Railfanning 5-12 & 13 -11

Hi, Friend Dale Diacont spent a day and a half railfanning last week in the DC area. We began Thursday afternoon at Point of Rocks, MD on CSX's Metropolitan Sub about 2:30 PM. Shortly after our arrival Q217 came off the Old Main Line Sub and headed west.

After Q217 passed we relocated back to the station. Just east of the station a CSX Track Test car was parked.

Next up was empty coal hoppers on train E726, again coming off the Old Main Line Sub.

Almost an hour later E721 passed the station, again westbound off the Old Main Line Sub.

Just after E721 cleared loaded coal train U825 went east on the Old Main Line Sub with an SD70MAC and an SD70Ace pushing.

Before the commuter rush began B211 returned to Brunswick with containers of incinerator ash from the Dickerson recycling plant. I believe the ash is going to a landfill in Ohio.

The first MARC train of the day was #871.



Shortly after #891 took the east leg of the wye toward Frederick, MD.

A GP39 was trailing.

We then moved to Brunswick where a number of eastbound coal trains were staged. This one is sitting on one of the normally westbound tracks.

Interspersed with the westbound commuter trains was Q249,

followed closely by #875.

After the passengers detrained from #875 it backed into the coach yard.

Our last train was #879.

The next day we were joined by friend Dale Jacobson. Our first stop was at Harmans, MD. On a sunny day this would be an afternoon shot. Both trains are headed for Baltimore.


After a couple of trains at Harmans we headed to Annapolis Junction. As we arrived we heard Q702 approaching.

Q702 was closely followed by Q226. After these 2 trains cleared Q249 departed Jessup Yard (below).

After lunch we explored around Penn Mary Yard and the Sparrows Point steel mill. However, nothing was happening so we returned to Harmans. This Amtrak regional will arrive in Washington in about 1/2 hour.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Railfanning 4-29-11

Hi, Friend Dale Jacobson and I headed up to Hagerstown, MD on Friday as the weather forecast called for partly cloudy. Unfortunately the forecast was wrong. So we decided not to bother with the Winchester and Western and instead see what else we could find. As it looked like the clouds were rapidly moving east (it was beautiful when we left Rockville) it seemed best to just stay along NS north of Hagerstown.

Our first stop was Marion, PA. However, Dale has a real interest in exploring and a knack for it too. There was a signal about a mile south and Dale wanted to see if we could find it. So we headed south to see where the road next to the track would take us. It took us to Kauffman, PA and from there another road we found ran along the east side of the track to this open area, and the signal hidden behind train #228.

After hanging around for awhile we returned to Marion where we heard #37Q on the radio so we waited to get this photo.

Next we headed further north to Chambersburg. There we found Chambersburg Cold Storage #8411, a former B&O SW1 Dale tells me.

Then we headed back to the NS line where we had seen local #H34. From the crew we learned they had outlawed here the day before. We got a couple of angles on the sitting train before #227 showed up.


After #227 cleared the dispatcher gave #H34 permission to come on to the main and head north. However, he would only get to the first siding north of our encounter where he would head in behind a very short #227 (note #228 also was very short) to meet #203.

By the way, does anyone know the purpose of this car?

Number H34 had a GP40 and a GP38 on the other end.

After photographing #H34 we returned to Marion for #203.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.