21-06-20 PHOTOS: Haucks

In the summer of 2021 the CNJ #113 fan trip was not the only exciting steam related rail event taking place in the former coal region north of Reading, PA. The Tamaqua, PA town festival was that weekend and the Reading and Northern was making its 4-6-2 Pacific engine #425 available for runs to the Hometowm viaduct and back. After meeting up again with Kevin P and one of his friends from out of towm, we set out to South Tamaqua Yard to catch the trainset being readied for service before proceeding to the junction at Haucks, PA where #425 would pass heading to and from its destination. You can view the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

We pulled in to the South Tamaqua Yard to find RBMN SD38 #2000 and GP39RN #2532 shunting the excursion trainset into one of the yard tracks where #425 would later couple to it.

RBMN #2000, along with sibling unit #2004, are two of just 103 non-Dash 2 SD38's built by EMD around 1970. The SD38 was the six axle version of the far more popular GP38, or a 2000hp non-turbocharged version of the more popular 3000hp SD40. Take your pick.

GP39RN #2532 is one of six former ATSF/BNSF GP30u's, which were themselves rebuilt EMD GP30's from the early 1960's. Known for their snazzy automotive styling from General Motors, the GP30's originally developed 2250hp with a turbocharged EMD 567D3 engine. The rebuilt rebuilt the engine with 645E power assemblies, raising the horsepower to 2500hp.

The excursion trainset consisted of a mix of former Reading/SEPTA "Blueliner" commuter MU cars painted in a light blue Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway scheme along with a number of former Lackawanna/NJT commuter MU trailer cars built in the early 20th century.

Freshly painted RBMN GP38-2 #2011 was on hand to provide protect power for the steam hauled excursion while former NS GP38-2 #2015 waited on a nearby engine storage track.

RBMN #425 soon arrived from downtown Tamaqua with a spare tender and water tanker behind a former Reading Blueliner being used as a shoving platform.

A former Gulf, Mobile and Ohio light Pacific, #425 is the RBMN's primary steam excursion asset. A number of moves were made to set out the tank car and couple to the trainset.

21-01-16 PHOTOS: Leaman Place

With not much to do for the long MLK Day weekend in 2021, I decided to fall back on my Amtrak Harrisburg Line theme from 2020 and check out the "new" LEAMAN interlocking in Leaman Place, PA, right down the road from where the Strasburg Railroad meets the old PRR Main Line. The last time I had visited LEAMAN was in 2007, before it had been re-signaled in the general 110mph and CTC upgrade program that was completed around 2010. The trip would provide a welcome break on a dreary January Saturday with not much else to do and would offer content from Amtrak Keystone service trains as well as whatever was running on the Strasburg RR. The entire set of photos from this trip can be found here ( mirror ).

Although not accessible from local roads, the picnic area at the Strasburg Railroad's "Paradise" station can be reached by traversing adjacent corn fields. As a Strasburg excursion run arrived on the scene I noticed that another railfan had the same idea, but set up their tripod down by the Yard Limit sign. 

Strasburg #89, a former Canadian National 2-6-0 Mogul, was performing the honors with a fairly long train to give passengers the ability to spread out.

Either through happenstance or good planning, the excursion was just in time to meet an eastbound Amtrak Keystone train with Metroliner Cab Car #9640 and ACS-86 #646.

The sun made an appearance while the crew set up for the run around.

CN #89 then passed by the trainset on the siding before backing up to couple on to the opposite end.

20-02-27 PHOTOS: Garland Crossing - Part 1

While my yearly trips to Dallas are a somewhat recent occurrence, it was not my first time visiting the city. That cane in 2007 when I was in town for a professional conference and I had a number of days to ride around on the DART network and the local historic streetcar. Upon returning to Dallas I have so far traveled to Fort Worth via TRE and buzzed about the Union Station complex, but not really done any major DART trips until this year where I returned to one of my 2007 destinations, the KCS-DGNO crossing in Garland, TX as well as riding the new DART Orange Line extension to DFW Airport. Of course I did all the Union Station stuff as well so I'll probably break this up into two parts with part one being more DART and the second being more Union Station. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

After flying into Dallas Love Field (which is something one can do now), I caught a shuttle bus to the DART Green Line connection at Inwood. I arrived in time to catch LRV #141 heading outbound to New Carrolton before LRV #263 showed up heading inbound to Buckner.

As there is no through service from the Green/Orange trunk south/west of the city to Union Station on the Red/Blue trunk, one must transfer at West End. Here we see the second LRV, #247, on my Green Line consist.

 
The West End station is at least...well lit. Here two Red Line LRV's pass with LEC #233 and #242.

Some night action at Union Station with inbound a Blue Line LRV and TRE F59PH #133.

The next morning TRE F59PH #124 had replaced #122 at Dallas Union Station.

A Union Pacific rail crew was out doing some welding in DALLAS interlocking on the Dallas Sub.

13-12-26 PHOTOS: SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip XIII

So the 13th Annual SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip was built around the opening of the new Pennsauken Transportation Center which would enable direct transfer between the RiverLINE and the NJT Atlantic CityLINE. One of the hallmarks of Philly transit is that most lines cross over and connect with other lines allowing for a large number of "circle" style types and MWT 13 would combine this newest circle with two of the more well worn ones.

