Railfanning 6-21-2018

Hi, This day was to be given over to the East Penn with an afternoon stop at Prospect Park, PA on the Northeast Corridor. Here we expected to meet Wilmington Chapter members Steve Barry and Mike Burkhart and hoped to film a SEPTA AEM-7.

As a result of a stop at the East Penn office in Kennett Square, PA we learned that the crew would go on duty at 10:00 AM and drive to Pocopson, PA to get there train. As we got to Kennett Square about 8:30 AM we decided to explore a bit. When we returned to Pocopson the crew had already arrived and started their power. When I asked, one of the crewmen told me that after setting the 2800 over on the other siding they would proceed with the remaining two units directly to Wilsmere Yard in Wilmington, DE. The photographs above and two below were taken during these maneuvers in Pocopson.

We had spotted some open spots south of Pocopson and easily beat the train here. Track speed generally is 10 MPH.

The next spot was at Winterthur, DE.

We got a last shot at Greenville, DE. The train beat us into Wilsmere Yard and we could not find it so we went to lunch thinking it would be there awhile. It wasn't. Even though we go fast food it left town before us and, although we tried to find it, we were unsuccessful so we headed for Prospect Park.

The remaining photographs all were taken at Prospect Park. This location provided a nice signal bridge and station building on the east side of the tracks as well as some interesting angles and a variety of equipment.

Our final train of the day was this SEPTA express pulled by a soon to be retired AEM-7.

Thanks for looking.

Railfanning 6-20-2018, B

Hi, After a great lunch at the Lianerch Diner we headed on east to SEPTA's 69th Street Transportation Center and then attempted to follow the "High Speed Line" (Route 100) toward Norristown. Our maps were not the best but finally railfan dead reckoning won out.

Finding the platform at Ardmore, PA resulted in photos of a Norristown bound train (above and below) and

and set a of cars pointed toward the 69th Street Transportation Center being used for training.

Next we headed to Bridgeport, PA looking to photograph trains crossing the Schuylkill River. We found three different angles (above and three below). The final two photos were taken from the US 202 bridge.

Then we moved on to the former PRR mainline at Radnor, PA where we shot SEPTA

and Amtrak (Keystone Service) trains. The two trains above are eastbound.

The trains above and below are westbound.

Our final stop was at Strafford, PA (above and below).

The final train of our day was SEPTA's Great Valley Flyer pulled by and AEM7.

Thanks for looking.

Railfanning 6-20-2018, A

Hi, As I was scheduled to present a slide program to the Wilmington Chapter of the NRHS on June 21 friend Dale Diacont and I decided to make a three day railfan trip out of the occasion.

Dale wanted to photograph trains along the Northeast Corridor where the sun would be on the east end so we made the Martin State Airport MARC stop in Middle River, MD our first location. An eastbound Acela was first up

followed shortly by a Siemens Charger powered MARC train headed to Washington, DC (above and below) and

and an eastbound MARC train with an HHP-8 for power. As this was my first Charger on a revenue train and the HHP-8s are not common anymore on MARC (they are retired on Amtrak) this was a very good way to begin our trip.

After a quick breakfast at McDonalds we moved on to Chase, MD (behind the firehouse). A railfan at Martin State Airport had told us there was an intermodal and a coal train coming. The intermodal got by during our meal stop but we were fortunate to get the coal train with a pair of SD80MACS on the point.

We then photographed a number of Amtrak regional trains and an Acela as well as

the MARC train with the HHP-8 pushing toward Washington, DC.

The railfan we met at Martin State Airport also told us that the northbound Silver Meteor would be double headed. After photographing that train we headed for the Philadelphia area to shoot Septa trains. I'll cover that in Part B.

Thanks for looking.