Rush hour at Washington Union Station

Hi, Friend Jim Beck and I spent 1 1/2 hours watching trains from the terrace (probably originally the loading dock) of the old Railway Express building on the east side of Washington Union Station.  We took the the 6:32 AM MARC train from Rockville, MD (where we live) and had breakfast at the station.  By 7:45 we were on location.  What follows are photos of a few of the trains we saw.

K tower, behind the departing Acela, still controls station trackage.

SW1 #737 is placing private car Cimarron River on one of the platform tracks.

A regional train loads on one of the through tracks.

Having unloaded a Virginia Railway Express train heads for the coach yard.

A late running Silver Meteor has just arrived.  Soon the pair of P42s will be uncoupled and sent to Ivy City engine terminal for servicing.

An Amtrak AEM7 continues to operate on lease to MARC.

When we arrived there were two more ACS64s spotted here and I did not notice the Veterans Unit.  However, these units are all spotted awaiting assignment.  When I finally spotted the Veterans Unit I hoped #655 would head for its train.

Number 655 left leaving the Veterans Unit Open.  We decided to wait awhile to see if #642 would move from the pocket track.

While we waiting another VRE train moved to the coach yard,

a regional train departed,

one of Amtrak's two gensets went to work, and

a MARC train arrived with MP36s one both ends.  The other end of the train also had a GP39H-2.

Finally, at 9:12 success.  Thanks for looking.