Rush hour afternoon

Hi, On Tuesday, July 9 friends Jan Cusey and Jim Kleeman, and I spent about three hours photographing trains at two spots along the Northeast Corridor during the evening rush hour. This provided us with a great variety of trains. Not all of the trains we saw are included here, however, there is at least one of every kind.

Jan and I met Jim at Harmans, MD.

One of the pleasant surprises of the day was this train pulled by an HHP-8 electric headed for Baltimore. We would see this train again as it returned to Washington Union Station. Note that all of the commuter trains were revenue runs.

Diesels, including this unit manufactured by Motive Power Industries, also handled trains, such as this one shown pushing toward Washington. All commuter trains are pulled to Baltimore and pushed to DC.

A second surprise of the afternoon was the appearance of Amtrak ASC-64 locomotives on MARC trains. Rumor has it that they are on short term lease while the HHP-8s are rotated through Amtrak's shop for the installation of PTC equipment.

During a lull in the action we relocated to the commuter station at Halethorpe, MD where the remainder of the images were taken. In the photos above and below HHP-8 #4912 is seen pushing its train toward DC after a station stop.

A third surprise was diesels running in multiple with the diesels being the new SC-44 Chargers.

We saw two long distance trains. Here the Carolinian is northbound. Unfortunately, the southbound Crescent surprised me.

Most of the commuter trains terminate in Baltimore, however, a few continue on to either the Martin Airport stop or to Perryville.

Thanks for looking.

A trip to Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey - Day 3

Hi, The third day was given over to travelling home.

On the way we checked out a spot west of Elkton, MD where we had photographed previously (above and below).

As I had never photographed at Aberdeen, MD before we stopped to have a look and photographed this southbound (or westbound) regional train. After this we continued on to Gaithersburg, MD for lunch after which I dropped Dale at the depot there and went to a meeting I needed to attend.

Dale photographed at the Gaithersburg station for awhile and then took the MARC train to Germantown where I picked him up.

While at Boyds, MD we photographed the CSX stone train that runs between Bladensburg, MD and Millville, WV and

and outbound MARC train.

Our final stop was at Point of Rocks, MD (above and four below).

Thanks for looking

A trip to Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey - Day 2 - Part 2

Hi, We returned to Pennsylvania for lunch and then looked for a place to shoot on the Northeast Corridor.

Our first stop was a Crum Lynne. Frankly, I found the area uninteresting so after a couple of trains, an Acela (above) and a regional we moved on.

At Media we photographed an in bound and this out bound car (above and below).

We finished our photography at Prospect Park (above and five below).

Then it was off to join members of the Wilmington Chapter, NRHS for dinner and then their monthly meeting where Dale provided the program.

Thanks for looking. 

A trip to Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey - Day 2 - Part 1

Hi, For our first target of the day we chose SMS Rail Services in the Pureland Industrial Park at Swedesboro, NJ. I hadn't visited his almost all Baldwin outpost in at least 15 years and wanted to go again. Dale said he knew a guy so he went in to try to find him. I hoped we could get some info on where the crew was operating and the day's plan. I figured we could find our way around as the industrial park is not fenced or gated. A few minutes after he went in Dale came out and told me we could ride with crew, and get off and on the locomotive at places where they switched if we signed releases.

One of the few non Baldwins on the property was this former BNSF GE B23-7 which the crew would have used the day we were there.

However, because we would be riding with them this Baldwin DS-44-1500 was used. It was originally purchased by the Pennsy as there #9069 and was obtained from the Tyburn Railroad in Morrisville, PA. After a tour of the shop where we saw an 0-6-0 being slowly returned to operation and myriad Baldwin parts we were given the run of the outside yard while we waited for the crew to finish their preparations and begin switching.

Among the interesting locomotive in the yard was this Baldwin AS616 originally of Kaiser Steel heritage. It was sold by Kaiser to the Rayonier who in turn sold it to the Trona from which it was obtained by SMS and

this Bladwin VO1000 which is owned by the United Railway Historical Society of New Jersey.

I call this shot "back in the saddle again" as Dale had a long career with  CSX, almost all as an engineer.

As we waited for the crew Dale took the opportunity to relax

while I took this photo of the interior of the shop off the back porch of the locomotive.

Our engineer soon climbed aboard and we were off.

At the first switching location we climbed off the locomotive for a variety of photos (above and five below).

After switching here we headed out to a Home Depot warehouse and then to the interchange with Conrail Shared Assests. However as these areas are space limited limiting the photo angles I elected to stay on board the locomotive.

Riding the locomotive and the friendliness of all of the people we met during our visit was just great. Thanks SMS.

Thanks for looking.

A trip to Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey - Day 1 - Part 2

Hi, After returning to Norristown from 69th Street (see my prior post) Dale and I drove to Bryn Mawr where all but the final four photos in this post were taken. My primary objectives for this part of the trip were to photograph at least two of SEPTA's new ACS64 lococmotives which usually operate on the two Great Valley Flyer trains and the tower which still stands at the west end of the station.

First up was this eastbound MU train using new equipment built by the Korean company Rotem. That's Dale on the far left.

This westbound Amtrak train, which terminates in Harrisburg, had an ACS64 on each end (above and below).

We were surprised when this westbound local showed up with an ACS64.

The next westbound local stopped west of the tower

then crossed over to the center eastbound track

where it waited east of the platform while a westbound MU with Rotem equipment arrived.

The westbound flyer roared through on the center westbound track

followed by a commuter MU (above and below) and then

a second local with an ACS64 (above and below).

We decided to finish our day at Paoli but spotted this neat station at Berwyn so we stopped there instead. The train is eastbound.

The last train of the day was the second westbound Flyer on a curve just east of the station (above and two below).

Thanks for looking.