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.