last parts of the DART system that I had yet to ride. This set of photos will cover both the eastern Green Line and the little known Dallas Terminal Railroad. An additional set of photos covering the McKinney Ave trolley will be forthcoming. You can see the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

Starting out at Dallas Union Station with TRE F59PH #122 and F59PHI #569.

Arriving in Dallas I noticed that the replacement of the DART LRV rollsigns with LED signs was accelerating, like with #191 and #133 seen at Pearl St. However #213 was still fitted with the analogue signs that do much better in photographs.

Here a northbound DART Blue Line train with LRV's #192 and #185 take the flashing arrow Approach Diverging indication on the 4N signal at the north end of the Pearl Arts District platform.

 

 

DART LRV #213 actually turned out to be my ride to Buckner station at the "timetable" southern end of the line. The station is named for disgraced Red Socks first baseman Bill Buckner who was forced to flee to Texas and found his own town after blowing the 1986 World Series. Seen here the operator has already rolled the signs to the new destination of North Carrollton.

Similarly roll signed LRV #208 would be leading the return trip northward.

Passing LRV #247 on the main line. DART can reach speeds as high as 65mph.

Managed to catch some Union Pacific intermodal action on the Mineola Sub with ES44AC #2522 and AC4400 #7247.

The Dallas Terminal Railroad yard was located between MLK and Fair Park, so I bid fairwell to #213 at the former to walk to the latter.

Also located between MLK and Fair Park was the Green Line's access to DART's south side yard and maintenance facility. The yard was originally built in the 90's to serve the original Blue and Red lines, but was strategically located to also serve the planned Green Line that would be completed in the 2010's. Both lines connect to the yard via long segments of non-revenue track.

When built, the non-rev Green Line track cut through the Dallas Terminal Railroad, necessitating the installation of a 2 by 2 diamond crossing at grade, complete with power operated derails on the DALT.

22-10-29 PHOTOS: HARRIS With Friends

After my trip to the recently preserved Harrisburg Power Director's office, I had a non-railfan friend express interest in heading up to see the facility for themselves. The bad news was that after driving up we found that they would not be opening the PDO that day. The good news was that he had a ton of fun working the HARRIS tower Model 14 interlocking machine while I did train photos. You can find the full set of those photos here ( mirror ). Also included are bonus photos of the MARC Brunswick Line Kensington station and some Amtrak/SEPTA/PATCO stuff.

First up was Amtrak ACS-86 #655 on a Keystone trainset relay move.

Arriving soon after was an eastbound coal train led by C44-10W #7540 and Union Pacific run-through SD70ACe #8586.

Behind this was an eastbound merchandise train with ES44AC #8033 and C44-9W #9715.

At this time it was time for lunch and on the way to the mall food court I popped by the Harrisburg Station that has retained much of its PRR era interior. 

19-09-21 PHOTOS: HARRIS Enola

The Harrisburg area is a great place to visit, not only for the PRR heritage and HARRIS tower museum, but also the high amount of rail traffic and large Enola yard and diesel maintenance shop complex. In the fall of 2019 I had the opportunity to give a new co-worker and NS fan from North Carolina a tour of the Harrisburg area with the secondary goal of photographing some of NS's more interesting power before it was sold off in an increasing number of fire sales because why would a railroad need locomotives. Anyway, both my missions were accomplished with a tour that hit all the major points including Enola Yard, the Rockville bridge and the Harrisburg station area. The full set of photos can be found here (mirror).

First stop was the driveway to the Elona Diesel Shoppe where a large quantity of NS Geeps were parked outside. On the run through track a lashup of remote controlled power was providing flat switching with an increasingly rare former Southern high hood GP3802 (#5004) was leading a road slug pair.

Also visible from this location was a line of stored 2600-series SD70M-2's, which were onle of the first NS classes to be pulled out of service, despire having been purchased new in 2005/6. Given the issues with Tier IV engines, M-2's like #2689 here are prime candidates for an AC traction rebuild or an as-is sale to CN, the other large user of the type.

Driving up past the shoppes to the Enola backlot we find the Conrail Quality logo ghosting through the white paint on the diesel fuel storage tanks. These tanks supply the fuel pad on the opposite side of the Susquehanna River via a pipeline that crosses the Rockville bridge.

The Enola backlot has both stores power and live power waiting to be dispatched in all four directions of the compass. 

The star attraction was stored NS SD80MAC #4208, one of only 25 built for a single Conrail order in the late 1990's.

Of course there were NS C44-9W's, but hiding behind #9210 and #9172 is Lycoming Valley RR SP9 #239.

18-10-01 PHOTOS: West Slope

The second day of my Fall 2018 PRR Main Line trip started at Altoona and would cover the West Slope between there and South Fork with stops at The Brickyard, Horseshoe Curve, Gallitzin, Cresson, Cassandra, Portage and Summerhill. All of these places are well known railfan hot spots and rail enthusiasm is even a local tourism industry with multiple beds and breakfasts and even a stretch of PA Route 53 signed as a railfan byway. At each of these locations I documented the endangered PRR style position light signals, but due to traffic levels on the main line I also caught a healthy mix of NS freight including four(!) "specialty" units and two rare instances of foreign power.

You can view all the 1300 or so photos here or here.

