The Mattapan PCC's are perhaps the crown jewel in Boston's railfanning scene featuring un-reconstructed streetcars that have been in continuous service since the 1940's. Operating as an extension of the Red Line subway, the 2.6 mile Mattapan branch connects the Mattapan Square transit hub with the Red Line terminus at Ashmont. Therefore it is rather surprising that the last time I had ridden the line was all the way back in 2008 despite visiting the Boston area at least once or twice per year. A part of this gap may have been due to the extra fare it costs to transfer to the Mattapan Line, although more recently Boston has had a bunch of more pressing retirements such as the trolleybus network and the Orange Line's 1980 stock. Anyway, in 2024 I made a point to rectify this oversight and reserved a morning of my winter Boston trip to ride the Mattapan Line. This post will contain the still photos ( mirror )while video content will be in a follow-up post.
While I had originally been booked on a mid-morning Acela, the season's first cold snap disabled many of the increasingly worn out trainsets so I was forced onto the second run of the day, departing Washington Union Station before dawn. The rear power car was #2028 and it was stabled adjacent to ACS-86 #620 on track #20.
Passing ACS-86 #612 underneath Penn Station New York.
Passing MBTA 1800-series cab car #1838 in the Southwest Corridor trench.
My trainset's lead power car was #2007.
The next morning I set out early from downtown transferring at JFK-UMASS from a Braintree to an Ashmont train after having taken the opportunity to rice a train of classic Red Line stock led by c.1970 Pullman Standard 01600 series car #01644. I can never get over how British these look.
On the same platform I happened to catch the lead car of the 01800 series. This order of cars from Bombardier replaced the remaining 01400 series cars from 1963.
Finally arriving in Ashmont, my train gets a lineup into the yard. The Ashmont branch used to be a New Haven RR commuter rail line up through the 1920's and until the PCC loop was rebuilt in the 2000's, featured a period interlocking tower from when the line was first converted to rapid transit use.
Up through the mid-2000's the Ashmont PCC loop was at the same grade level as the Red Line faregates with an elevated flyover at the north end of the trainshed-like station. As part of the rebuild the PCC loop was moved to the south and completely elevated. One of my very first rail videos is of a Mattapan PCC squealing around this loop.
It didn't take long for PCC car #3268 to arrive and climb the ramp up to the loop.
On the outbound run my run passed PCC car #3087 at Milton on a crew training run and #3265 at Central Ave providing 10 minute peak period service. While I was out one of the two PCC's pulled into the shoppe increasing headways to a lackluster 20 minutes.
The 23rd installment of my annual SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip was constructed around the new R3 Wawa service and taking the Route 13 streetcar to the Yeadon Loop, two specific activities that had as of yet not been attempted on this transit riding series. After lunch at Reading Terminal Market, the afternoon consisted of a round trip on the R5 to Lansdale, with a transfer to the Broad Street Line at Fern Rock for the customary express ride back to Centre City. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ) and stay tuned for an additional video post.
For my the trip started at the Woodcrest PATCO park n ride. However unlike years past there would be no express runs on offer so I just headed downtown on the first available train, which turned out to have rebuilt car #1032 leading.
After getting everyone together at Market East, we proceeded to the PRR-bound platform to catch an R3 to the new Wawa station. At some point SEPTA Silverliner V #703 made an appearance, however our train to Wawa would consist of Silverliners IV.
Although the station had opened in 2022, the SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip XXI had already visited the old Elwyn terminal and I didn't want to have back-to-back years riding the full length of the R3 so I deferred this particular destination to 2023. Here we see the morning crew posing with SEPTA Silverliner IV #351 at the new Wawa station platform.
After a 20 minute layover we got back on the same set of Silverliners IV and proceeded to the Clinton-Alden stop to a Route 102 transfer. Here Silverliner IV #138 departs towards Centre City.
After a block walk to the vintage Route 102 Clifton-Alden suburban trolley shelter, we boarded K-Car #121 for the ride to 69th St.
Passing Route 102 K-car #115 near Drexel Hill Jct.
SEPTA Suburban K-car #121 after arrival at 69th St.
Down on the Market-Frankford Line platforms an inbound train led by M-4 car #1131, rounds the loop to platform on track #3 for the return run.
Here we have the videos that go with my main Baltimore Metro Subway post. Due to the impending replacement of the Budd built Universal Transit Vehicle's, I made time to take a round trip from Owings Mills to Johns Hopkins Hospital and back. Taking video through the forward facing windows, each trip was divided into two parts with the break taking place at West Cold Springs.
