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.