14-04-28 PHOTOS: Southern Midland

You all should know the deal by now. When I post up some A-Line photos the next set will be Southern Railway photos, often from the trip back up north. This post will be no different, but due to a lack of material caused by Amtrak leaving baggage cars on the rear I'll also be including some photos taken upon my arrival in Gainesville, GA. You can find all the photos in this set here

We begin with my train, Amtrak's Train 19, the Crescent, departing Gainesville, GA for points south. The train waits a few seconds for a more favorable signal indication at MIDLAND interlocking as local light engine move caused the dispatcher to wait and see how late Train 19 would be before setting a route. Upon completing its station work the NS dispatcher lined the route here and at the next interlocking causing the signal at MIDLAND to change from Approach to Approach Diverging.



Hanging out outside the Gainesville station at 7am in the morning was C40-8W #8384 and C40-9W #90233.

A pair of dragging equipment detectors were waiting on the public delivery platform at the station, waiting to be installed.

A trip of NS SD40-2s #3428 and #3526 with SD40E #6345 run light through MIDLAND interlocking just south of the Gainesville, GA Amtrak station. I think 3428 has a bit of a sick horn.


MIDLAND interlocking is on tap to be re-signaled along with its southern era cantilever mast.

MIDLAND interlocking used to involve a diamond crossing with some local short line. The diamonds have long been removed, but the power derail and ancient GRS model 5 switch machine remain in place. Weird.

Do to a re-signaling effort on the Abbeville Sub my favourite (aka most accessible) signaling location has been removed completely due to CSX's desire to eliminate a signaling block after they spliced in a new interlocking about 5 years ago. The new location is about a half mile to the south. 

CSX AC4400 #117 and ES44AC #3095 passing the removed MP 510 automatic signal location in Bogart, GA with a doublestack imtermodal train.


Night shot of NS SD70M-2 #2760 at Gainesville.

NS SD40-2 #3526 with some friends sitting on main track #1 at Gainesville.

 #3526 and friends making some noise as they hang out at Gainesville, GA.


NS SD40-2 #3532 blocking a crossing next to the Gainesville, Amtrak Station.

NS SD40E (former SD50) sitting on main track #1 at the Gainesville Amtrak Station.

One additional NS SD40-2 #3369 hanging out on a proper engine storage track at Gainesville, GA.

Amtrak Train 20, the Northbound Crescent, arriving at Gainesville, GA with P42DC's #72 and #118.


MARC HHP-8 #4913 with new Amtrak ACS-86 #601 and an unitentified AEM-7 all side-by-side on the lower level of Washington, DC's Union Station.

P42DC #72 about to be pulled off Train 20 and swapped with an electric.

14-04-24 PHOTOS: A-Line Scraps

It is once again time to head down the Eastern Seaboard Coast to visit my friend in Georgia. For those of you who are unaware the process involves a daylight trip on Amtrak Train 79, the Carolinian, all the way to Greensboro, NC where I then change to Train 19, the Crescent, to complete the trip down to Gainesville, GA. This year there was a bit of a hiccup in that my Train 79 was suffering an initial delay of almost an hour which would not be made up throughout the course of the trip. This gave me a little extra time to take videos of the non-delayed trains passing me by at Baltimore's Penn Station.

If you want to see the whole set of photos they are located here

We begin with AEM-7 #928 arriving with a southbound Regional.

A little while later northbound Acela Express lead by power car 2005 arrived on the opposite track.


After that a southbound MARC local departed from Track 5 with MP36PH-3C #29 pushing.

I was waiting for a while as eventually another northbound Acela turned up with power car #2035.

As this departed it passed my late arriving train 79 with AEM-7 #910 just north of the platforms. Once on the road Amtrak dropped us behind a MARC local train which cost us another 17 minutes.


In DC the lineup of P42DC's waiting on power change duty included #48, #71 and #115.

#1750 was our Heritage baggage car this day.

On the lower level of DC's Union Station Train 79 exchanged AEM-7 #910 for P42DC #139. While shooting that video a northbound Regional with P42DC #117 arrived on the adjacent track.

14-03-21 PHOTOS: Valley Campaign

Well over the last year I seem to have been retracing a lot of Civil War history first with my visit to tidewater Virginia last July and just this March with a visit to the Shenandoah Valley. The former was one of those "free" time share weekends and one of the inducements was a free 3 night stay in the Shenandoah National Park area which made the second trip possible. Now March isn't one of the more popular months to visit the park, but thanks to the cold spring and a snow story that closed parts of Skyline Drive, my friend and I at time wound up having almost the entire National Park to ourselves. Without the notorious summer and leaf season traffic jams to content with we were able to drive the 105 mile length of Skyline drive three complete times over the 4 days we were there.