The day started at the railfan bridge over what used to be CP-SLOPE. The fog was pretty thick, which would limit infrastructure photos, but since this area had been re-signaled in 2012 there wasn't too much I personally was interested in. While most railfanning involves a lot of futile waiting or chasing down trains with the help of a scanner, the old PRR Main Line has sufficient traffic that even a brief stopover makes catching something likely. In this case an eastbound intermodal train rolled out of the fog led by NS C44-9W #9841 and UP SD70M #4500.

ALTO tower was still standing in downtown Altoona. Although owned by the nearby Railroader's Museum, the wooden structure is unoccupied at at a high risk for arson. 

From Altoona my friend and I drove about a mile up the line to a location known as Brickyard as it was at the site of an historic brickyard. Although the former PRR Position Light signal bridge was replaced by an NS style cantilever in 2012, it is still a popular location due to a grade crossing and a defect detector. We were just in time to catch an eastbound merchandise train descending the East Slope on track #1 and in an amazing feat of good luck, the NS SD70ACe "Barcode" unit #1111 was first under the signal, followed by a significantly less interesting Tier IV ES44AC #3612.

On the rear of the long train were two SD40E (former SD50) helper packs, with two units each, NS #6324, #6329, #6302 and #6327.

The fog lifted on the uphill drive west to the famed Horseshoe Curve where I grabbed this obligatory photo of PRR GP9 #7048 that is on display at the park there. 

Although Pittsburgh Line traffic does come in waves, I was not to be disappointed as a westbound doublestack train soon appeared headed by NS Wabash SD70Ace heritage unit #1070 with mechanically heritage C40-8W #8350 running behind.

Assisting from behind was a sibling pair of SD40E helpers #6331 and #6330.

About 5 minutes later an eastbound oil train descended the grade on track #1 with Central of Georgia heritage unit ES44AC #8101 followed by sister NS ES44AC #8106.

17-12-24 VIDEOS: Second Ave Nostalgia

In 2017 the long delayed Second Avenue Subway was (partly) completed from 63rd and Lexington to 96th St and 2nd Ave.  Fittingly, the NYCTA decided to run it's annual holiday Nostalgia Train on a new routing up the Second Avenue line, instead of it's more traditional run to Queens Plaza.  I say it was fitting because some of the 80 year old cars were probably built with the expectation that they would operate in regular service on the planned IND Second Avenue Subway that wound up being postponed again and again as the city lurched from one financial disaster to the next.

Anyway, there was no way I was going to miss such and event and I brought my GoPro camera with me.  To help you the viewer I split the ride videos into two sections, one covering the classic route, the other the new route.  I will begin with the northbound run from the 2nd Ave F train station to Rockefeller Center.


And now instead of turning left onto the Queens Boulevard Line, we head straight onto the 63rd St line, diverging at Lexington onto the brand new Second Avenue Subway.


Follwing tradition, the Nostalgia Train laid up at the northern end of its run, forcing the standing room only crowd to discharge.


Here we go on the return run. Starting at 96th St and heading to Rockefeller Center.


And bringing it home, the return leg down the 6th Ave line from Rockefeller Center to 2nd Ave.


Well that's the end of the Nostalgia Train trip, but here is some bonus nostalgia in the form of some video of the now closed W4TH ST interlocking tower and it's GRA Model 5 pistol grip interlocking machine.


Tune in next time for all the still photos from this trip and some others as well!

17-10-14 PHOTOS: River Line Autumn Express

For the last few years Amtrak has been looking to cash in on the popular fall tourist train market with rare mileage excursions in October or November. Typically these have been with the more amenable Norfolk Southern, but in 2017 they somehow got CSX to approve a run up the West Shore Line, aka the River Line between Weehawken, NJ and Selkirk, NY. Also included was a circuitous run through Conrail SAA territory from CP-NK, across the Upper Bay lift bridge then over the National Docks and Northern branches to join up with the CSX River Line.

The return route was via the Amtrak Hudson Line on the east shore of the Hudson River, returning to Penn Station after a photo runby at Rhinecliff. Unlike 2016 I was unfortunately limited to side window shots as there were engines on both ends of the train this time due to a number of direction changes without an available wye. You can still see the entire photo set here.

The train was bracketed by Amtrak heritage engines #145 (Phase 3) and #156 (Phase 1) with Veterans painted electric ACS-86 #642 located behind #145 and ahead of conference Metroliner #9800. I positioned myself in the car next to #156, Metroliner cab car #9641. Here we see #156 as it awaits departure at Penn Station.

Here is the LVRR (not Conrail Lehigh Line) bridge with a COFC train passing over it at Amtrak's Hunter interlocking. The Autumn Express took the NJT Raritan Valley Line connection up to CP-NK where it would reverse direction to head eastward on the Lehigh Line.

The Lehigh Line terminates at CP-PIKE (Junction with the Chemical Coast Secondary) in the middle of the Oak Island intermodal yard. I caught CSX ES44AC #3024 hiding out under the NJ Turnpike overpass.

Nearby a rare 3600hp CSX SD50 (#8522) was hanging out on an industrial track.

View of the train snaking back along the National Docks Branch Jersey City viaduct as railfan watch on from the NJ Turnpike Extension.

 

Ex-SCL GP38-2 #2543 with ET44AH #3394 hanging out at the CSX North Bergen terminal.

Also in the yard was a second CSX ET44AH, #3371, and SD40-3 #4017.

Crossing the NY State Thruway just north of the state line.

Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant seen from across the Hudson.

Obligatory shot of the Bear Mountain Bridge.

The Newburgh-Beacon bridge.

Crossing Rondout Creek in Kingston, NY.