The basic schedule was as follows. We would begin with a trip out on a Rt 13 trolley to Darby and then return on a Rt 11 with a stop off at the famous CSX/SEPTA grade crossing. From there it was back to 30th Street Station where we picked up the NJT ACL train to the new Pennsauken Transfer. The connection to the RiverLINE was a bit tight and some of the participants who happened to bring small children got left behind, but due to a surplus of time the advance section of the trip returned to and picked them up. After a brief trip back across the river on PATCO we had lunch then made a Broad Street Subway loop to Fern Rock, returning to City Hall for a transfer to the MFL which we took to 69th St in order to transfer to a Rt 100 car to Bryn Mawr. Finally we took a walking transfer to the Bryn Mawr R5 station for a photo op before returning on an R5.

If that was a bit confusing here is a little map.

If you are interested in the full set of photos you can find them here

As always the MWT tries to kick itself off with an informal trip on PATCO for those who can be bothered to roust themselves out of bed in the morning. I have been wanting to capture a railfan window video of an express run in from Lindenwold and MWT 12's attempt was a bit rainy. This year there wasn't any rain, but being 8am in December it was of course cold and grey. Still, if you have 20 minutes check out the whole thing and if you don't just watch the express portions.



Skipping ahead to the Yeadon loop we find SEPTA K-Car #9029 which had just dropped us off after a trip from downtown. Only a few Rt 13 trolleys continue through all the way to the Darby TC, but we didn't mind the transfer as it allowed for more photo ops.

Trolley bunching with #9040 pulling into the Yeadow loop and #9021 continuing to Darby TC.

K-Cars #9062 and #9011 hanging out at the Darby loop/Transportation Centre.

The level crossing between the Route 11 and the CSX Philly Sub is still conducting its ongoing experiment with metal fatigue, but the replacement of the traditional diamonds with flange riding diamonds did not seem to fix the problems with localized pavement subsidence.

BTW note this is 5'2.5" PA trolley gauge crossing standard gauge tracks.

Here we see K-Car #9045 approaching the crossing.

Provide some of the sounds and sights of trolleys crossing the big boy railroad tracks I switched to shooting videos that I then arranged into a little montage.



Using the converted semaphore signal as a foreground prop we took an early group photo since some of the people would need to leave early. No need to enumerate everybody since you know who you are ;-)

10-10-10 PHOTOS: Athens Crossing

My trip to Georgia in October 2010 didn't end with a lackluster ride on Amtrak. Here in Part 2 we will examine some notable points of interest in the Athens, GA area located along the CSX Abbeville Sub, which is the former Seaboard Air Line route between Wilmington, NC and Atlanta, GA. This line is cleared for double stacks and also sees a significant amount of Autorack traffic so there are usually a good number of freight trains hanging around and to put a cherry on top the line was re-signaled in the 1980's with classic US&S colour light signaling.

Today's trip will focus on three main areas. The first is the diamond crossing between the Abbeville Sub and the former Central of Georgia branch to Lima. Second is the MP 511 intermediate signal that I have featured in the past and third are the MP 515 and 517 intermediate signals that I went on a little road trip to document.

You can locate the entire set of photos right here.

I'll kick things off with a video taken at the MP 511 automatic showing a short doublestack container train heading north on the Abbeville Sub lead by ES44AC #759 and C40-8W #7873.



Here we watch as a southbound doublestack train pounds the insulated rail joint at the 511 automatic. That train was lead by C40-8W #7715.



Next we move downtown where we see CSX GP38-2 #2768 sitting across from the old Athens Station on an industrial siding.

The old station building itself is pretty impressive and today is used as a CSX maintenance and crew base.

The crossing with the CofG is non-interlocked, relying on electrically locked derails on the former CofG line and Rule 293 "Stop and Check" signals on the Abbeville Sub. Beyond the crossing is a long viaduct over Sandy Creek.

A signal equipped with a (C) plate means that when displaying an all red indication, Rule 293, Stop and Check, applies instead of Rule 292 Stop or Rule 291 Stop and Proceed. Trains making a stop and check must...stop and....check that the derails or movable bridges the signal is attached to are in their properly locked position. In this case if the derails on the CofG line are in the proper place it is safe to proceed over the crossing at Restricted speed. Here we see the southbound mast signal equipped with the appropriate (C) plate.

The SAL/CofG diamond has since been fitted with flange riding crossings to eliminate the maintenance intensive and speed reducing flangeway gaps on the main line. Similar to the Darby Rt 11 crossing this shows you do not need a sharp angle to make flange riding diamonds work.

One good thing about the crossing was that unlike the other interlockings and block signals, these were not approach lit. Unfortunately that also meant that just because traffic was flipped and one of the signals displayed a Clear indication a train was not necessarily approaching.

The Abbeville Sub is easy to railfan because a good deal of it parallels the Atlanta Highway so it was not hard to find and photograph the intermediate block signals such as this one at Milepost 518. Here you can see the US&S style N cast iron integrated color light units which were dropped from production for their current line of modular stack signals. This intermediate signal is also the southbound distant for the siding at HARPER.

At the Milepost 515 intermediate I was quite fortunate to have the southbound signal light up indicate an approaching train.

This turned out to be a mixed freight with another C40-8W #7809 and followed by C40-8 #7571 and SD40-2 #8020