21-10-14 PHOTOS: MOAPA

The National Parks are America's Best Idea, however sometimes it can be challenging to incorporate sufficient rail content into a national parks trip. During my 2021 visit to Bryce and Zion National parks in southern Utah I was able to identify a rail related point of interest in the small Nevada town of Moapa, just a mile or so off Interstate 15. Due to various circumstances I was able to finagle a stop there on both the outbound and inbound legs of the journey from Las Vegas and despite long odds, I was ultimately rewarded for my perseverance. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).


The Moapa station/siding is located on the Union pacific Caliente Sub on what used to be Amtrak's old Desert Wind route, until that service was cancelled in 1997. The siding is 384 miles from Las Angeles and I visited the northern end due to its proximity to a paved road and potential fire fuel. Although the Caliente Sub had been resignaled during the great PTC purge, the old pole line had been abandoned in place and provided some interesting visual content.

The railroad location of MOAPA is about a mile north of the town of Moapa and within spitting distance of Path 27, a 500kv HVDC power line running from Salt Lake City to the Los Angeles basin.

Because I was with non-train people I only had limited time to take some photos of the location and I was not expecting to catch a train movement. While my friend gathered wood I was treated to some A-10 Warthog ground attack aircraft flying out of nearby Nellis AFB.

Just before I was about to head out a Clear indication on the approach lit westbound mast signaled the presence of an approaching Union Pacific freight train.

It was a doublestack intermodal train led by Union Pacific SD70ACe #9048 and SD70Ms #4832 and #4543.

13-11-03 PHOTOS: BSM Antiversary

While most railfans in the Northeast were enjoying themselves on a rare millage excursion courtesy of Amtrak on the first weekend in November, 2013, a small group of non-conformists decided to sit out the festivities in Baltimore and celebrate what they considered to be a somewhat more important milestone. The Baltimore Streetcar Museum was founded in 1966, got its stuff in 1968 and started operating in 1970, so one might wonder what they would be celebrating in 2013. Well this is the 50th anniversary of the cessation of streetcar operations in Baltimore City by the Baltimore Transit Company in 1963. While celebrate might not be the right word for this unfortunate, but by no means unique event, the BSM was not going to miss the opportunity for a special shindig.

I believe that the date of the last run was on Nov 3rd, 1963, but the interesting things was that it took place around 6:30am instead of something like midnight and that was because while official scheduled service ended at the time you would expect, trolley enthusiasts had chartered a special last run car which stayed out until just before sunrise. Now I am not sure that I would count a charter as "service", but the BSM seems to and 50 years later they reenacted the event by having a simulated last run at the appointed time before continuing on with a full day of Streetcar Museuming in conjunction with a Maryland Classic Car enthusiasts group to provide additional "atmosphere".

You can find all the roadcar and streetcar photos here.

I am going to start off with this photo of a classic Baltimore Transit Company GM bus #1426 because I think the BSM missed a wonderful opportunity to have a little fun. Instead or commemorating the last run then having a normal museum day they should have converted the Baltimore Streetcar Museum into the Baltimore Bus Museum, declaring that the trolleys had been retired from service because they were too "old fashioned" or something. They then could have kept up the charade for the remainder of the day giving rides in this and other buses until some pretext brought the trolleys back.

Anyway, the coolest piece of equipment on display was this yellow 1970 Pontiac GTO. This is one of the first road cars to be outfitted with a modern solid state AC propulsion package...or at least that's that Wikipedia's disambiguation page seemed to imply. It would take over two decades before this technology made it to rail vehicles.

Here is Baltimore's very own PCC #7404 sitting out on the loop under the fall leaves and sun.

 One special treat was the car #417 was finished its restoration work and ready for limited service. #417 is the oldest operable electric streetcar in the world having been built around 1880 as a pre-electric horse car then later fitted with electric traction. Unfortunately while riding #417 I missed my chance to ride in the GM Bus :-(

Business end of #417.

1959 VW Bug.

I should know what this is, but I don't. Perhaps one of the folks who had one of these as a kid could help me.

BSM workhorse #4553 with a 1980's Corvette in the foreground.

1970's flame painted GMC van that did not happen to be a-rockin.

It was warm enough for open car #1164 to be out, seen here at the 28th St loop.

Full house on #1164.

While I didn't get to ride the evil GM Bus #1426, I did snag a few photos inside it.

One wouldn't think that a streetcar rail designed to be used in the street would present a hazard to road vehicles, but while exiting the event this Ford Falcon ripped off its oil pan and exhaust system. One of the major disadvantages to low riding.

The BSM did have two work cars on hand to tow the hapless Falcon, but there was no room in the carbarn to perform the needed repairs.

Well that's it. Next time tune in for some Thanksgiving stuff.