Before, after and in between our visit to the park we also made numerous railfan stops along the NS Shenandoah Branch and the C&O Washington Branch, which is home to Amtrak's Cardinal. We even managed to run into several actual trains, which was good because I am sure that not many of you would be interested in seeing the best of 1100 signal related photos. Of course if you are you can can find them here

The first stop was Shenandoah Junction on the NS Shenandoah Branch that runs between Roanoke, VA and Hageratown, MD. This line still has quite a few classic N&W color position lights along it as when it was resignaled about 10 years ago railroads still bothered to save $$ by cutting the old signals into the new interlocking equipment. Shenandoah Junction was a once busy interchange point between the N&W and B&O that was made largely redundant by the mergers of the past 25 years.

Next stop was the junction between the Shenandoah Branch and the former Southern "B-Line" at Front Royal, VA. Today this is part of the primary NS freight route between the Northeast and the South. Trains turn west off the Southern Main Line at Mananas, VA then head to Front Royal where they turn north again to Hagerstown where they enter former Conrail/Reading RR trackage to Harrisburg and Reading before finally going to either NY or Philly. The route is far less direct than the one CSX has access to that basically parallels the NEC. Here we can see the wye connection between the B-Line and the Shenandoah Branch off to the right, while the old Southern line to Strasburg, VA continues on over the diamond.

 Here is the former N&W bridge over the Shenandoah River at Front Royal. You can see how the default route leads to the B-Line as most traffic heads towards the Southern Main to Atlanta while only a handful still use the N&W line between here and Roanoke.

 Until 1990 Strasburg was a major interchange point between the former Southern system and the B&O. However the NS and CSX mergers eventually made this service plan obsolete so now the west end of the B-Line sees only sporadic local traffic. This resulted in a flange riding diamond being installed across the Shenandoah Branch.

I was lucky enough to catch a train while hanging out at Front Royal. Here NS C40-10W #7602 heads down the N&W line with a train of mixed freight.

Newly rebuilt SD60E #6960 was following behind as seen here in this video of the train as it pounds the Southern diamonds.


The N&W Shenandoah River bridge as seen from the side.

While the weather was a bit cold it did have some advantages like these cool clouds blowing across the Blue Ridge in Shenandoah National Park. This was shot just south of the US entrance.


When you have a National Park to yourself you can just stop on the main road and take pictures of wildlife without pissing other people off.



These deer weren't in the park, but were right outside the hotel place we were staying at.



Mid-day railfanning break on Day 2. This is VAUGHN interlocking, south end of a signaled siding on the Shenandoah Branch.

At the other end of the siding, SUMMIT interlocking, I caught wind of an approaching train as the southbound N&W PL mast signal was displaying Approach.

Sure enough a light engine move with NS C44-9W #9944 and SD70M-2 #2680 passed by a few minutes later.

14-03-15 PHOTOS: Winter Roundup

The first third of the year is normally my slow season for photos. Not sure why, but usually its because I am not planning any major trips anywhere and also its cold and grey and wet out so there's no much opportunity for good photos. This year wasn't much different, but I did get a few dribs and drabs in over the months so I am jamming them together into a single post.

We start off in January where I was left with some time to kill while a friend rode his horse. Fortunately he was riding next to the former B&O Old Main Line and I had enough time to run down and catch some CSX action. The OML is popular with coal trains headed to/from the Port of Baltimore and Hazmats bypassing DC.

Here in the first video a pair of CSX AC4400's #135 and #44 lead an eastbound coal train past the Milepost 36 automatic signal with ES44AH #727 and AC4400 #491 helping on the rear.



Still photo of #727 and #491 helping on the rear.

A few minutes later a westbound train of empties appeared with CSX AC4400's #6 and #373 leading.

Video of that train as well.



During a trip over President's Weekend I stopped by DAVIS interlocking in Newark, DE and got this photo of a southbound Regional headed by Amtrak HHP-8 #653.

Over by the new Newark station a short NS freight was preparing to head out of the old Chrysler Yard with NS C40-10W #7557 providing the power.

14-02-08 PHOTOS: Hudson Snow

Every February I travel with a friend to the Capitol District of New York in order to spend a day skiing at Gore Mountain and then watch the Engineers of RPI take on some other northeastern NCAA Division I men's ice hockey team in the Big Red Freakout. This trip is naturally done via Amtrak's Empire service and also involves a good helping of supplementary railfanning via car in the capitol region.

