I have a confession to make, I'm not a steam enthusiast in the way most railfans are steam enthusiasts. For steam people if something goes "chug chug", its an excuse to drive at unsafe speeds and elbow others out of the way to get that perfectly composed photo that looks like everyone else's perfectly composed photo. When I have been in the company of steam excursions it has been to ride the excursion to get both covered in cinders and get an open window view of the line and by extension its pieces of historic infrastructure. However when riding a RBMN #2102 excursion to Pittston in 2024 I was able to make note of the surviving CNJ searchlight signal locations on the former Conrail Lehigh Line. So since I was obviously going to have to come out again to photo these signals, why not do it in conjunction with a #2102 trip and generate some content that everybody can enjoy? So anyway here are photos from my first time being trackside for a man line steam excursion.
Like I said, my primary mission that day was to get photos of former Central RR of NJ searchlight signals between White Haven and Mountain Top. After the CNJ abandoned operations west (north) of Lehighton in the 1960's, the Lehigh Valley RR incorporated this section of the CNJ route due to its superior alignment and industrial connections. The CNJ vintage searchlights were distinctive for having a square "basket" like structure around each maintenance platform. Here we see the Milepost 146 southbound intermediate signal displaying an Approach indication for the holdout signal at CP-WHITE HAVEN. The former CNJ signals are normally dark, but will illuminate when a route has been established by the dispatcher.
At first I was confused why the Reading and Northern was running a southbound train within an hour of the northbound 2102 excursion. It turns out the signal was for the "regularly scheduled" Pittston to Mach Chunk diesel hauled excursion train featuring Reading and Northern 40th anniversary GP38-2 #2023, which I caught at the northbound Milepost 148 signal.
As expected the previously dark northbound signal popped up with a Clear signal indication for #2102. I could hear the engine approaching in the distance when what I will call the "traveling circus" of train chasers began to show up with their tripods. When #2105 did arrive it was applying all 5000 of its horsepower to muscle the 21 cars of the excursion train up the stiff grade. This spectacle was quite a bit more thrilling trackside and made it easy to understand what was motivating the traveling circus to chase these trains again and again.
The R&N's latest innovation in making money is open observation car #22 which offers a premium view to those lucky enough to grab one of the 30 tickets available for each departure. Not going to lie, but #22 is definitely on my radar for a future trip, even if it covers territory I have already traveled.
When presented with the need to travel to Atlanta with in May of 2025 I saw an opportunity to introduce a non-railfan fried to traveling via sleeping car on Amtrak's southbound Crescent Train 19. I am well versed on this route, traveling to see a friend in Gainesville most years, however this time I would be completing the full "northern" half of the Crescent by traveling all the way to Atlanta, a city I had only passed through on a northbound Crescent trip from New Orleans in 2010. This trip didn't present the opportunity for a large amount of photos, but you can see all the ones I did manage here.
The trip started off at the Odenton MARC station as the southbound Crescent did not stop at BWI and Odenton informally allows free overnight parking. Here MARC ML cab car #8049 leads a Penn Line train to Washington, DC.
Passing the VRE storage yard at Ivy City, MP36PH-3C's #V62 and V64 were waiting to head out on their evening return runs.
Our Penn Line train on the non-electrified track #7 next to a lineup of other MARC trains serving the Penn, Camden and Brunswick lines.
The call to Train 19 from the lounge was a bit late and by the time we got down to the platform the power change had already taken place with Amtrak P42DC #158 behind ALC-42 #348.
If you remember VRE #V66 from the yard, well here it is pulling into Track #23 to collect its passengers.
Although I had missed Train 19's power change, I was able to catch the train for northbound Palmetto Train 90. P42DC #114 was replaced by ACS-86 #641 while a classic Acela express, with power cars #2037 and #2006, arrived on upper level Track #20.
With #114 out of the way I was able to get a photo of Amtrak ALC-42s #314 and #365 on the head of Northwestbound Floridian train #40.
This was followed by Veterans ACS-86 #642 with aa southbound Regional train of some kind.
After departure on Train 19, my friend and I were offered an early dinner slot in the "new" Viewliner 2 dining car.
The Crescent isn't the most scenic of Amtrak's LD routes, especially with the 6pm departure out of DC so close to sunset and the 8am arrival in Atlanta so close to Sunrise. The only photo-op available to me was the smoke stop at Charlottesville.
Fast forward and here is Train 19 arriving at Atlanta's Peachtree station.
Formerly a small suburban stop, Peachtree Station is is 633 railroad miles from Washington, DC and became Atlanta's one and only station after the downtown Union Station was closed in 1971. To accommodate the Crescent, the Southern built a long island platform between the two main tracks with an elevator installed for baggage purposes. A two track storage yard is also present for the times when the Crescent needs to be short turned. The Crescent was turned over to Amtrak in 1979 and at 1100 miles is Amtrak's longest Eastern LD train route.
The Crescent essentially serves two markets, Atlanta to DC and Atlanta to New Orleans, with a large part of the ridership turning over at Atlanta. This high turnover creates quite a bit of crowding at Peachtree as the cramped station is not fit for the purpose of serving the passenger rail volumes generated by one of the country's largest metro areas.
Although small, the station's exterior retains its 1918 appearance.
The pointless arrow lives on a sign directing departing passengers to the parking lot. Those arriving in the city either have to make do with an Uber or walk about a half mile to the nearest MARTA station.
Since I had some discounts and credits I chose the Uber option. While we were waiting an southbound NS manifest freight rolled past with C40-10Wn #7605, AC44C6M #4133 and ET44AC #3603.
That's all for the first course. Next week I'll be back with some MARTA action.
