Railfanning October 8, 2014

Hi, My friend Rudy Volin and I went out yesterday hunting for Amtrak's new electric locomotives, the ACS 64 City Sprinters.  I had seen a photo of number 619 so I thought there was a good chance of seeing one or two.  Were we surprised, with the exception of 2 northeast regional trains hauled by AEM7s, every convention train had and ACS 64 on the point.

Our first stop was Bowie, MD.  I went inside the wye to where the CSX line to Chalk Point cuts off from the Northeast Corridor.  As I was arriving I spotted this northbound MARC train in the distance.

A few minutes later the final electric powered MARC train of the morning was pushed south by an HHP8.  A southbound Acela followed the MARC train but is not shown.

Next up was a northbound Amtrak Northeast Regional train

followed by a northbound Acela.  Five trains in 30 minutes.

Our next stop was the Halethorpe, MD station area.  There is a highway bridge over the tracks on the Baltimore end of the station with stairs leading down to the street below on one side of the tracks and a huge parking lot on the other.  Our first stop was the landing on the stairs across the tracks from the parking lot.  The first train we photographed probably was the southbound Palmetto pulled by ASC 64 #600, the class locomotive.

We then photographed a northbound MARC train and

a southbound Amtrak Northeast Regional train.

We were able to move to the station platform where we shot this southbound MARC train being pushed,

this southbound Amtrak Northeast Regional Train and

this Acela.  A few other trains went north, one of which had an AEM7 on the point.

After lunch we set up at Seabrook, MD.  As I walked onto the station platform I could see this southbound Northeast Regional train in the distance (above and below).

The north bound shot was not too bad given the light angle.

Regrettably a cloud covered the sun when the southbound Silver Star came through.

Our final three trains were a northbound Northeast Regional,

a southbound Acela and

a southbound Northeast Regional train with our second AEM7 of the day on the point.

As the sun angle was swinging to axis lit, neither of us had any ideas as where we could go from here and traffic was starting to build towards the rush hour it was time to go home.  We were on the road a few minutes after 3:00 PM.

Thanks for looking.