Railfanning 4-29-10

Hi, As yesterday was supposed to be, and turned out to be, a beautiful day friend Dale Jacobson and I decided to head for Hagerstown, MD to see what we could find. About 45 minutes after we arrived #211 came into town followed by #11R. Train #211 now seems to be mostly stacks, which was surprising as it used to be a TOFC/COFC train. Train #11R comes off the CP in Harrisburg, PA.


After photographing these 2 trains we elected to go looking for the Winchester & Western train which normally arrives in Hagerstown in the late morning. We found it about 4 miles from the yard with a high hood geep leading. The trailing unit, the railroad's only slug with a cab, was a pleasant surprise and we decided to photograph the train when it returned south.



The locomotives dropped their inbound train of some 30 cars but had only 2 cars to take home with them. The following photos were taken between Hagerstown, MD and Martinsburg, WV, where we ended our chase as we felt there were no interesting locations south of here.




As it was about 3:00 PM when we broke off the chase we decided to move east to Brunswick, MD in the hope of catching one of MARC's new MP36's on a train. When we arrived there and checked the MARC schedule we learned that the first rush hour train was scheduled to arrive at Point of Rocks, MD in about 20 minutes so we headed there. However, first up was CSX's Frederick Local.
Next was a MARC commuter train. Although we saw four trains and heard one more, none had an MP36. Oh well.

Our second commuter train photograph was at Dickerson,

and our third was just east of the Barnesville station.

We thought it was a very good day. I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Trains in Belgium and Holland

Hi, My wife Ruthe and I visited Belgium and Holland on a river cruise a few weeks ago. We departed on April 6 and were scheduled to return on April 17. However, due to the situation with the volcanic ash we were delayed for a week in Europe but were able to stay aboard our ship. I did get some time to take train/tram photos. What follows is a selection of these photos.

Even outlying stations are significant. Enkhuizen is a double track terminal with a head building. The train in the station is called an Intercity and seems to be similar to Amtrak's Northeast Regional service.

The station at Horn is larger. The train on the left is another Intercity departing. On the right is a commuter train, also departing. There is an electric motor pushing on the other end.


While we were in Horn we rode a steam excursion train. It was nice to be able to peer into people's backyards along the route and the view the rural scenery in a relaxed manner. The cars had wooden seats. All of the personnel, including this conductor, are volunteers.

A railfan in the making?



The big show was in Amsterdam. The ship was docked within a short walk of the station and I took advantage of this twice. Here an ICE train arrives from Germany.


A commuter train and an Intercity arrive simultaneously. The commuter train pictured is labeled Sprinter.


Another commuter train.


This is a Thalys train. It operates between Paris and Brussels, and Paris and Cologne. It is owned by SCNF (French National Railroads), Belgium National Railroads, and Deutsche Bahn (German National Railroads).







Two intercity train sets were painted to promote the Olympics.


The station in Amsterdam is a transit hub. On the river side is a ferry terminal and bus station. On the land side more buses call and there is major tram stop served by at least a dozen routes.




All large European cities have tram systems. The next 4 images were taken in Antwerp.




Finally, the 2 final images in this post were taken in Rotterdam.


I hope you enjoyed the photos. Bob