The last time I went to Lowell, MA was during the height of COVID and I only had enough time to walk the length of BY interlocking where the MBTA Lowell line briefly merges with the old Guilford Rail System Freight Main Line. With all of the re-signaling that is currently taking place along that route, I returned with a friend for a day of craft beer appreciation and searchlight signal photos. This post will detail the more interesting parts of the trip along with my return to the Mid-Atlantic via Acela express.
On weekends service to Lowell is pretty awful with trains running on a 1-2 hour headway. Today was no different and the only thing I was able to catch at Lowell's transportation was an empty high-low island platform. Lowell has an interesting layout as the two tracks on the left are used for MBTA service to Boston, while the three on the right are part of the former Guilford Rail System "Freight Main Line" that at one point stretched 714 miles from central Maine to Sunbury, PA.
A few years ago what remained of the Guilford was purchased by CSX which has wasted no time assimilating the line with new chaining, signals and, in this case, bridge art.
Due to the presence of hydro power, Lowell had become an early industrial hub, mostly specializing in textile production. The advent of electricity and modern logistics allowed this industry to move to more suitable locations turning Lowell into the stereotypical "gritty old mill town". In 1978 Federal money was obtained to create the Lowell National Historic Park as an urban renewal. One component of this was a heritage streetcar operation coined the "National Streetcar Museum", which I was able to visit and ride back in 2006. On this march day 20 years later the vintage streetcars weren't running, so I made do with a photo of Boston and Main 0-6-0 switcher #410, which is displayed on the streetcar platform.
Since 2006 Lowell has undergone an impressive recovery as the cost of housing in the core Boston area has exploded. Helped by the presence of UMass Lowell and MBTA service, the city is full of new development with many of the old mill buildings converted into artist lofts or new housing. This vintage service station sign was located across the street from the National Streetcar Museum.
Heading out of town my host suggested seeing the old B&M station at North Chelmsford. The trackside structure is being relocated for preservation with the wooden building already gone and the foundation marked up for disassembly. This project is likely one of CSX's "good will" gestures after taking control of neglected Guilford assets.
The MBTA Fitchburg Line station Shirley might look like something out of the 19th century, but it was actually constructed in 1993 after the station itself was reactivated in 1981 after over a decade of Fitchburg Line extensions and retrenchments. Although the minimal infrastructure gives the station a vibe similar to some of MARC's least used stations, Shirley currently serves a respectable 100+ passengers a day.
Because I had been out all day getting photos of 1940's and 50's vintage railroad signaling I hadn't really noticed that it was almost sunset when I had encountered an actual train movement in the form of a Norfolk Southern run-through freight with a former Guilford C40-8 leading a trio of NS units including SC70ACC #1807, AC44C6M #4857 and C44-9W #9928. In the 2010's NS had invested in a joint venture with the Guilford to run freight from Harrisburg to Ayer in conjunction with NS's of the former Delaware and Hudson route between Sunbury and Schenectady.
Like the last Saturday in October, the Harrisburg NRHS Chapter's annual train show now motivates me to make the drive up I-83 as it is perhaps the one reliable date when the old PRR Power Dispatch office is open to the public and I have a lot of tech oriented friends that are eager to view the whole setup. Since the PDO is reaching a steady state I assigned myself a side quest of checking on the former Reading Railroad CAPITOL tower that stands just a short distance from the Pennsylvania Railroad complex. You can find those photos in addition to Amtrak and NS freight action here. In the parking area adjacent to HARRIS tower a large group of railfans
had accumulated at the viewing wall. It turned out that the occasion was Amtrak 50th Anniversary P42DC #108 leading the eastbound Pennsylvanian.
Since parking is limited at the Harrisburg Amtrak station where the power office is located, I park by HARRIS tower and walk over. This has the benefit of providing views of whatever Keystone service equipment is hanging out at the station. On this trip Metroliner Cab Car #9641 was hanging out next to the plastic wrapped GG1 #4859 while ACS-86 #613 was standing on an adjacent track.
On the NS side of things a westbound manifest freight rolled past with C40-10W #7676 and AC44C6M #4122 leading. This was followed by westbound train of largely empty autoracks hauled by a single SD70ACC #1804.
As I said the 1939 Harrisburg Power Office has reached a steady state of
restoration with both the Westinghouse and GE SCADA panels attached to their back end relay logic that used to interface with the field substations via the code line. PRR electrification project farmed out work to both Westinghouse and GE as a condition of its government backed loans to help industry recover from the Great Depression. Although inefficient from a strictly business sense, the end result was preserving examples of each technology such that their differences can be compared. For example Westinghouse stored digit information in relays, while GE used stepper switches.
The Reading's CAPITOL tower is the largely forgotten member of the troika of Harrisburg Station area towers. Built in the late 1920's when the Reading was replacing wooden towers with mechanical interlocking machines, CAPITOL managed traffic into the Reading's small Harrisburg station complex as well as transfer movements from the PRR. CAPITOL shared a design common to many towers built across the Reading system before the shift to CTC with similar examples still standing at Wayne Jct and Newtown Jct and demolished examples having existed at Birdsboro, Norristown, Belle Meade and Perkiomen Jct (amoung others). The extended ground floor housed an air compressor plant to work the pneumatic point machines controlled by a US&S Model 14 interlocking machine similar to those at the nearby HARRIS and STATE. CAPITOL closed in the 1950's with control passed to the CTC panel at R TOWER in Rutherford Yard, however the structure was used as a relay room and radio base up into the early NS era.
The visit to CAPITOL put me in a position to catch the arrival of westbound Pennsylvanian Train #43 at the eastern end of the revised STATE interlocking. Power was P42DC #103.
That's all for now. See you next time as I head up to New Englande to get some photos on the old Guilford Rail System Downeaster Route before it was sanitized by CSX.