Unfortunately due to a severe oil leak I was unable to complete all of the initially planned railfanning activities, but I still got a few in. If you are interested in everything you can see it here

We begin with a shot of HUDSON tower covered in snow from the constant parade of snow storms that hit the Northeast this season.

North of NYC we have a view of the soon to be demolished Tappen Zee bridge from the side window of an Amtrak Empire train.

MNRR M3 pair 8037 and 8038 sitting at Harmon yard.

Snow covered Amfleet on the rear of a Niagara Falls bound regional sitting next to P32AC-DM #717 at the Joe Bruno Albany-Rensselaer rail station.

Snow covered CP-142 still waiting to be rebuilt.

Track facing side of the NY State Senate President Joe Bruno Albany-Rensselaer Rail Station.

Old school searchlights on a new school gantry structure at CPO-1 on the former D&H Colonie Sub in Albany. This is situated at the north end of the D&H Albany yard in downtown Albany.

The connecting track from the Albany Yard up to the former NYC passenger line doesn't see much use. The connecting track runs about a quarter mile from CPO-1 to CP-145. 

Duo of Guilford Rail System SD40-2's (#601 and #616) with HLCX lease unit #8147.

Short video of the units making some noise.


North end of Mohawk Yard and CPF-483 along side HLCX #8147.

Here we see the searchlight distant signal to CPF-477 on the Rotterdam Junction secondary track where it crosses Blue Barns Rd at Burnt Hills. This track allowed the D&H to interchange with the NY Central's Selkirk Yard freight bypass at Rotterdam Junction (CP-RJ).

We'll finish up with a view of the new 1 WTC as seen from across the Jersey Meadowlands.

BTW if anyone is interested RPI won the game against Brown.

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 ;-)

13-12-22 PHOTOS: Nostalgia Day

After a...one, year absence I returned with much fanfare to the premier holiday event in the New York City Area, that's right, the Holiday Nostalgia Train. By now everyone here should know the details. Train of R1/9's running between 2nd Ave and Queens Plaza on a (V) (M), yaddie yaddie yadda. What really surprised me after my absence was 1) how much more crowded things were even at 10am when usually one could have a bit of personal space and 2) he seems to have been taken over by 1930's cosplayers who are either in the Steampunk set or the Hipster set...I couldn't tell.

Anyway, I didn't come all the way to NYC just to go and fight with people for space at the railfan window. This year I had a bit of a secondary mission planned in that I would visit and document the 51/52 automatic signal bridge on the LIRR Main Line just south of the Woodhaven Blvd station. Assisting me with both the Nostalgia Train and the LIRR excursion was fellow Subchatter and Nuclear Power gadfly, Phil Nasadowski.

All the photos of the Arnies and the Posities can be found here.

I begin my day at Chambers St where I shot a video montage of A, C and E trains until a northbound R32 trainset arrived to transport me to W. 4th St.


I eventually made my way to 2nd Ave where the Nostalgia Train arrived a bit later than it had in years past allowing only a few minutes before its 10:02 departure.


Even on the first trip of the last day some transit museum busy body violated the First Come First Serve system to let a bunch of kids stand at the front window and what was worse was that a number of parents used their little fuck trophies as shims to snag the remaining video capable positions so the best I could get on the northbound trip was this shot of the train relaying at Queens Plaza.


Here is the accompanying still.

At this point it was time to hit the LIRR. At the risk of spoiling the next few photos there were many trains, but they were all just plain old boring M7s. I swear they must be part of some MTA plot to deter photography.

There was this strange pattern of constant trains for 20 or so minutes, then nothing for 40.

Since all the trains looked the same I stopped taking pictures and just went with a video montage.


Arriving back at the station in time for the next southbound departure the Nostalgia train appeared to be experiencing some delays, but eventually showed up.


Due to the aforementioned problems with the front window I settled for an uninterrupted rear window video when I eventually got back to Queens Plaza.


Back at 2nd Ave I finally managed to get a proper still portrait of car #100.

Around the conductors position some of the better cosplayers had attracted a literal photo mob.

On the rear car of the train some joker had hung a CTA destination sign on car #1300.

I actually bothered to record a full walk through the train and then back up along the platform to capture the crazy mood of the whole event.


On board the train I caught this guy giving Phil's Bolex a run for its money with a 1950's Polaroid equipped with a flash that could send King Kong on a rampage.

On the trip back to W4th St I hung out at the conductor's station to grab some video of the classic method of door operation.


Conductor hanging out between cars #1802 and #1000.

In our parting shot we see the conductor closing up at W4th and watching out to make sure that nobody is being dragged.


Well thanks for watching and tune in next time for my coverage of SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip XIII.