Railfanning the Maryland Midland - 4/23/2019

Hi, On Tuesday, April 23 I had the pleasure of photographing the stone train on the Maryland Midland with friends Bill Kalkman and Jim Kleeman. We rendezvoused at Union Bridge about 8 AM hoping to catch UBEG, the Emory Grove train. However an inquiry in their office provided the information that instead of UBEG they would run a stone train from the quarry at Woodsboro, MD to Finksburg, MD and that the power had already left for the quarry to pick up the loads of stone.

Our first photo location was for the eastbound loaded train at crossing the trestle at Keymar, MD. This part of the Maryland Midland was originally a Pennsylvania RR branch running from York, PA to Frederick, MD.

Beating the train to Union Bridge from Keymar was easy (above and below).

We caught the train again at Avondale, MD (above and below),

Westminster, MD,

Patapsco, MD and

Finksburg, MD.

At Finksburg the train will pull down and back into the siding at left, spotting the last car over the unloader at left in the photo. The crew will then uncouple from the loads and run around both cuts of cars to couple on the empties. While they did this we headed up to Westminster to get some sandwiches which we ate next to the tracks.

Eventually the empties came through Westminster (above and below).

We just barely caught the train east of New Windsor, MD.

After a long wait at Middleburg, MD the empties finally arrived.

Our last photo was at New Midway, MD. After dropping the empties the power would run light back to Union Bridge.

Thanks for looking. 

Railfanning the Maryland Midland and MARC - 4/10/2019

Hi, I enjoyed a great chase of Maryland Midland train UBHF with friends Jim Kleeman, Ken Lewis, and Bill Kalkman last Wednesday. As the train was westbound in the morning back lighting was a problem.

My first shot was at Thurmont, MD where we found a couple of flowering bushes. Having the Maryland Midland heritage unit leading westbound was a nice surprise.

We then headed to a farm lane on the south side of Sabillasville (above and below).

We were just barely able to beat the train to the point where the railroad crosses MD 550.

The train arrived in Highfield, MD (above and below)

stopped at the Highfield Road grade crossing

to await CSX local D702.

Once D702 cleared UBHF pulled its train down toward Fort Ritchie (above and two below)

and then backed its train on to a siding off the CSX track to Gettysburg, PA.

The power then came back toward Fort Ritchie

and coupled on to the cut of cars D702 had left for the Maryland Midland (above and below).

After picking up another cut of cars just around the corner from the above photo UBHF came through Blue Ridge Summit, PA.

We caught the train again at Lance, just south of Sabillasville,

between Lance and Thurmont at a place I was told is called Flint and

finally at Detour.

We then headed for Point of Rocks, MD in time to photograph the first westbound MARC evening rush hour train, P873 (above and below).

Then it was off to Harpers Ferry, WV for P875, the first train of the afternoon to Martinsburg, WV.

We finished up our day of railfanning with P877 at Brunswick, MD (above and below).

Thanks for looking.

Railfanning the Delmarva Peninsula - 4/3/2019

Hi, I joined friends Bill Kalkman and Jim Kleeman for a day trip to the Delmava Peninsula in early April.

Our first stop was in Federalsburg, MD where we caught Maryland and Delaware RR #1203 switching (above and below).

From Federalsburg we went on to Seaford, DE where the Delmarva Central SE-1 job had already gone to work with the crew switching just north of the old Pennsy depot (above and below).

                                     

Next they came south and left the mainline to work the connection with the M & D (above and three below).

After separating the engines so that they had one on each end

the crew headed north.

We photographed the train passing the Perdue Farms feed mill in Cannon, DE with NS #52M unloading in the background

and then passing #52M.

After SE-1 passed we shot #52M by itself.

Next up was a more traditional elevator just south of Bridgeville, DE.

On SE-1's return from Greenwood, DE we photographed it passing the Perdue feed mill on the north side of Bridgeville

and then in Seaford (above and five below)

where it pulled up on the interchange lead (above and below) and called it a day.

Next we journeyed to Delmar, DE where we waited about 3 hours for RD-2 to go to work at 3:00 PM.

When the crew went to work they went to the south end of Delmar Yard, located in Maryland, to switch (above and below).

On the run south we caught the train at Fruitland,

Princess Anne (above and below),

and crossing the Pocomoke River in Pocomoke City, MD.

I could not have asked for a better day: good friend, great weather and two trains with beautifully painted switchers.

Thanks for looking.