The line features manual operation with cab signal based automatic train control using speeds of 0, 12, 20, 40, 50, 60 and 70mph. The above ground section sees main line speeds of 50, 60 and 70mph with the 70mph taking place in the interstate 795 median between Owings Mills and Old Court. The Metro Subway yard complex is located between Reisterstown and Rodgers Ave.
The tunnel section sees speeds of mostly 40 and 50mph.
While at Johns Hopkins I got a pair of videos of UTV trains departing and arriving. The UTV stock makes use of DC chopper type propulsion systems.
The return trip was largely uneventful, but provided a different perspective.
That's all for my Baltimore Metro Subway experience. I'll be back shortly with photos from ZOO interlocking's 36th St Jct.
Every time the DC Metro opens one or more new stations they give out promotional pennants. The last two were fairly major consisting of the Silver Line phases 1 and 2. However infill stations also count and in May of 2023 the Metro opened its last new station for the foreseeable future, Potomac Yard (or Potomac Yards if one happens to be from Baltimore). Located between the Pentagon and downtown Alexandria, VA, the Potomac Yard is located on the site of the former RF&P rail yard of the same name where Pennsylvania Railroad and Conrail freight trains from the NEC would forward their carloads to either the RF&P or Southern Railway for destinations in the south. Ultimately railroad consolidation made this practice unnecessary and Potomac Yard the railroad yard ceased to be a thing in the mid-1990's. The availability of Potomac Yard for development happened to coincide with Northern Virginia's economic boom and in the 2010's plans by Amazon and other tech companies to build out the former Potomac Yard site spurred the need for direct DC Metro rail service. You can check out my photos of the opening day festivities here ( mirror ).
The DC Metro is known to open some of its new stations at odd times with Silver Line Phase 2 opening at 2pm on a Tuesday. However unlike both Silver Line phases, Potomac Yard did not have a mid-day ribbon cutting with an official first train. It would open with the regular start of service on Friday May 19th. Because there was no way (or incentive) for me to get there for the pre-dawn first train, I picked an appropriately early MARC commuter train, led by Kab Kar #7856 at the Halethorpe station, to get me to DC in time to hopefully get a station pennant before supplies ran out.
To get to the new Potomac Yard station I would take the Read Line from Union to Gallery Place and then transfer to a Yellow Line. While waiting for the latter here is a photo of WMATA 6k car #6098 on a Green Line routing at Gallery Place.
For much of the previous year the DC Metro's Long, aka Fenwick Bridge over the Potomac River was closed for repairs, resulting in the temporary elimination of the Yellow Line. The bridge had re-opened in time for the Potomac Yard inauguration and I got this forward looking video document whatever work had been carried out.
Although I wasn't on any sort of official first train, I still grabbed some video of my own personal first arrival at Potomac Yard with this southbound car view video starting at National Airport.
The new station is a pretty basic side platform affair with a new crossover and direct fixation track. Potomac Yard is on the Blue Yellow concurrency so there was a pretty constant stream of trains. The arrival board made use of LCD screens instead of LED dot matrix displays.
While most were 3k and 6k trains, like #3004 below, a few of the 76-car 2k fleet, like #2066, was still running around due to lingering issues with the 7k wheelsets.
The station has a single point of entry and exit at the north end, which results in a long walk for anyone getting on or off at the southern end of the train. Here 6k car #6168 sits under the north end mezzanine.
I was joined on the opening day festivities by Sandbox John, who had attended every Metro opening since day one, and even appeared on a pre-opening promotional film. Unfortunately he neglected to collect the pennants early in his streak and therefore lacks a complete set.
The old C-line right of way had already been planted over for visual remediation. Because the station was on park service property, a lot of work was put into the aesthetics of the station. This contributed heavily to the $300 million cost. The station does contain a "secret" exit to the adjacent Potomac bike trail via two elevators from the mezzanine outside of fare control.
Of course the 7k cars were out and about, but their proportion was still lagging due to the ongoing wheelset repairs.
Because the new station would create additional power draw from acceleration and deceleration, the existing substation was expanded with two new transformers.
As the LIRR steps up its efforts to replace its position light signals with Metro-North-like dwarfs I scheduled a trip up to NYC to visit the new Elmont station that conveniently provided a vantage point from which I could photograph more parts of QUEENS interlocking, that was in the midst of bring reconfigured for the Main Line Third Track Project. An additional plan to travel out on the Port Washington branch was thwarted by another re-signaling project being completed so instead I took the 7 line out to Willets Point for Corona Yard and LIRR photos there. The full set of photos can be found here ( mirror ).
