Railfanning around Washington Union Station

Hi, Friend Dale Diacont spent Wednesday morning railfanning in the vicinity of Washington Union Station. We began our day in Rockville, MD where we boarded the 6:32 MARC train destined for Washington. After a quick stop at Starbucks for Dale and MacDonalds for me we headed over to the old Railway Express building on the east edge of the station.  Dale wanted to revisit this location as there have been reports that the building will be razed shortly for new construction.

The building has a porch overlooking the station and is a great place for photography.  We arrived about 7:35 AM and stayed a little over an hour.  As this was rush hour the action was non stop with MARC, VRE and Amtrak trains coming and going along with Amtrak light power and switching moves.

MARC uses the west side of the station whereas VRE trains mingle with Amtrak trains on the east side as the tunnel to Virginia Avenue and south is located here.  The middle of the station is pure Amtrak.

A VRE train has disembarked its passengers and is pushing north to the lay up yard (above and below).

We saw only one Acela in the hour plus we were at the station; this one departing (above and three below).

This SW1 had just pushed a string of cars into the station (above and below).  Unfortunately its move was obscured by the departing Acela.

Only one Amtrak, a regional train, arrived from the north (above and below).

We concluded these P42s were off the Meteor from Florida.  The trailing Viewliner sleeper was a deadhead move.

This MARC train was arriving from Perryville, MD.  The Amtrak AEM-7 was unusual (above and below).

We left the Railway Express Building about 8:40 and walked up to H Street, NE.  After photographing one car we boarded a second car and rode 1.2 miles east to the end of the line.  The ramp behind the car is part of the bridge across the tracks of Washington Union Station.

After taking some photos at the east end of the line we boarded a car to return to Union Station from which we took Metro back to Rockville (above and three below).

Thanks for looking.

Trains in Italy - 2

Hi, All of the following photos were taken at the railroad station in Venice, Italy. Again, with essentially no knowledge of Italian I have no idea as to the routes of the various trains.

The train on the left is departing in push mode while the train on the right (shown above and 3 below) is arriving.

This appears to me to be a high speed train.

A train is arriving and

the high speed train departs (above and below).

Most of the platforms were under covered train sheds.  However, a few were not.  The photo above and all of the ones below were taken in this open area.  Note that even passenger trains get tagged in Italy.

Thanks for looking. 

Trains in Italy - 1

Hi, On May 6th my wife, Ruthe, and I returned from a three week trip to Europe; spending most of our time in Italy.  During the trip I had a couple of opportunities to photograph trains.  The first instance was in Ravenna and some of those photos are presented here.  As I don't speak Italian I could not understand the announcements and therefore know nothing about the trains origins or destinations.

I walked up the station platform to one end when I arrived as I could see a short work train on one of the stub tracks.  On the other a hi-rail back hoe was loading ballast.

Shortly after I got to the end of the platform things started to happen.  First, this grungy looking unit came down from the yard (to my left) and coupled to a train out of sight to my right.

Next a train pulled in with an electric on the point.

It stopped to load on the near track.  On the left is a train that sat for the entire roughly 1/2 hour I was there.

About 2 minutes after the first train arrived a train in the opposite direction, this one being operated in push mode, came into the station (above and below).

Here is a roster view of the switcher on the work train.

The second train to arrive departed first.

I then turned around to catch the second train leaving.  Thanks for looking.