10-05-15 PHOTOS: Georgia Scenic Route

When traveling to Georgia from the Northeast via Amtrak one has two options. You can travel directly via Train 19, Amtrak's Crescent which leaves Washington DC a little after 5PM and travels mostly overnight arriving in Georgia at about sunrise. However there is a second option that involves catching the earlier Train 79, The Carolinian, which departs WAS around 11am and travels via the RF&P, the CSX A-Line and NS H-Line before transferring to Train 19 in Greensboro, NC after a short 6 hour layover.

This route has the added benefit of having a reverse railfan window on Train 79 so you can do more than stare out the window aimlessly and on this trip I was determined to take advantage of it despite the poor light conditions and overcast skies. For those of you scared of a little layover Greensboro has a somewhat happening downtown with a variety of non-fast food eating establishments and one of the best train stations in the Region that was re-opened in 2005 to replace an Amshack that was located away from downtown opposite a freight yard.

Normally if T79 is running on time it will meet the westbound evening Piedmont train across the platform, but on this trip there was a bit of a hiccup. Around 9am a morning Piedmont train struck a low-bow trailer that had become wedged on a grade crossing causing a spectacular derailment and completely closing the H-Line. Fortunately Amtrak was able to respond by terminating that day's Train 80 at Grensboro, Bussing the passengers to Rocky Mount, NC where they would meet my Train 79 and we would perform a little swap. The northbound passengers would take Train 79's set and we would bus past the derailment site and meet Train 80's set at Greensboro that would load up and continue south to Charlotte. Since my destination for this leg of the journey was in fact Greensboro I would be able to enjoy the re-training procedure as a spectator instead of a participant.

At the end of the day my Train 79 arrived at Rocky Mount about 30 minutes late mostly due to a police action way back in DC. The buses for folks using Train 79 past Greensboro went express right from Rocky Mount and we arrived at 7:30, 30 minutes late. So on what was my first Amtrak bustitution I ended up losing a total of 0 minutes.

Anyway. most of the 300 odd photos I took on this trip were out the back of Train 79 as it traveled on the CSX RF&P and North End subdivision. They are grainy and consist mostly of signaling so I won't really bother to showcase them here, but if you are at all interested in what these main lines look like feel free to check out the Ma href="http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/10-05-15_GEORGIA_SENIC_ROUTE/-Thumbnails.html">entire collection here. The list is in chronological order starting in DC and cover most of the signals, interlockings and bridges except for a stretch between RO and Springfield-Franconia on the RF&P.

So, let's see what we have here. A year ago MARC's old GP40-2WH's were still queen of the roost as the deliveries of MP36's were taking place. Here is #60 at Baltimore Penn Station.

After the trip down the NEC and power change at Washington Train 79 proceeds southbound here emerging from the First Street tunnels which run under Capitol Hill.

Our train crosses the Potomac River on the Long Bridge which was built in 1903. The bridge still features its PRR catenary supports and cross spans as well as the feeder cables for what was electrified freight service into Potomac Yard. The draw span on this bridge no longer operates.



At LORTON intelrocking, where Amtrak's AutoTrain accesses its northern terminal off of the RF&P Main Line, I noticed that the northbound mast signal was displaying a Restricting aspect while the switch points were reverse.

The beefy truss bridge over the Occoquan River.

The new bridge (right) at Possum Point replaces a long irritating single track viaduct (left) that served as a bottleneck on the busy line just north of Quantico, VA. The single track bridge was installed by the cash strapped RF&P in the 1980s. The new bridge provides space for a total of 3 tracks, although only one is installed at this time.

 The AutoTrain finally shows itself at about Milepost 74 (Lorton is MP 92). I guess there wasn't much traffic on the RF&P today if the dispatcher could clear the route into the terminal so far in advance.

Following a bit behind the AutoTrain was a northbound Regional.

 Today what cost thousands of Union lives is easy, crossing the Rapahannock River on a high level concrete arch viaduct at Fredericksburg.

At the Fredericksburg station VRE trains use only track #3 to the right, while Amtrak trains can platform on either track if necessary.

The small Federicksburg yard with CSX SD40-2 #8809.

South of Fredericksburg Yard my train 79 overtook a CSX local freight consisting mostly of tank cars and lead by GP38-2S (rebuilt GP40) #6151 running on track #2.



Here is a still photo taken on the curve after the successful pass.

The local freight soon caught up with us, but we had the last laugh as we were routed ahead of it at HAMILTON interlocking. HAMILTON is one of the few interlockings using classic RF&P style signals which include full speed stacked US&S H-2 searchlight dwarf signals for reverse direction moves. The RF&P was sort of a small one trick pony railroad and had to save costs wherever it cound.

It's all here in one photo, CSX #6151, the reversed crossover, new exit signal on track #4 displaying Approach Medium and the reverse direction dwarf stack.