My day got off to a bang with my first ever ride on an LIRR M9, #9034 to be exact. As expected the UX was no different than an M7 with the same union-friendly blind cab doors. Maybe I'll finally get something better with the M11's in 2040.
Pulling into Jamaica I spotted a train of M3's adjacent to JAY tower.
LIRR M7's #7366 and #7848 passing in JAY interlocking.
LIRR M7 #7595 and #7492 at Jamaica Station.
HALL tower and M7's #7573 and #7727 passing in HALL interlocking.
LIRR MP15AC #165 on one of the HALL storage tracks.
LIRR DE30 #423 passing through HALL's eastern approaches en route to Jamaica.
Due to the lack of Elmont service outside of events I got off and Queens Village and walked the remaining distance. Even if trains had been stopping I would have been inclined to do the same since Elmont is across the border with Nassau County where my $5 ShittyTicket wouldn't apply. Here is a video of my outbound LIRR M7 train departing Elmont and heading through QUEENS interlocking towards Hempstead.
QUEENS interlocking is the junction where the Hempstead branch and Belmont spur split from the Main Line to Hicksville and points east. Until recently this involved a 4-track wb local-wb express-eb express-eb local configuration turning into an wb Main eb Main wb Hempstead eb Hempstead via a series of 80mph high speed turnouts that were installed when the QUEENS tower was first re-signaled in 2005. Looking west from the Elmont ADA overpass we can see two of the 2005 HST's as well as the old QUEENS medium speed crossovers used by Belmont and some westbound Hempstead trains.
The Elmont station was a political project championed by Governor Cuomo as an alternative to direct service to the UBS Arena via the Belmont Spur. It's placement in the middle of QUEENS interlocking and the new crossovers needed for Hempstead locals to serve the Elmont platforms resulted in there being insufficient space for a new set of 80mph HST's planned to support the new Main Line 3rd track. As a result new standard speed crossovers were installed and the #3 Signal Bridge was replaced by ground mounted signals due to altered switch locations.
The silver lining is that the Elmont platform provides a photo vantage point for the previously inaccessible westbound position light cantilevers that were installed in 2005.
In July of 2014, the Washington DC Metro (WMATA) debuted the first phase of its Silver Line to Dulles Airport and Loudon County and I was on the first non-VIP westbound train to depart West Falls Church. Eight years later it was finally time to open the second phase and despite a poorly chosen schedule and awful weather I managed the same feat except I managed to get on the VIP train. To learn the story you can read on or check out the full gallery here ( mirror ).
In 2014, the first phase opening was scheduled for a weekend morning which made it pretty easy to attend. Unfortunately the phase 2 opening was set for the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, which required me having to leave work early and make and catch a train with 7k car #7694 at Greenbelt.
Pacing a CSX intermodal train on the adjacent Capitol Sub west of Greenbelt.
The on board maps had already been updated. The phase 2 segment would open a total of six stations between Wiehle-Reston and Ashburn including flagship stop at Dulles International Airport.
The other problem was the absolutely abysmal weather. Mid-November is always cool, but this day was outright cold with a miserable drizzle that never let up and blocked the waning late afternoon sun. Here we find 6k car #6120 that due to service cutbacks wound up leading the final "Phase 1" arrival at Wiehle-Reston.
The plan for a VIP train to depart Wiehle-Reston at the proscribed time and run express to Ashburn at which the first two revenue trains would begin their journeys. As you can see here the Ashburn express is showing on the track #2 departure board, however the "classic style" 6k trainset was occupying track #2.
Of course the Metro brass wasn't going to put the VIP's on a "classic" style train and I think the plan was to pull the 6k into the pocket and replace it with another 7k set, but then the VIP ceremony was delayed by about 20 minutes and the decision was made to use the 7k set led by #7646 on track 1 and cross it over via the Wiehle-Reston pocket track.
The VIP train, dubbed the Silver Ticket Express, was intended for both VIPs and a group of 50 regular riders chosen by lottery. I had been expecting a degree of access control, but when the ribbon-cutting participants finished up with their thing and marched down to the platform, the 7k train on track #1 was just sitting there with all of its doors open like any other. Being announced as "Ashburn express departing on track #1" I decided to just get on the front car that was only populated by a pair of "winning" railfans.
Although one of the two fans was able to finagle his GoPro up on the front window I did my best to document the express run zooming through both front windows. The results weren't great due to the rain, but I still managed to capture the express-ness. Unfortunately the train had to reduce speed through the stations and was held to 45mph to reach Ashburn on schedule.
